The Board

I was out practicing in the snow earlier... a rare chance to cast a bright orange MED comp line with white background...
It got me thinking is there an optimum temp for casting.. obviously you need the right line, so tropics line in the tropics etc...
But in usual N Hemisphere conditions with a MED is there an optimum temp?
it was at right on 0 C earlier and it felt as though the line was fizzing about slightly quicker than usual, but I wasn’t sure whether it would actually be quicker at 0 C compared to say 10 C or whether it just appeared faster as the orange line stood out so strongly against with snow...

Whatever the answer... it was fun casting in the snow

Hi Matt,

I think it has mostly to do with line stiffness; stiffer lines shoot better. If you take the same line here in the tropics it doesn't shoot at all well. I reckon there is somewhere in the region of a loss of 5-10ft. I haven't measured my casts in such cold conditions but I know Dmitri makes some very long casts in the Estonian Winter.

It was for this reason that I approached SA some months ago and enquired about a tropical MED5 for the Malaysian fly casting team. Last meet we cast the tropical and the standard MED in competition. There was an approximate 7ft difference between the two lines.

Cheers, Paul

Hey Paul... yeah I knew hot temps effected lines and that they are generally... tropics or cold/mdeium lines, but wondered if there was a cut off point at which cold temps start to decrease distance; there obviously is in extreme temps, but I wondered if there was a optimum temp range... is -5C better than 5C....

Doesn’t really matter, but it did seem that at 0C the line had a bit more zip than say 10C

Snows gone today

Damn! Well hopefully it returns and England can shut for another few days

Yes there is a point when distance will suffer. But I’m unlikely to put myself into the position where I can work this out. Man evolved in the jungle and that’s good enough for me

Certainly I think if you can’t straighten the line, or line stiffness is so stiff that it affects the tightness of the loop, then I think that distance will suffer. It would be interesting to compare the trop MED to the standard MED in the snow, but they’re like gold dust over here and that experiment will have to wait!

If I had thought about it at the time, I would have spooled one up in Switzerland. It’s a pity that I didn’t

Cheers, Paul

Not exactly sure how you would set up an outdoor tropical to below freezing distance casting experiment over the course of a single day, but with the way the weather has been here in the States, it might actually be possible…

I have some done some distance casting in 0°F/-18C weather (clear sky but snow on ground). That was with a MED5. Couldn’t break past 118 no matter what I did. That’s short-ish. Not sure if it was simply me being out of distance practice, ice crystals clinging to the line, an overly stiff line, or me quivering, but there you have it. Warmer temps later in the season yielded longer casts. But again, what was really the factor? More distance practice? No ice crystals? Less quivering?

Maybe somebody can rent a facility like an ice rink, and cast through an entire array of temperatures throughout the day. As long as the caster didn’t get tired, etc., and skew the results, I’d be very interested to see those numbers!

118ish, well 119 actually was where I topped out with the MED in 34C. Interesting to know it tops out at -18C as well!

Cheers, Paul

I’m not sure I want to find out in -18C... that’s a bit hardcore for me

I think wind is the biggest factor. I still think anything around 120 is a bloody good cast if there is no wind. I’ve been in two WC finals with casts of less than 120’. Throw any wind into the equation and then you are looking at 130. And if you hook up with some sort of “Hero Wind” then 140+.

130+ has certainly been thrown indoors. And altitude makes a big difference too, maybe as much as ten feet when you are a mile above sea level.

In December we had a competition in Malaysia where I cast 118ft. Same month in England I threw 139’. One had no wind and a limp line. The other I had to have someone holding my ankles to stop me getting blown into the lake.

Something we have been doing is holding monthly competitions between clubs, particularly since I’ve been setting up the Malaysian Team, Bart is setting up the Dutch Team and Lee is focussed on the UK team http://www.sexyloops.co.uk/theboard/vie ... =10&t=2801

It might be something interesting for you Jason?

Cheers, Paul

Make that 112 at 0F! Just went looking for slides (yeah, slides) of that day. Found a few, labeled with my initials and distance. Looks like I was rounding up by two yards in my head! Hey, what's a couple of yards between friends?

Still...no amount of effort and technique trickery would get me past that, so at least I'm accurate about the limits of my skills!

J

I've thrown over 120, but not recently. Used to focus a lot more on distance and strength training for that, but the last few years, not so much.

Doubt I'd factor at the WCs at all right now, but maybe with six months of dedicated training I'd be somewhere above dead last!

Right now, if I had to put together a team, I'd have to be the towel boy, maybe the rod caddy, at best. Distance demo? No problem. Comp where I'd have to cast 120+ to win? Big problem! Of course, I could use my father's technique to carry a whole MED, but that might not count as an actual win....

J

Paul Arden wrote:I think wind is the biggest factor. I still think anything around 120 is a bloody good cast if there is no wind. I’ve been in two WC finals with casts of less than 120’. Throw any wind into the equation and then you are looking at 130. And if you hook up with some sort of “Hero Wind” then 140+.

130+ has certainly been thrown indoors. And altitude makes a big difference too, maybe as much as ten feet when you are a mile above sea level.

In December we had a competition in Malaysia where I cast 118ft. Same month in England I threw 139’. One had no wind and a limp line. The other I had to have someone holding my ankles to stop me getting blown into the lake.

Something we have been doing is holding monthly competitions between clubs, particularly since I’ve been setting up the Malaysian Team, Bart is setting up the Dutch Team and Lee is focussed on the UK team http://www.sexyloops.co.uk/theboard/vie ... =10&t=2801

It might be something interesting for you Jason?

Cheers, Paul