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Guidelines LPXe and various lines including the Outbound

2K views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  pcknshvl 
#1 ·
Jack was kind enough to lend me this rod (12'6" 7/8) while I wait for my Torridge repair. Along with the rod, he lent me a Guidelines Blue Hover Intr. head of about 370 gr (24gm) and 35' or so. I immediately went to the practice stream. The rather breezy practice stream.

With an Airflo clear intr. 10' leader and about 4' of tippet (and a small Skunk fly for practice), I was doing quite well for me. It was super easy to roll-cast the whole head and leader up to set up for each cast. When I got a little sloppy, I lost some distance to the cast, but the fly turned over every time. I would manage 1-1/2 - 2 rod lengths of running line, with the feeling that with just a little more practice, I'd be turning the corner to real distance in no time.

With the same leader, I switched to Snowbee's 44' floater, also about 370gr. After a little adjustment for timing wth the longer head, I found this cast quite nicely, too. But at about this time, the wind picked up and started breaking my anchor loose.

Both these heads overhead very nicely, too, snapping the running line right up onto the rod.

But that darn wind... it's hard to tell exactly what the performance is with a steady and slightly gusty left-to-right breeze.

The last line I put on was my Rio OB 10wt foater, 425gr, with just a 15' mono leader. Once I got all set up and ready to go, the wind died down, and the first cast shot right out there. It didn't feel too heavy; if anything, it felt a little light. I thought, "Holy Moly! The Outbound is the best line ever!" Then the wind really picked up and I couldn't get anything going. Overhead casting tests were inconclusive. The wind really picks up that thick and relatively short (37.5') head and moves it around. My backcasts suck in the best of condtions and this certainly didn't help. I had tailing loops on the forward cast every time. I look forward to calmer conditions.

All these heads are nice. I suspect I'll find myself tryng to decide between the Snowbee and the OB when I'm beach casting poppers to silvers, and missing fish because I'm changing spools. For the standard Clousers and so forth, the Guidelines head will be outstanding.

There's lots of good fishing out there!

Tom
 
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