Hi SvendSvend wrote: Also i don't buy into the 20 gram for wind and big flies idea. Technically any of the more widely used shootingheads can turn over anything you'd ever want to throw at a seatrout in any wind. Just remember, all of the shootingheads we've been discussing so far would rate #8 or above according to the AFFTA industry standard.
I am really not trying to establish anything like a fixed head weight for a particular fly rod.
Besides that quite a few others have already done this:
http://www.troutcontrol.de/DIE-TABELLE
And a lot of people are using these recommendations.
All am saying is, that there is a realtionship between rod stiffness, the resistance the shooting head will offer during acceleration (mainly based on head weight + length + density + profile) and the range of rod bend we will have during casting. That relationship has significant effect on how a line feels to cast with a particular rod (especially in regard of loading and unloading of the rod).
If this relationship wouldn't be for real I don't think we could make any recommendation for a line-rod combination at all. But in fact all rod designers do give a recommendation. Stiffness increases = recommended line weight increases.
If some people prefer 14 and some 16 gram heads on the same rod it of course might be that they just prefer different feelings or simply cast differently (loop shapes and line speed) and therefore will have different feelings for the loading and unloading of the same rod and head as well. 2 gram is in my +/-1 range anyway. But honestly my first question to those fly fishermen would be about the length, density and profile of those heads. And I have a feeling there might come differencies into play here.
Standing on grass casting the same kind of heads but different in weights I never had people choosing head weights varying in the 14 to 18 gram range for example. Indeed the difference between 14 and 18 is really huge in feeling.
But again let's say we talk about 14 gram on 9m and 18 gram on 12m. Now that is a complete different story. 16 gram on 12m might feel similar to 14 gram on 9m. 18 gram is + 2 gram though. So it would be in the +/-1 gram range here again.
If the 14g-9m head would be floating and the 18g-12m slow sinking that would put the range of feel even closer.
Offering one fly rod and different head weights in a range between 14 and 20 gram (all else being equal) I am pretty sure we would get the picture of the "Gaußsche Verteilung" when letting 100 fly fishermen choose their fav combination.
Maybe Lasse would be on the left side and Bernd on the right side though
But I wouldn't wonder if we would have something like 80% in the 16-18 gram section.At least I agree with you that without specifying length, density, profile, fly and the type of cast (over the tip or under the tip) the fav weight range is much bigger for the same rod.
So yes, I agree with you without these details it soon will be a pretty rough recommendation.
Might we get closer together here?
Best
Bernd
p.s.: AFFTA 8 = 13,6 gram on a 9m head. Casting a Sea trout fly of 1,2-1,5 gram is no fun at all for me. Actually I would call it almost to be senseless
. Casting the same fly with a head of 20 gram is awesome. In my experience it gets pretty rough below 18 gram (9-12m length) when casting 1,2-1,5 gram flies. 0,5-0,8 gram is fine with 16 gram or higher.1,5 gram fly is really a heavy bitch on my 18 gram heads!
But they would probably have to reconsider the seatrout distance thing as we would be throwing lighter lines there 
