Line Rating question

[sam vimes]

This thread is demonstrating very nicely why rod ratings (test curves,casting weights and line ratings) are both necessary and rather dubious at the same time. No two anglers agree with what they might mean. I find that someone can talk perfect sense in one sentence and total rubbish in another. I'm under no illusions that others are thinking the same about me.
However, it's all down to the different interpretations of what test curves, casting weights and line ratings might actually mean. Ultimately, any rating should be taken with a pinch of salt. However, should you choose to go way "off piste" and that results in a rod break, you've got no one to blame but yourself.

Common sense should be the ultimate arbiter. Sadly, you just can't assume that everyone has that innate common sense. I'd go further and suggest that good old common sense is a misnomer and is actually critically endangered.

 

[Mark Wintle]

In the days of early carbon rods there was one swim I fished a lot and occasionally it had a snag (we tried to get rid of the snags if possible) and with a 1.7lb Bayer hooklink it was all but impossible to break the line through the bend of the rod. The worst abuse I ever doled out to a rod was putting 12lb Maxima on a Daiwa Cavalier Quivertip rod to try to get a big pike out of the swim. It worked and the rod survived; three pike - 16-4, 10-8 and 6lb. On some of my match rods I've bent them to the butt playing fish on 2.5 and 3lb lines.

 

[bullet]

Two rods I have highlight the common sense issue and not basing purchases and fishing style on test curve alone.
One and a quarter pound drennan avon, capable of landing big fish, but i wouldn't hammer more than three quarters of an ounce on it....
1.5 pound tc. Greys prodigy specimen, so obviously only a quarter pound more tc, and you can absolutely cane 2 oz on it, I frequently do, using it for sea fishing.

 

[108831]

Three quarters of an ounce,don't push the poor rod eh,I'm sorry but I disagree and I have a pound and a quarter insight rod and used it regularly to thump a mini spod
full of pellets out seventy yards into the wind,length of drop,slow build up to compress the rod all make a rod cast it's best,I won't change your mind or others including peter(we've discussed this before),until till now I've never broke rod casting and I give it a punch when needed.

 

[thecrow]

I'd go further and suggest that good old common sense is a misnomer and is actually critically endangered.

Made me laugh unfortunately I think its true.

 

[thecrow]

length of drop,slow build up to compress the rod all make a rod cast it's best

Is the current penchant for some being more interested in how they look while casting with a very short drop from the rod the reason for broken rods I wonder?

 

[sam vimes]

Three quarters of an ounce,don't push the poor rod eh,I'm sorry but I disagree and I have a pound and a quarter insight rod and used it regularly to thump a mini spod
full of pellets out seventy yards into the wind,length of drop,slow build up to compress the rod all make a rod cast it's best,I won't change your mind or others including peter(we've discussed this before),until till now I've never broke rod casting and I give it a punch when needed.

Notwithstanding the fact that you are comparing Bullet's 1.25lb rod to a 1.75lb, again, this is demonstrating nicely part of the issue with any kind of rating, including test curves. Two rods of the same test curve can have quite different actions. One might be quite capable of casting significantly more that the test curve rule of thumb might suggest, whilst the other is not. All that is before you get down to the differences in the way two different anglers might be prepared to push a rod.

 

[108831]

I agree with your above post in all but one aside you might have put in,do you believe that the drennan 1-25lb tc rod is only capable of casting 3/4 of an ounce,it doesn't give the rod much scope imo,I'm not suggesting however the rod was designed for 2ozs,but a forty to fifty yard log should be easily within the rods remit.

 

[sam vimes]

do you believe that the drennan 1-25lb tc rod is only capable of casting 3/4 of an ounce

I would expect it to be capable of casting at least an ounce, probably an ounce and a half with little problem. However, I've never laid hands on one, so couldn't say for sure. All I know is that I have quite a few different rods with the same test curve ratings, none have exactly the same casting abilities.

 

[bullet]

I'm talking about casting the rods hard, i don't mean lobbing or giving it a little bit of welly, I mean whacking it. Sure, the drennan can be used in most fishing situations with more than 3/4 oz, it can cast an ounce comfortably with a bit of power, and lob a lot more a fair way, the point I was trying to make was that going by specification, the rods are similar, but in practice are two totally different beasts.