Jump to content

Mike Oliver

BST Users
  • Posts

    19,605
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    7

8 Followers

Converted

  • Interests (Hobbies, favorite activities, etc.):
    Angling
  • What I do for a living:
    Fired/Retired.

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

  1. Top Andrew Moys overhead will produce a very smooth cast. It is not tye type of cast that is causing the issues. Can you get a video of your cast. If the rod is not hugely overloaded then it can only be the cast. To move on get someone who understands casting well to look at your cast. Or if you are happy to send me a video by Watts app let me know and ae can swap numbers. Mike
  2. Top The casting style of Andrews cast will work on any rod type. I suspect that the reason for the large loops assuming the rod.tip is travelling on a straight linepath is that the rod is being over loaded Mike
  3. Morning Tom you did. The 14 footer will if I get it before June come with me to fish a couple of inlets for Stripers. To all intents and purposes they are fresh water rivers and ideal to make spey casts on. The surf rods will come with me to fish the beaches. The 15 footer is staying home. The 14 footer feels so light it will be a nice break from overheading my surf sticks. Mike Ps. Yes it is a 6 piece rod.
  4. Guys I will be using these rods only to fish in rivers for which they were designed. Mike
  5. Recently I managed to cast the above two spey rods from Sage. In no way is this an indepth review it can't be as both rods have only just been released to retails sales. I have cast both now for around five hours each. The 14 impressed straight out the gate. It does not feel like a 14 in that it feels so light and handles through the air so sweetly. I cast 650 Rio Game Changers and could have gone less. With the Rio Scandi Launch and a heavy versa tip is was fantastic for air borne touch and go casts. Static line roll casts are about as tough as it gets but I found them easy on this rod. Overheads with the Scandi line were good to. Both rods designs have been influenced by the requirements of Europeans where we like longer rods and use different casting styles. If you don't like firm quick rods then they are not going to be your cup of tea. Nailing my colors to the mast I can't abide deep bending spey rods probably as a consequence of many years two handing on the ocean front. They both move the line from the water in airborne casts in a very positive way making anchor setting for me at any rate easier with mid spey lines. With SH lines its sublime. The 15 footer took me longer to get to know but five hours was enough from a casting perspective. First half an hour I thought I had made an expensive mistake. Yes I laid the money down. I am so glad I did. I already have the 14 and 15 in the Igniter and was casting the two ranges side by side with the same lines. The differences are subtle. The 15 R8 has a very stable tip and my mentor was experimenting by pinging casts off the tip with very short strokes. It does flex a bit more in the mid section but the recovery is notable. When comparing rods which are all excellent it gets to be more than a bit subjective. The Igniter and the R8 both have that wow factor. In reality I had no need to move to the R8 as the Igniters are world class but I am facinated by good rods and as soon as I made the first cast with the 14 footer R8 I was deeply hooked. Of the two the 14 is my favourite and being a 6 piece can come on my trips over the pond..If the pain of purchase can be borne then these two new rods are worthy of a test drive if you are looking to aquire a new spey rod. The quirky looking lower handle is actually very comfortable. At first sight I thought I was into some early modification work. Usual snake guides but I can live with them as I doubt I can get my hands on a blank anytime soon. The reel seat is ok but on a personal front I prefer the all metal one that you get on the Igniter. With luck the R8 will run for a few years and protect my wallet before I am tempted again. Mike
  6. Top You are obviously interested in the tech stuff so fair play. Never cast a rod good or bad designated as a fly rod that has the same issues you are getting. I hope it does not send you up a blind alley. As to stance I agree when fishing we need to adapt to the envoiurament. When practicing over grass which is the ideal place we can adopt very specific stances. A closed stance whilst it prevents you from observing your back cast fully to the point of line totally straight is hugely helpful on stopping over rotation of your upper body. This over rotation will cause tracking errors which reduce performance and will lead to line collision with you or your rod. Open stance allows for the back cast to be observed and longer strokes but it also facilitates massive over rotation of the shoulder and upper body. Unless we control that. Not something we want to be doing whilst we get to grips . It is just too much. The cast is the same as for a single hand. If say five guys pooled some money you could organise an Instructor to give a group lesson. Here is a tester. Get ten guys prepared to put up $200 each and I will fly over the pond and do an 8 hour group lesson. Mike
  7. Top I don't understand your technical stuff. But I do know what is a good or not so good cast. You are trying to use a rod that looks like it is not highly suited. Casting skagits overhead is far from ideal at the start. Away from the beach you can cast a short belly.spey line nicely overhead by laying the linr on the grass and making a pick up and lay down. Your issues are just not going away. This has little to do with tech stuff. If your top hand is not going past your shoulder and you get some creep your cast is going to be compromised. Stance ideally should be open or closed. What does neutral mean. You are travelling down the classic route of being new but using unconventional gear and by the sound of things a cast that needs help. None of the people I teach know the 5 principles or the six steps or can self diagnose. But if I can get them to put the rod through a SLP on a casting arc of 10 to 2 pm they can fire off good casts within an hour. We start with 30 feet of line. I hope you are feeling my drift. Mike
  8. Agree Ted. Very very good pricing. I just can't make sense of their Web site. It kinda bothers me a bit all these sales. You are going to feel pig sick if you paid the so called normal price and next day another sale pops up. It feels chaotic. Mike
  9. Top CTS yes. But you are advised to order a spare tip with the blank. Huge saving in cost and time. You need a new CTS tip you have to return the female part to get a match up. Tips are the most vulnerable. These days all my blanks have a spare tip. Mike
  10. Flyanglers post is rather excellent. All that's needed to know. I am not convinced that a 10' 3 wt fly rod blank can't be had these days for buttons. How low do you want to go. Mike
  11. Top did you put a tip on the skagit line. If not the line will become unstable. Without seeing you cast very difficult to work out what is the actual cause. Mike
  12. Top No I don't try anything like that. The primary focus is good tracking and SLRP. Dampening is the responsibility of the rod blank. After the front stop I may lift the rod up a tad to help preserve the loop shape. This can be very helpful. It is a very simple thing a fly rod cast. Getting it right is not always easy. Honestly keep it simple. Keep it relaxed. Vitally important is find form first. My Mentor is world class. He casts or fishes most days and yet he always finds form first with short range deliveries before going long if required. I have to do this on every single lesson I take with him single or double hand. Tennis players warm up why not us. If anyone actively participating on this thread is planning on a trip to the UK for any reason and if you would enjoy having a free lesson double or single hand just let me know through the PM route. Don't worry about the gear I have a ton of it. So no hassle in having to bring it over. I am insured to teach. Mike
  13. Tom, First time I have cast that line. It was on a river. I get to cast it again tomorrow. If I remember rightly first time we used a 650 Rio Skagit and a Rio Mid Spey. It was excellent. If I get the chance will try other lines on it. In a group of four on a purely casting afternoon in prep for May exams for two of them. It gets busy. Not missing out on fishing as early in our Salmon season and rivers many of them over their banks. Mike
  14. Top, That sounds more like a blank issue rather than a casting one. I have seen very aggressive strong casters with extreemly abrupt stops which shocked the rod and their rods did not exhibit the same behaviour as yours. If you don't get this with other rods then the cause is not your cast . Mike
×
×
  • Create New...