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FLY ROD ACTION

ACTION AND TAPERS FOR BAMBOO RODS
EXCERPTS CHAPTER XII

Here we are! From all the literature and the advertisement devoted to the object of our passion, we can say indubitably that the "action" side is obviously the weakest, and the one that shows the least of what it claims to describe.

Its talk resembles that of clever merchants who keep you interested when telling you about wine, by playing with your snobbery yet when it comes to the wine there are people who really know what they are talking about.

"The hoax of the action speech"

Firstly let us eliminate the advertising statement, and especially the baloney one regarding a so called "scientific" talk about the action. It is generally made with the help of sketches supposed to represent this "action", so called "from the tip", "medium", "slow" or "parabolic". Obviously these sketches don't have anything to do with the curve of the rod action, or with its "passive curve", when you hold a fish (or when you are hooked!).

Action "fast", "slow", "medium", "parabolic", and other inappropriate terms

If you discuss with one of those "specialists", trustees of the truth, about the fly rods; those who launch brands and fashions, you will soon notice two things: The first one is that all their speech is aimed at making you change your equipment which is "not bad but there is far better, you ought to try the last XM3 Z from S… or L… or F.

Sketch samples representing the action of the rods.
12.1

This is the one that is always changing and we are led to believe that every year, perfection has been found. The ultimate carbon rod that cannot be exceeded and yet is so rapidly superseded.
Actually the perfection was believed to have been effectively found in an ultimate concept: the marketing fibre.

Add a touch of snobbery, illusion and the desire to be up to date by conforming to the latest last fashion and you have today's current picture.

One could sum by saying: "I want to be the best, so I use the best equipment" which can be translated as, "this equipment is the best because as I am using it".

Sketch samples representing the action of the rods.
12.2

Sometimes, as they are eager to transmit their science for the future generations, these people want to mark their days and they write about the rods and more precisely about the action.

You could fill a gorgeous collection of howlers with the texts you find on line at various sites.

There is nothing really new in their analyses that takes over, without alteration, the "ready to think" in use among those who claim to give a scientific definition of the rod action.

According to them there would exist four sorts of action: "from the tip, medium, slow and parabolic", the rank of these words seeming to otherwise design a kind of hierarchy.

Sketch samples representing the action of the rods.
12.3

One notes at first that the words belong to different lexical and determinative fields: "medium" and "slow" are qualifying adjectives and  "from the tip" and "parabolic" are closer to a definition, the last one being a mathematical notion.

Are they however corresponding to a reality?

So are these sketches inaccurate? 

Not entirely  as they correspond to a feeling. Actually they are metaphors of this feeling and symbolic representations.

Sketch samples representing the action of the rods.
12.1 to 12.4 Sketch samples found
on the web and supposed to
represent the action of the rods.

Nevertheless the fact that they are used in books or papers learnedly speaking about "the rods actions" strikes to me as an abuse.

And so; what is the meaning of a "fast" rod ?

The one which must be agitated following a high rhythm in order to release a length of silk, or the one which allows you to release the planned silk length as fast as possible?

What is the meaning of a "powerful" rod?

The one, which has a heavy silk, or the one that throws a lot of silk for each impulse?

Regarding the "medium" action, what is certain is that when ones head is in an oven and the feet inside a freezer, one could be considered to be at "medium" temperature.

Indeed, although everybody knows how to "feel" the action, nobody can define it and I no more than others.

One could immediately say that it's a description problem, but this is not entirely true.

So rather than playing the guru and dictating dogma let us only try to determine that which is possible.

(…)

Calculations and computers

So, what's the problem?

the action of the rods.

the action of the rods.

the action of the rods.

the action of the rods.

To launch and to set down a fly, that weighs almost nothing, and which is attached to a yarn tied to a line, which has a weight.

Translated in mathematical terms this means; launch to a distance x a mass y with a line length z.

From this data and with regard to the "bending moment" (roughly speaking: elasticity) of the bamboo, its density and stress curves applicable to the rod in various places, it is possible to calculate tapers.

That is to say external sizes measured on flat faces every five or ten centimetres in metric system or every 5'' (12.7 cm).

All these calculations resulted in more or less developed and complex computer programs.

You can choose various parameters:
the rod length,
the bamboo density (generally 1.15),
the impact factor,
the stress curve,
the weight and the location of the guides,
the weight of the varnish,
the bamboo thickness remaining when the cane is alveolate and even how these thicknesses are spread.

However it is sufficient to say that while it is relatively crude to use, the program developed by Daniel Brémond.

It was originated for a pocket calculator and that from the calculated generic taper, the extrapolation resulted in the two best tapers I know.

Is it possible to obtain a rod with a "perfect" action with the help of calculations?

My personal answer is "no". Is the "sensitive" approach ("nose" approach) a best way?

No more so! So what is the solution?

(...)

 

 

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