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3. Practice rod

The subject was discussed briefly in another thread.I am facing being laid up with one hand for a couple of months so I figured,what the heck,I'll see how they work.I got the Orvis "Practicaster",prices all seemed to be the same or cose,so I went with the Orvis cause its the shortest.Wulffs is shorter but they arent available anywhere and the manufacturer doesnt know when they will be again.They work,but not really good for indoor use.Unless you have some high ceilings,you have to sit.Thats okay,sitting on my couch I can swing 12-15 ft of the line safely,but in order to be a good practice,you should be able to stand.Unless you have 16' ceilings forget it.I have 8' in my living room and 7' in my basement,even sitting down there my line hits the ceiling too often,a shame cause I could get 20' of line clear down there.It seeme to clear okay with the 8'.So although I will toy with it to kill time or for amusement,but to really be effective I'd have to go outside,in that case I'd just use a real rod.This rod comes with about 20' of what appears to be a thick fairly light shoe lace for line and a 3 1/2 ' leader with a yarn fly attached.It does afair job of simulating a real cast,but not what I'd say is ideal for indoor use.Just thought I'd share in case anybody was looking at them

Interesting info, Carl. Thanks for sharing.

It was discussed a bit more than briefly. Perhaps read again and adjust your rig. A shoelace is too heavy. You are not trying to replicate the speed of a fly-cast indoors. You want to slow it down considerably.

Also, do you need 16ft overhead clear on a trout stream? Of course not. How long is the rod? The ones I make are 4ft or less and use ~6ft of line I'm guessing since its not with me to measure. I can stand under an 8ft ceiling and cast away.

Further, you are not trying to cast for distance, just stroke timing and loop control. With that you can do it all, except hauling.

Thanks,Paul.The rod is 47" long,the line is not actually a "shoelace" its made of a lighter material,and woven like a shoelace,not the flat lace but the round type.The leader is lighter braided yarn.I am 6' tall,if I stand and try a normal over head cast,where my hand stops by my ear,I will hit the 8' ceiling with the rod.The rod has 3 oversized rod guides and a tip guide and I can use any length of the 20 something feet of line supplied.I'll take your advice and keep it to 6' and see how that goes.I'm guessing the line isnt actually ideal.When I contacted Wulff about their rod,they said they are having trouble getting the proper yarn,so they stopped shipping theirs.I will use this rod,as I will have this cast on for about 8 weeks till I get the pins taken out and still have a shoulder injury they havent even addressed yet,so I have a lot of "couch time" in my near future.Maybe I should have saved my assessment till I get some more time with it.But I'm bored.

Sounds like a perfect time to get caught up on your Schwiebert! ;)

Spence

Yeah, the yarn is hard to find. My latest is a tad light but I added a series of knots along it to speed it up.

Here's the right stuff:
http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2012/09/chunky-knit-blanket-how-to-yarn-sources.html

Again you can use a thinner/lighter yarn, you just need to dampen it with a slight amount of water to get a little mass into it.

Stokes: sorry to hear about the bum wing!

we tamed our indoor practice rod with "Bonnie Craft Cord" which is used for projects made with knotted cord, like macrame. looks like what you describe: round woven stuff. not easy to find, but we got two skeins at Hobby Lobby. it comes in three thicknesses, 2, 4, and 6 mm. we bought the 4. now the little rod loads up just fine. we have a 9 foot ceiling and i don't hit it at all. 'course, at 5'5" and with a sidearm cast, my stroke is different to yours.

actually, we have miles of the stuff...PM an address and some will wing its way to you immediately.

BTW, the cats think it's just the greatest thing we've done for them since the catnip patch...

Casey,I googled the boonie craft cord and that looks like the stuff.Thanks much for the offer,but this seems to work as it should,despite my mediocre review.As I said,my review may not be so fair as I havent put a lot of time in with it,it was more just my first impression on its shortcomings.A closer look at the craft cord and I would say the line is probly the 4mm cord and the shorter leader section is the "macrame braid" 2mm.

I would think macrame cord would be too heavy and therefore too fast. Anyway, offered what I could.

Thanks,Paul.I did go back and re-read what I described as "briefly discussed" and there is more meat there than I first thought,pain meds dull the comprehension skills.I have used the rod a bit more and yes,I can stand and 3/4 sidearm.Took your advice and have kept the line to about 6'or so.It is kind of fast,as you said about the cord weight,but I can go fairly slower than normal and get a decent loop.I can see by slowing down I am focusing more on the "mechanics"of the cast,as you guys said.This is a great site.Great advice,thanks all.