struggled today with the fly line/ big flies If anyone owns one of these rods and fishes for pike what floater do you use.
I have a shooting head which was put on by the tackles previous owner. Its nearly as thick as a washing line and has memory to match.....
I have a 10wt second ready to put on, but would like to know what others use.

Casting a 6inch bunny Zonker today was quite difficult in light wind.. So a line change is needed..
with a wf line I heard its best to cut of the light front taper until a foot before the main belly......?

anyway any help welcome..
\my casting is fine with my other rods so balance set up is the problem before anyone suggests an instructor...

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You will struggle to beat the guideline pike dc floater. Other good lines to try are the rio pike line, scientific anglers musky line but the 2 guidelines are my faves.

I had one of these rods to start with and they do the job great for the money only just recently upgraded to an xf2 carnivore.

---------- Post added at 09:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:59 PM ----------

To be honest i think most of your problem will be the 6 inch bunny they absorb water unlike bucktail and synthetic fibre flies which shed the water easily making it a lot easier to cast.

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Thanks

Did you find any benefit in the rod upgrade?
if so what?

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"The nice thing about getting old, is that you realize what a madhouse it all is. Instead of a young person's view, which is that the world must be sane, with occasional pockets of insanity, you come around to my position, in which the world seems to be a complete madhouse - with occasional pockets of sanity" (John Cleese 1988)
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Hi,

Flyfishing for pike with big and huge streamers is not the same game as flyfishing for grayling or trout. You can go down the "normal" way but you shall suffer more than with a correctly balanced shooting head or shooting head like line.

The first thing is, what kind of shooting head do you have on. For pike (big streamers), overlining is a norm and the rule of the thumb is SH 2 line classes heavier than the rod rating. Although it is a rule of thumb it worked fine for me.

Next thing is how you use such set up. Don`t fight it as you can not win. Don`t cast a lot as it is not needed. It is a bit hard to describe, just make a few gentle casts to pull the head out and the final bum accompanied with strong pull of the arm holding the line and let it fly. It is very effortless once you learn.

First time i used heavy setup i ended up with a streamer in my little finger. Nowdays i cast slipper like flies for the whole day and have no problem at the end of it. It just takes a bit of practice. Let the tackle work for you and you shall be fine.

Going for longer heads, classic WF lines will simply mean you will have to keep line speed up, which is not a good idea, specially if you shall go into big pike flies made of classic materials. In the end a more demanding way although at first it might seem better as it is more familiar.

Just my 2 cents.

BlueOne

Tried the new wt 10 line this morning still suffered with casting until I removed the rabbit fur zonkers and applied a more balanced fly 'lighter' and it casted no problems..
so re-considering my fly materials as first suggested...

The shooting head appears to be wt 12 but makes little difference once the bunny Zoner is attached.....

I do quite quite a bit of boat fishing loch style using 20 foot leaders and 3 flies on an 7 wt set up..... cast distance no problems there...

what if any substitute do you suggest for synthetic material for the flies tail...
thanks
Phil

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I use 10 wt rio outbounds(short and std) for pike.i found slowing down the cast helped with large flies and just as blueone suggests.synthetic fibres shed water making casting easier than natural furs which tend to hold more water,which can make them more difficult to cast..check out Tobys (WCB) funky fibre or slinky fibre ect for making your flies.i think you will find a difference. it certainly helped me.hope this helps.steve

Hm i would not suggest synthetic fibres only approach, there is a lot of very good pike flies made with old fashion materials and they work great so it would be a shame not to use them. This might sound funny but 6`` zonker is actually a small fly from what can and what we do cast with #10. I am surprised that #12 SH is making no differenc eto normal WF? As said by blondie, slow down, don`t push it, just add the final bang and let it fly. The problem with floating SH in bigger sizes is that they are rather thick and this technique is better learned with a sinking SH which has a smaller diameter.

One trick that helps with flies that soak a lot of water is to squeeze the fly to drain the water out and when you start casting make a few swings (again hard to explain with words) which shall push additional water out and cast after that.

Heavier flies will disturb casting but you get used to this and light but wind resistant flies actually help with casting SH as they soften the behavior of the line a bit.

I normaly cast like this:

a few very relaxed cast forward and back i normaly also let the line out in both which decreases the load on me even further and when eough of the head is out,i just send it on its way. All in all a very relaxed, easy casting when getting the head out, it does not look beautiful, but it works.

BlueOne

Tied this up today out of very lightweight materials that don't hold water..
its a Test fly using synthetic wadding and a little marabou
some holographic flash...

I know some eyes would finish it... and it wont take to many attacks from the pike...

I will give it a go in the morning...

tight lines
Phil

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submitting grayling reports could win you your Salmon Rod license for 2010 on the graylinghunter site.

Graylinghunter there are mixed opinions on casting techniques for large pike flies - but you are right in going up by at least one wt. heavier than the rod.

I don't know how stiff the butt section is on the 10wt Atlantis is... but if like other 10wt fly rods built for saltwater, the rod build tends to be stiffer by nature in the butt for finned torpedoes.

I have three 10 wts for pike and salt and find using a cortland 444 WF11 suits the task perfectly. You'll probably find whilst casting the drowned budgies that you'll open out shoulders and chest on your cast - which is natural for saltwater casting. As with bowling in cricket every bodies technique matches their body frame and in time you'll find and economic rythim to your casting.

I indeed use predominantly synthetic based seven inch flies for pike with plenty of pulse and keep tight loops with a fast action, to cast these flies.
From a sitting position on a kayak I can empty my 11wt cortland from the reel with a couple of double hauls - but this takes a bit of practise.

Keep at it!

Cheers,

Brent.

Cheers Brent..

Might start a thread on budgie throwing

Looking for cheap water resistant fibers..
always look at haberdasheries first its amazing how many things you can find in these places.
The wadding I used yesterday is cheap as chips £1.99 for two square meters...

It was tied in a rush but performed really well. It gave great movement...

also ties a few up using bright colors from a synthetic dusters.. £1.59



A pack of bronzed sea fishing hooks and I was away....

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"The nice thing about getting old, is that you realize what a madhouse it all is. Instead of a young person's view, which is that the world must be sane, with occasional pockets of insanity, you come around to my position, in which the world seems to be a complete madhouse - with occasional pockets of sanity" (John Cleese 1988)
submitting grayling reports could win you your Salmon Rod license for 2010 on the graylinghunter site.