Rod length to distance, it does not make sense

[bartdezwaan]

Yesterday some of us dutch guys came together for some casting.
Now I've got tons of excuses, but bottom line is I was not in my best shape and struggled to cast over 120ft.

While trying to explain something to someone about the haul (details don't matter), I was casting without a rod.
Without a rod I was casting around 60ft.

To me it completely makes no sense that I was not able to cast twice the distance with a 9ft rod as I was without a rod.
Does this theoretically make any sense?
Would there be a way to approximate how much distance you should theoretically gain with every ft of rod?

Cheers, Bart

[Dirk le Roux]

Hi Bart

I take it you were hauling the hand casts?

Cheers,
Dirk

[Merlin]

Here is a rule of the thumb based on the assumption that distance achieved directly depends on line energy.

If you divide rod length by 2, you loose 1/3 in distance. If you divide by 4 you loose half the distance.

Merlin

[bartdezwaan]

Hi Bart

I take it you were hauling the hand casts?

Cheers,
Dirk

Hi Dirk. This was indeed with hauling.

Here is a rule of the thumb based on the assumption that distance achieved directly depends on line energy.

If you divide rod length by 2, you loose 1/3 in distance. If you divide by 4 you loose half the distance.

Merlin

Thanks Merlin.
I assume I also have to take into account the length of my arm?
Then my experience does not some too weird.

Cheers, Bart

[Merlin]

Yes Bart, but remember it is a rule of the thumb, no more. It is easy to remember, with simple numbers.

There are too many parameters to define something precisely in terms of performance.

Leverage is a very important thing, and likely the most important one.

Merlin

[Paul Arden]

There is also the case of diminishing returns to consider. Throw a line at 1000mph and it’s not going 10 times further than 100mph. Rod length at some point follows the same pattern with leverage working against us. I believe 9’6 is around optimal for distance, but it also depends on style, strength and angler height. It would be very interesting to compare different configurations in a shootout.

Cheers, Paul