[wpk]

I have never felt that I had that perfect match feeling in terms of lining my Scott Arc 1308. It casts a 7/8/9 windcutter well and a 7/8 mid-spey or long delta well but never with that sweet, crisp feeling you get when a rod and line are made for each other. I talking about this with a fellow at a local fly shop he suggested cutting a windcutter 8/9/10 back 5' , starting 15' from the tip. I happen to have a 8/9/10 cutter that I wasn't using, so cut out the section from 15 to 20' and put loops in. The result was incredible. The line casts like a rocket yet doesn't compromise the 'sweetness' of this rod. The only draw back is that is makes a short head line even shorter, so more stripping but the casting experience is pure pleasure. This got me thinking that perhaps others out there have tinkered with modifying different length heads to match rods or casting styles. It would be interesting to hear about it if any of you have done so, especially modifying the belly of the line in addition to the more common tip trimming.

 

[Big K1]

Hi wpk.

That is probably the most common mod people do other than cutting lines back for tips. For winter tip work I use heads in the 40' - 45' range.

 

[wpk]

Have you heard of anyone cutting back longer belly lines to better fit rods or casting styles?

 

[Rick J]

I know of a couple of folks down in the Sacramento area that have modified xlt lines by cutting out around 10 feet to shorten a 7/8 xlt - cut at around 68 ' from the tip and sliced - for a Sage 8136 - also handles well on the Scott 1287 though the line does well without cutting on the 1287.