Gary's front page on Atalanta show

[Merlin]

Thanks to Gary for his nice FP and something strange got my attention:

One model from a top brand that I will not name, shocked me when I kept missing the hoop to the right. Of course, I first thought it must be me, but up until that point I was not at all embarrassed with my accuracy casting, even in public. Just to be sure I immediately tested another model and the fly once again went straight to the hoop. I find it interesting that an expensive model of a top brand would have a glaring error on a specifically chosen demo rod. So… it must have been me.

It looks like this demo rod has a a handle which is not in the right plane whilst the shaft has perfectly aligned "natural bending position" pieces, which leads to lateral deviation. This is why it is better trying to make the rod "bending neutral" by shifting "spine axis" in between rod pieces.

Merlin

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

Merlin,

If a manufacturer wanted to make a finesse rod version for "dry fly" casts, might they align the sections in their "natural bending position"?

That might be a rhetorical question, BTW.

Thanks for the insightful response. I think you nailed it.

Gary

[Boisker]

Hey Gary... interesting on the demographic attending the show, although as you say not necessarily surprising.

Although, I wouldn’t say that it necessarily represents young involvement in the sport... there’s a lot of competition and options for youngsters... I reckon out of the majority of younger fly fishers, although they will be active fishing the thought of wandering around a show is dull.... they’ve got a whole range of activities and options to cram in (certainly far more than when I was young)... so attending a fly show where 90% of attendees will be “white old duffers” ( I paraphrase ) is very low priority, they can glean info online and do something more productive with their time.
To be completely honest, I get that, I always like the idea of a show, but find them pretty dull once there

[Bianchetti Ivan]

The natural bending points, usually there are two, I always choose the softer one, mounted the wire passes, not always, I find I have guessed the best part.