Merlin,Maximum rotation speed: peak torque for the caster
Would the maximum torque being applied to rotate the rod correspond to MAV or 50-60 ms before that point where the maximum angular acceleration is reached in most distance casts?
Here is a plot of the angular acceleration of and angular velocity that I measured for one of Henry Mattel's 5 wt. distance casts while the US casting team was practicing at the Long Beach Casting Club last summer. As with most rotational systems you can see the angular acceleration will be zero at when the angular velocity is at its maximum. I don't know if that maximum angular acceleration point would mark the time when the maximum perpendicular tip deflection (MRF) is reached in a cast.
Even less certain is when the maximum acceleration force is being applied to the line since as Lasse noted the rod is a shitty spring due to its considerable mass in relationship to the mass of the line it is accelerating. Spolek estimated that 30-40% of the rod tip deflection we see in a cast is due to the inertial bending of the rod associated with its distributed mass. Thus unlike the ideal situation we assume in the simple harmonic oscillator model not all of the deflection of the rod can be attributed to a corresponding acceleration force on the line based on the measured spring constant of the rod.
Gordy