Mastering the 10-Weight Fly Rod
If you’re hunting large striped bass, large blues, large false albacore and such you should know how to operate a 10-weight rod. Now that is easier said than done. Ten-weights are hard to master. For one thing they are just bigger. And unfortunately many of them are ultra-fast action rods, which makes casting them far more difficult. Avoid them like the plague.
For the sake of this post, I’m going to assume you’re already a proficient caster, and have conquered the double haul. If not, you have some preliminary ground work to do. Okay onward. To master a 10-weight fly rod, to make it your baby, you must tap into the reserve power of the rod. Never assume you can simply muscle your way through it. Yes strength is a help, but over the course of tides, you’ll burn yourself out, or end up hurt. Instead to master the 10-weight, you need to get the rod to do more of the work.
Check this out. Most every angler learns how to shoot line into the forward cast. You make your forward haul and release the line. No brainer. But far fewer anglers know how to shoot line into the backcast! Yes, into the damn backcast. Try this – lay out 40 feet of fly line on the grass. Make a simple backcast, with a haul, no forward cast. Do it sidearm, with your casting arm 45 degrees away from your shoulder, watching the line travel to the rear. If you release the fly line immediately after the haul, line should shoot through the guides to the rear. Bingo! Practice this dozens of times until you are comfortable shooting line into the backcast. Once you have that down, try seeing how much line you can shoot into the back cast. Get good it. Get better at it. Hell, shoot a shit load!
Ready to connect the forward cast? Again with 40 feet of line, this time make an overhead cast to the rear, haul, then shoot line into the backcast. Okay we’re at a critical moment. As the fly line slows in the guides, but is still aloft, catch it, haul forward, shooting line again. Yes, you’ll likely mess up the first ten tries, but hang in there, over time you’ll get the knack. And when you do, you’re on your way to mastering the 10-weight fly rod.
Now you’re shooting line in both directions! Bravo. You’re getting a double shot of your baby’s love. Obviously, the longer backcast is going to make for a longer forward cast, but the longer backcast is doing something else terribly important. It loading the rod deeply, tapping into its reserve power. Translation? Less work for you!
In the photo above, I’m about to make a forward cast with a 9 foot, 10-weight graphite rod. Look closely; note how deeply I’ve loaded the rod. Now you’re talking, now you’re mastering the 10-weight fly rod. Now you made it your baby.