15 And 16 Feet

[Hellbelly]

Hey Ken, what are these "Continental stlye" rods you guys refer too?

 

Cheers.........HB

[Ken Davison South Wales]

Hi Hellbelly,

 

They get the name as they have been in use from France to Italy for a number of years.

 

Generally they ar 14' plus going upto 18' that is the longest I have heard of.

 

Made of various types of carbon fibre they are very light and very strong. The more expensive ones have a better through action and compress well, my cheapy was a bit soft and I often wondered if it was going to survive casting a 4oz lead.

 

My new rod heaves out a 6oz as smooth as a 12' to 14' much stiffer rod.

 

The main line is from 6lb to 12lb with a tapered shock leader of 60lb.

 

They are used mainly for fishing over clean ground where a long cast is the order of the day. Having said that I bounced mine out of kelp and shale rock a few times last night but you do need to watch the light line for chaffing.

 

Most people fish them on a belt and butt pad which gives better control, but currently over here (UK) you get a few sideways looks followed by knowing nods and winks A few half decent cast shows them what a hundred yards plus is all about with a fully baited pennel rig.

 

Will they land a big fish? Well I agree 150% with Rex once the hook is in, with the right clutch setting its the angler who losses the fish not the tackle.

 

I can't weight to try it out on some good smoothies or gummies as you call them from the shore, a couple of good size fish should prove the point.

 

They will not suit every type of shore fishing, you need a bit of room and they are not for hauling heavy fish 60' up a cliff face, but in the right place they are the bees knees.

[pal]

well tried my new 16.5 feet rod out and will take a bit of getting use to .At 1st tried a multiplier reel on it and was getting no where fast then asked me mate if i could borrow 1 of his fixed spools and well after a couple of practice cast,s was watching the baby fly even with a 8oz weight on the end of it think with a bit more practice with it will have loads of fun with it and add a bit of distance to my cast even though think i could do with a bit of help on that any way (think i need a bit of tutoring on that side of my fishing )

[timmy]

Long rods work pretty good, they get the same distance as 12 foot rods but without the effort, just an easy sweep. One thing that really helped me was using very light line with a long two seciton shock leader. about 20 feet of 40 lb test, 20 feet of 12 lb test and 6lb main line a big fixed spool loaded to the max. When you get the system down, the line will hum off the reel.

Tim

[Ken Davison South Wales]

When you get the system down, the line will hum off the reel.

 

It certainly does

[Hellbelly]

Cheers for that Ken. You said that on Rex Hunt (I think it was you anyway), that everyone was using these rods......hmmmmm. I fish the beach a lot and never see a rod over 12 foot. I'd say its about 60% 12 footers at the Coorong beaches with 40% ten footers. When you get to the Far West there seems to be more ten footers. I'll keep an eye out more now tho.

 

Cheers.........HB

[Peter.R]

beachcasters has any1 got 1 and are they any better than say 12 or 13 feet 1,s for casting with only was thinking of getting a 16ft diawa commoran beach caster

 

Must depend on your casting style, and your physical capability, my 13' SandStorm gives a better cast when using the " overhead".

 

16' would take a bit of getting used to, and then how big is your motor mate?

 

Can you get all the extra length in?

 

Are you talking two section blanks?

[Ken Davison South Wales]

I found there was a lot of variation in the action between different rods of simular lengths but different manufaturers.

 

It takes on a different slant when your stood out side a tackle shop swishing a 16' rod around to a 12' to 14', size does matter when you have to watch out for overhead cables.

 

With golf clubs shaft stiffness is very important and is weighed off against the type of swing you have.

 

I am sure this is just as important with beach casting rods and even more critical with longer rods.

 

Having a reel to balance the rod is also important to me and I have to say this is one aspect I will have to explore a lot more.

 

The rod is remarkably light but my new reel whilst doing a fine job from the design side of casting is very heavy.

 

This is where the multiplers come into their own, small and light, so I will be exploring the fix spool range of distance casters to see if I can achieve some of the same.