I don't like fishing the SA MED!

[Torsten]

Hi,

I had in the German forum a conversation with X, he is an EFFA instructor.

What do you think?

Greetings,
Torsten

X
I have the SA MED Competition and that is also really fun in the meadow, but for fishing I have never used. There are two aspects that play a role here:
1. when I have so much line in the air, I am extremely susceptible to wind.
2. almost without exception, everyone with so much line in the air touches down on the bottom(water) with the fly on a forward and/or back cast. This is not a problem with wool, but a fly with a hook is then no fun.

Dear X,

I think you wrote that nonsense in another forum as well ...

Where do you think Steve Rajeff touches here:



?

I fish very well with such longbelly lines, even on the coast (you are not forced to always move the complete head outside the tip ring).

Torsten

X:

Hello Torsten,

thank you for the enlightenment. In your video the good man throws in a hall and stands on a nice pedestal. I can't say anything about the air flow in the hall, but such a pedestal is helpful. Besides, I wrote " almost without exception" and top throwers like Steve Rajeff and others can do it. My observations on many casting events, were those ground touches and there were no beginners at work.

> (you are not forced to always move the complete head outside the tip ring).

Sure, but what advantage should the longbelly bring if part of the head is inside the tip ring?

(translated by DeepL)

[Bernd Ziesche]

Hi Torsten,
obviously teaching a novice is all about false casting a short line while running him thru different exercises. If he doesn't keep the line short, he loses control and starts compensating. Exactly what I don't want him to built up his muscle memory on. Train proper technique with a short line and the longer line will come easily after a while.
On short line the different lines don't vary much anyway. 30ft. same weight (when matching AFFTA). Not much room for different taper. DT or MED isn't much difference here.
I teach the double haul straight away in the first lesson. Same for shooting line. These two exercises succeed much quicker with a short head fly line. This can even be a short shooting head and a nylon shooting line. For kids I offer a very short and heavy head. This helps a lot for hauling and shooting line.
I don't think one only line is best choice for teaching.

My goal is a cast in which my students shoots a distance to let's say 24 to 28m in a 1 day lesson. Using the MED this gets significantly slowed.
MED in my book is a beast to be taimed and even very experienced casters often do not like this beast. In my pov not a proper choice to start with. Quite expensive, too.

When I recommend a training line a smooth rear taper is smart. That way later on aerializing more line is just fine.
There is a proper reason why 90% of lines have short heads. Wind of course is another factor. Short heads are 100 times more easy in wind.

In a lesson however I love to ask my clients to exchange their tackle for a moment. Always good to have felt some differencies. I always bring my lines in addition.

Bruce named the beast EXPERT distance for good reason. He said that this was HIS favorite line, but obviously not meant to best support the novices.
Regards
Bernd

P.s.: Us geeks throwing the MED on grass is one, but a novice hips under water is another situation. I do use the MED for dry fly fishing though. But I hardly use the full head. Could use a DT as well. And thats for placing a dry on distance. My students I teach to get close to the fish for better control. Always makes them catch more fish.

[Lasse Karlsson]

Hi Torsten

People like different things, and sometimes need to make up excuses for things they don't like...
I fish shootingheads like 99% of the time, except when I have a chance of fishing rivers for grayling and brown trout. Then my go to line is the MED...

Love the ability to have a long line in the air and to manipulate it for presentations, and the MED works very well with less line out, the long back taper helps with that...

Now, if one can't carry much more than the head without ticking on grass, then of course its going to be a problem on water, but thats a casting problem, not a tackle problem

Claiming ticking isn't a problem on grass with wool, is really the old, better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt



Cheers
Lasse

[Paul Arden]

For me it’s been my favourite taper (or one of them) for fishing for trout for about 20 years, in its different guises. It’s around my max comfortable pickup for Spey casting, allows long mends, curves and control in the 50-75’ fishing range, that “point and shoot” lines don’t deliver. If it’s all out distance and you are deep wading then I agree the head is too long for comfort. Backcast ticks can usually be sorted out with a faster haul. The S.A. Trout has a similar length head and I recommend it to all my advanced students. Or a DT of course, which is an even longer “head”.

Just my thoughts.

Cheers, Paul

[James9118]

Your EFFA instructor is telling you he/she isn't a great caster without actually saying they're not a great caster!

They also say "but for fishing I have never used" - so they've never actually tried it but are dismissing it on what evidence? As others have pointed out, they must also assume that DT's are rubbish also.

The first thing I do when rocking up to a venue with a MED is to ignore any fish that are close in and blast it out 40yds - it's just what distance casters do, isn't it :-)

[easterncaster]

Agree with what the others have stated.

I've always adored the MED, fished it for years as the XXD when it was available in minty green. Took my CI exam with it in a 5 wgt. - totally unnessary but it is what I practiced with, what I cast the most and hence was comfortable with (Hi Lasse).

It shines for trout dry fly fishing wide rivers, like the Delaware here in NY. Seeing as Sci-Ang no longer makes it in the green, I fish the Trout Taper > Amplitude Trout and now available Standard. All have very similar if not the same front taper as the MED, and have an appropriate long belly, perfect for dropping-in a dry fly at distance to a feeding fish...

Wind? well yeah, we do fish outdoors...
Maybe X would like a more mass forward taper... ?

Craig

[Lasse Karlsson]

Yeah, really poor line in wind

Cheers
Lasse

[Bernd Ziesche]

Hi Lasse,
In Sea trout distance... heavy tail wind, what head length you would recommend and why?
A) to a novice fishing Sea trout on the Baltic coast
B) to an expert in the WC under the SD rules?

As a side note, that thread in the German forum is all about teaching a novice.
Cheers
B

[Lasse Karlsson]

Hi Bernd

In competition, choose what you are comfortable with. I use shorter than Bernd, but Bernt is leading at the moment, food for thought...

1) short and manegable. Depends on the novice, but generally I recommend shorter than the norm, why suffer?
2) see first answer..

This thread is about an instructor claiming magic. And on a different forum

I remember someone telling me on a German forum that I was mad for stating that the anchor only was there to prevent the line going in the bushes... All kinds of different stuff is written all over, on a american forum, there's a German stating that Paul is cheating when he lubricates his line for trout distance...

Cheers
Lasse

[Bernd Ziesche]

manegable

That to me is THE keyword in choosing head length.

In competition would you (do you) carry different length sh s to adapt to different wind speeds?

Paul is the last one to be cheating. He even throws his line in the water to make it harder for it to run into his guides as soon as Steve casts on the same platform. That's truly fairplay.