Thanks to all of the 25 guys who showed up Saturday morning/afternoon for this event, I hope you all had a good time and learned a little bit in the process. I had a great time shagging flies for a couple of hours, lol. Good selection of food, lots of blanks and rods to pull on, and good company, gorgeous weather – couldn’t have asked for a better day.

Blank: Fiber Star composite 1266 10’6 2 piece ¾ - 4oz Butt: .65 Tip: 9 weight 6.5oz
Set ups: modified COF, SV Concept, K frame concept, LC Low Rider
Lure: Tennis ball with 2oz sinker stuck inside = 4oz

Builders: SurfisherMike & Surfmaster250 collabrated on all the guide set ups and spent a few weekends casting each one to find what they felt was the proper set up to maximize casting distance while still feeling “right” when fighting a fish.
Casters: SurfisherMike, Sudsy, Charra, JohnScag – each caster made 20 casts, 5 with each set up.

Results
- The LC set up as expected threw about 7% less than the other 3 set ups. This was set up similar to the
St Croix mojo factory rod, but we put the stripper 4” further away from the reel seat.
- The other 3 sets ups were within 1.25% of each other

Misc
- Charra brought his Legend Elite which I wrapped for him a couple of seasons ago, and has been casted side by side with the factory version. Both use Low Riders, I set his rod up a little different, and it’s proven to cast further/smoother than the factory version. A few guys cast this set up on Saturday, and the distances were in the same ballpark with the FSC set up with Low Riders.
- AndreSchwartz brought a Century 11’ 2-6oz rod with him, set up with 5 or 6 K frames. His longest cast was 3.25% further than his longest cast with the FSC 10’6 1-4oz set up modified COF.

There are no opinions or observations stated here, I just took the actual numbers, averaged them and this is what it is. I did remove the high and low cast to compile the averages and it didn’t make any noticeable difference. We are planning another possible test casting event with Danny plugs at the Spring Fling on May 5th:

lots of numbers to look at but the one thing that is missing is what is the distance they were getting as I am not a distance caster in fact I don't cast very far at all, but just wondering at what distance were they getting with the rigs thanks
Bill,

All the numbers were in the 100 yard range. I want to stress that the distance didn't matter, it was CONSISTENCY. When we started Sudsy asked me how I wanted him to cast, if he should to try and belt out the longest casts or take it easy, and I replied that I didn't care, just that he tried to be consistent as possible and not tire out as the day wore on. After tossing out his long/short casts, he was within 7 feet on his 3 other LC casts, 9' with the K's, 8' on SV, and 10' with the COF. Charra was even more consistent than that, he was 2' apart with K's , and threw 4 casts with SV's which were within 1 foot of each other (3 casts in a row went the exact same distance).

One person was off the ground casting and most of the casts were going about 120 feet off to the side, and the cast distances varied 10-15%. For what we were trying to test that type of data was not useful and was not used.

Billy,

Thanks for taking the time to run the test, and for sharing the results.

The results are very interesting to say the least.

Just for a little clarification, when I think of COF, I think of the traditional setup using all sizes of guides to get to the smallest size at the tip top. What is the modified COF?

Also, were the SV Concept and K Concept both setup using the NGC (or similar), or were the K frames setup with the rapid choke technique?

I'm just trying to get my head around the amount of variance in the guide train setups.

Thanks again,

Joe

Mod COF was not the traditional gigantic guide set up with only 5 guides on a 10'6, but did step down and they used more guides. The SV set up choked down quick and started with a 40, the K started with a 30, the LC had a 20.

So....... the idea that smaller ring butt guides rob you of distance did not turn out to be true? Or that large diameter butt guides are a necessity on heavy surf rods?

thanks Billy that is what I was after as I have never gone to a distance casting get together, an have no idea about the distance that they can cast, it is just a shot in the park an that is what I wanted to know,
I know you wanted to compair the different guides to see the differance of A , B , C , with the numbers you gave, but for people that have no idea at the distance that get on casting a fairley good set up it was
informative

Bill

The weighted tennis balls were very non areodynamic. They seems to die very quickly! If we had used a 3oz lead or metal lure we would have seen much farther distances. This was not about distance though. I did observe the line leaving the reels up close on a bunch of casts and everyone was coiling tight! Now we need to do rod breaking and see which setup breaks first.. just not on my rods!!

Billy,

Thanks! Just the type of info I was looking for, and still very interesting.

Joe

Distance casting is another ball game, those guys are using different casts, different rods/reels, and different lures. They routinely throw over 700 feet. Speaking of ball games, to prevent the line from tangling up when the ball landed and bounced, I was wearing a Baseball glove in one hand and had my notbook in the other and I tracked down and caught almost every single cast - some of the catches were downright sexy, behind the back, over the shoulder, between the legs. What was no tsex was Mike H blasting off a cast over my head and as I tracked it back I stepped up a hill and busted my butt. lol.

Too bad you did not take video of this

I need a good laugh LOL -- got to funny as )*^%%$#&* I can just picture it

Bill - willierods.com

Thank you Billy and all for the work you did, great info.

Chuck

There is video but they caught me at teh end of the fall when I was on the floor trying scurry up and still make the catch.

I would like to point out that John Martines (who designed the Fiber Star blanks that we used) and Mike hickey did just as much work as I did making this happen. I was just the event planner & idea man,lol.

Billy
What type of line was used and what type of reel?

I'd love to see more stuff like this, to objectify all the hyperbole. Very well done. I'll bet that was a fun day.

Interesting that COF did as well as it did.

Props to the NERBS.


Drew

Van Staal 200 with probably 30# braid. We had 4 of them, one on each rod.

Billy

Since you were there And thanks for all the work
Did any guide set up seem to work better then others

Any micro builds ?

Bill - willierods.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2012 11:11AM by bill boettcher.

Billy
Why do you think the LC was least distance? Was this all LCs to the top? We're any reversed?

Least distance meaning it did not cast well

So What stile of guide configuration would have seemed to be the best
The talk of the COF doing not as bad as builders thought makes me wonder

Bill - willierods.com

Jeff, the LC's are not designed for shorter rods like this. There wasn't a single person who casted who liked how the rod felt with the LC's compared to the other, and that includes the guy casting his own $850 Legend that I wrapped him with Titnaium LC's. So the consensus was, and the cast results proved - LC's on 10'6 rods are a FAIL. Why..I don't know. And for the record...the Fiber Stars were casted with teh VS, teh Legend I built as cast with a Stella, which is a much better casting reel, and it still made no difference.

The other 3 were the best, since htey casted about the same. We're gonna take those 3 rods and cast poor castin gplugs wihtthem, side by side - and seeif the guide layouts make a difference in a real life situation. no micros, because very few people are fishing rods like that in teh surf. I wanted to use them but there was only so much we could test so the KR-20 + micro set up had to be X'd out.