[Ian Carter]

Hi lads. I've been using a shakespeare oracle scandi 12ft9 8 weight for about 5 years now with a guideline 3D intermetiate shooting head on it. My casting still isnt great but I can shoot the head plus a few meters of running line.

My question is: If I was to upgrade to a better / larger rod would I gain a few meters of distance? Any recommendations? There are some good looking rods in the secondhand market.

 

[westie4566]

Hi lads. I've been using a shakespeare oracle scandi 12ft9 8 weight for about 5 years now with a guideline 3D intermetiate shooting head on it. My casting still isnt great but I can shoot the head plus a few meters of running line.

My question is: If I was to upgrade to a better / larger rod would I gain a few meters of distance? Any recommendations? There are some good looking rods in the secondhand market.

I'd keep the money and spend it on casting lessons Ian.

Once your proficient then maybe better gear might give an edge.

Please don't take this the wrong way, however after 5 years if you can still only cast the head and a few meters of running line then it's not the rod that's holding you back but bad technique.

The money spent on lessons will pay you back in abundance and you'll get the best out of your current gear.

Let us all know how you get on

 

[Tangled]

No!

If you're only casting the head and a few metre of line it's got absolutely nothing to do with the rod. It might be something to do with the set up but it's more likely your technique.

As above, get some lessons by a qualified instructor - he'll check your gear and sort you out.

 

[Ian Carter]

Ah lads Im dying to buy some new gear!! A few days into the season I can probably shoot 5 or 6 meters on a good day which covers most of my rivers but I hear what your saying.

 

[Tomos Llyr Edwards]

Ah lads Im dying to buy some new gear!! A few days into the season I can probably shoot 5 or 6 meters on a good day which covers most of my rivers but I hear what your saying.

If buying new gear makes you happy then do it. It probably won’t improve your casting performance but life’s too short.

 

[rotenone]

Hi lads. I've been using a shakespeare oracle scandi 12ft9 8 weight for about 5 years now with a guideline 3D intermetiate shooting head on it. My casting still isnt great but I can shoot the head plus a few meters of running line.

My question is: If I was to upgrade to a better / larger rod would I gain a few meters of distance? Any recommendations? There are some good looking rods in the secondhand market.

When you have the the room behind you longer shooting heads will give you the opportunity of more distance.
But in my experience you have to increase the length of your head quite a bit to find the advantage, this is on of the reasons I could never full understand the companies that sold ranges of shootings heads so similar in length with similar tapers.


Without going to technical and bogging you down the simple answer is longer heads and rods will give you more distance if you can handle the head and if there is the space behind you.

If you want a really long casting shooting head look at either the gaelforce eemt of gaelforce extendee spey head they are very long casting lines but will still handle poly leaders and quite heavy flies another line you could consider is the nextcast salarfinder 45 .

Those 3 are the longest casting commerical available heards imho but you find them too much work on rods under 14 foot at this stage of your casting journey.

Get youself a nice deep loading progressive and powerful actioned rod and one of those heads and with practice and a lesson or two you will be able to cover largest of rivers.

 

[Rrrr]

Has anyone else had a try of your setup to see if the line suits etc ?
Had a go of the oracle scandi a few times with a rio outbound and it flys out and my casting ranges between terrible and bang average on a good day. The rod felt abit heavy but in terms of performance is was good.

Sent from my SM-S901B using Tapatalk

 

[Rennie]

You probably don't want to hear this Ian Carter, but in all honesty your lack of casting performance will in all likelihood be down to your technique and just possibly how you have your kit set up.
There's no easy path to good casting and blaming the kit is a pretty std. thing for those on the learning ladder. Now I don't know your leader set up, but as long as the rod and line are well matched you should be faring better than you are. As others have said, lessons are the way to go, then practice, practice, practice, sorry but its the only way unless you are one of the truly gifted few.
Without a doubt there are better rods out there, but at the moment I don't think you're at the stage where you are ready to spend money. The Shaky. Scandi rods are very good for those on the learning ladder as they are easy going- which is what you want. Guideline make very good lines, but I think you might be better off with a floating head that matches your rod. Intermediate heads present a few more problems to overcome compared to floating heads that you might not be aware of yet. The leader is really quite important when casting heads, but that's very easily sorted.
Honestly, your predicament is not unfathomable and once you get a grip of certain issues I'm sure you'll fair better than you are.
One thing that will help is getting out there and doing it more and if possible fish in company or with a pal regular, you'll learn far quicker that way.
Wishing you all the best, Pedro.