“A
bad workman blames his tools.”
Or as I like to put it - A bad caster blames his rod.A bad cast if often blamed on the rod, but most
often it is the user, the weight of lead, the reel, the
line, and not the rod. There are two sides to casting:
one is the casters technique and the other is the tackle
used.
I've been meaning to write an article for sometime on the
subject of casting problems but for one reason or another
I had yet to get round to it. That all changed the other
day when I had someone come to see me with some serious
‘frapping’ and ‘crack-off’ issues. He
placed the blame on the rod rings. Well, I calmly laid up
the rod against the positioning gauge and showed him that
the rings were in the correct positions and of the right
size pattern. I politely invited him out to the casting
field, to whack a lead about and to see what the real
problems were. It turned out that he wasn't a bad caster,
he just had everything going against him. A little
problem- with all the factors - added up to one big
problem.
Let me firstly explain what
‘frapping’ is:
Frapping is sometimes called line slap. It is where the
line comes off the reel in a loud slapping, vibrating
fashion, cutting down distance massively.
Frapping, at its extreme, causes ‘crack-offs’
in an instant.
During a cast the line comes off the reel in the shape of
a conical, transverse-vibration wave. If the wave nodes
and antinodes are pitched too far apart, then frapping
starts - due to the torque set up by the thrown coils.
Frapping often starts when the cast is released too
early. The rod is still under compression, as the line is
released from under the finger causing the line to be
pulled off the spool - the point of least resistance -
and bunches up between the reel and the butt ring. As the
lead catches up and proceeds to pull out the line,
frapping can occur.
Let me now explain what
‘crack-offs’ are:
A crack-off is when the line breaks while we are giving
it the 'big un'.
Most people think it is because the line is too weak,
causing it to snap under the pressure of the cast, so
they use a shock leader. Now assuming you are using 15
lbs mono or more and a lead of 4oz or less, it is very
unlikely that the standard carp-style overhead thumb will
snap the line. If the line was to snap under pressure
during the casting stroke, it would most likely go
straight up and come down close by. If this is happening
to you, then use a shock leader and your crack-off
problems are sorted.
Have you noticed though, that when you witness a
crack-off, most of the time the damn thing flies straight
out further than any cast you have ever made before. This
is because the cast was good - right up to the point of
release - and then it went wrong. The lead is starting on
its way out but something causes the line to snap. That
something is extreme frapping. The line, as mentioned
earlier, bunches up- due to early release - and tangles
around one or more of the rods rings in a split second
and as the lead catches up and tries to pull the line
out, the line is snapped.
Let’s deal with the rod as a
contributing factor.
As I said right at the beginning, the rod has little, if
anything, to do with frapping and crack-off issues.
Moving on to the lead.
Every rod is capable of casting a weight range. If it is
too light then the weight wont compress the rod at all,
so it becomes very hard to ‘feel’ it in the
casting stroke. Release timing is then hard to judge. If
the lead is too heavy, the rod is over-compressed -
slowing everything down- way too much. There is for every
rod, an ideal weight for high speed maximum range casting
and an ideal weight for casting every other range.
Let me explain with a couple of real examples:
Harrison Torrix 12' 2.50 TC.
High speed maximum range cast: Ideal weight is 2oz
All other ranges: Ideal weight is 2.5oz.
Harrison Torrix 12' 3.25 TC
High speed maximum range cast: Ideal weight is 3.5oz
All other ranges: Ideal weight is 4oz.
You will notice that to cast high speed
maximum range, the weight is less than all other casts.
This is because the casting stroke is so much quicker. A
heavier weight would overload the rod and slow things
down. Any less weight, than the ideal one and the casting
stroke wont compress the rod enough making it very hard
to time the release. It also wont have enough dragging
power to pull you line out to the maximum range. The
heavier weight loads the rod and feels perfect when
casting to closer targets.
Next, let look at the role of the reel.
This is going to be controversial and will probably put a
lot of ‘backs up', but the fact is that there is an
optimum size diameter of spool to work with carp lines of
say 15lb mono and the distances between the reel and the
butt ring on the rod.
Now this is going to get very complex so please bear with
me.
Small spools create more line friction than large spools
so casting distance is cut down. We all know this to be
true, so the opposite must also be true - that the bigger
the spool, the less the drag and the greater distance.
This is true until you factor-in that the line coming off
the massive spool is throwing very large coils which
creates torque and drag - and can and does -lead to
frapping and crack-offs.
Taking it to the extreme and you have a reel spool the
size of a bucket. This would create so much torque in the
thrown coils (conical, transverse- vibration wave) that
you would need to cast something like a pound of lead to
compensate and have the rods butt ring some 15 feet away
from the reel. You see we forget that the butt ring on
the average 12' carp rod is somewhere around 3'6'' away
from the reel spool, so there is actually an optimum size
of spool, not too big and not too small.
The Shimano mini big pits seem to have the ideal size
spool.
"What about a 50mm butt ring
Mark," I hear you cry. Well that can make things a
little worst again, believe it or not. Fuji often refer
to the butt ring, on a rod, as a "chocker
ring.” The name says it all, small is best. The
reason is that the coils are narrowed down quickly and
allow the line to straighten and carry through the rest
of the rod rings smoothly. Too big a ring and the
conical, transverse-vibration wave can carry on down the
rod loosing distance in the cast.
Show me a carp rod, rung with a 50mm
butt ring and a massive-spooled reel - add in an overhead
thump cast with an early release - and I'll show you a
frap and a crack-off waiting to happen.
Now don't get me wrong, if you want 50mm rings on your
rods, that's fine be me, but add in a massive-spooled
reel and you are asking for trouble. If you are frapping
away and cracking off while casting like a mad thing and
you still don't believe me, then just put on a
small-spooled ‘baitrunner’ type reel and watch
the difference.
"How can all the reel makers be
wrong Mark," I hear you shout. They're not, they are
just selling the customer what he wants to buy. Most so
called Big Pit reels that are available are really
surf/sea reels dressed up and marketed to us carp boys.
The massive spool and heavy construction wasn't designed
for long range casting but for huge line capacity for
fighting GTs, Tuna, etc - that will strip vast amounts of
line in a matter of seconds.
To Summarise:
1) Poor release timing with the wrong
weight of lead, while using a very large-spooled reel,
fitted to a rod with 50mm rings = BAD
2) Good release timing with the correct
weight of lead, while using a medium- spool sized reel,
fitted to a rod with smaller rings = GOOD
Do note though, that the butt ring size
is only a small contributor to frapping. It's the other
factors that really cause the problems.
Use a smaller-spooled reel with a good line, get you
release timing right, with the correct lead and your
frapping days are numbered.
Mark
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