TFO 10 ft - 14 ft rods. - very amatuer casting review

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livetofish
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TFO 10 ft - 14 ft rods. - very amatuer casting review

Post by livetofish »

This is only a casting review. I do not know how they would behave with a fish on the end of the line - I can only hope for the fish.

I tried 7wt. and 9wt in different lengths here in Boise, ID today. While the price is great ($199 - $299) , these rods are a major pain to cast even in very little wind of about 10 mph. The wind pushes them all over the place. I can only imagine the pain they would cause in the yaks.

Having said that, now to the actual performance. All the rods have medium fast tips. I think with these rods you have to try different lines and find the right line for the rod. I started with Cortland 333 WF in different sizes. Then switched to Cortland 444 and an intermediate sink rate with a shooting head. Now the behavior was very different. Heavier line with all the weight forward I think makes these rods behave much better. In my opinion, these are great for fly fishing in the surf in the rolling waves and solid offshore wind with big flies.

Forget of false casting these babies. One back cast that is all you get. With half the line in the air and the weight of the rod itself, casting becomes very laborious after two false casts. I was hurting real bad after about an hour of playing with rods. If you are a better caster than I am as most of you are, you might be able to pull of two or three false casts. If you are looking for distance (60+ ft) with minimum false casting (one or two) these are the rods for you.

After I sufficiently made a fool of myself in front of the Boise traffic, I stopped to look at the rods in sunshine. These are very handsome rods with standard TFO grey blank with gold letters and black wraps. All of them come with the uplocking screw turn reel seats and fighting butts. The TFO rod makers have decided to adopt the ferules that do not slide in completely with the dot alignment system.

All in all, right tool for the right job. If I ever take up fly fishing in surf these are are rods I will turn to.

LTF.
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fishin'
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Post by fishin' »

Are these Spey rods you are taslking about? Sounds like maybe.
That is really increasing in popularity especially on the big rivers for Steelhead, etc.

fishin'
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Post by livetofish »

Not spey rods. These are extra loooong regular rods. Only the 12 ft and 14ft rods have the extended grip for the second hand.
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Barry
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Re: TFO 10 ft - 14 ft rods. - very amatuer casting review

Post by Barry »

livetofish wrote: these rods are a major pain to cast even in very little wind of about 10 mph. The wind pushes them all over the place. I can only imagine the pain they would cause in the yaks.

LTF.

Dasu
I know what you mean. About 4 years ago I built a 10.5' 8wgt. to use on the coast. It turned out beautiful and casted like a cannon. Al started calling it my "Rockport Rocket".
One afternoon we were back in Port Bay (past Pete's Bend) casting to some tailing Reds with the wind blowing 20-25 MPH. After about 2 hours my arm and shoulder were so tired/sore I thought Al was going to have to tow me back because I didn't think I could use my right arm to paddle with. It wasn't the casting that beat me up; it was having to fight that flagpole in the wind. It's amazing how much resistance those looooong rods have in a strong wind.
Also, getting it stopped after the speed-up on the front cast was a real experience.
Last edited by Barry on Sat Feb 07, 2004 9:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Flyfisher »

9.5 ft. rod is all I want to handle - wind or no wind (especially as I get older).

Ray
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Post by Lefty Ray »

Heads up

The May-June issue of Texas Sporting Journal will have my story caled "Texas Toothpicks." This about using 14-15 foot fly rods off of the jetties and the surf. Although they look like spey rods they do not have the spey (roll casting) action. These instead are made to overhead cast like regular rods. With these rods we can hurl pretty far distances with and into the wind.

More and more of these 2 handed rods are becoming popular. I have two of these (one is for sale).

http://www.leftyray.com/forsale.htm
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