Getting a grip

A friend of mine who casts exceptionally well bought a beach rod with a great reputation. He was more than disappointed. "It's gutless," he complained. "Feels as dead as a kipper. Do you want to have a thrash before I put in on eBay?"

He was right. Here was a premium rod that felt and performed like something off the £19.99 rack. As it happens, I had tested the same rod a couple of weeks earlier and would have no hesitation in awarding it five stars in any review. So why the huge difference? Quality control? Had the manufacturer changed the blank specs? No.

Being the owner of a pair of gigantic hands, my mate can't cope with super-slim blanks, which this one certainly is. My paws are nothing like as big, but even I struggle with blanks much less than about 30mm diameter. This new rod was frankly anorexic at more like 25mm.

As a result, the day he bought the rod he'd slapped on a pair of fat grips. They were the problem, because the layer of soft foam acted as a nasty mixture of cushion and deadener. As soon as we'd hacked them off the rod burst into life, instantly producing an extra 50m. The only drawback was that pencil-thin blank.

We wrapped on rubber strips (bicycle inner tube or pond liner works fine) as temporary handgrips. Being hard, the rubber transmits full power to the rod. The system works in reverse as well, giving excellent feedback from the rod. Six weeks later, those DIY grips have become a permanent fixture. They've completely transformed my mate's opinion of his new rod, and they don't look too bad either.

Why don't you....
Lots of you write in suggesting that I do interviews with top beach anglers, tackle makers and casters; tackle reviews and technical articles; information and news about tactics and popular beaches... loads of different stuff related to beach fishing. I'd love to. I have the contacts ready and waiting. But the reason I don't can be summed up in one word: money.

Writing a few paragraphs now and again and putting in the occasional photo are as far as I can stretch. Anything more becomes a full-scale journalistic exercise. Material is expensive and time consuming to collect. Writing up the story takes time. Maintaining a website is expensive, and that's without taking bandwidth and traffic charges into account. Host a few popular videos on your site, and you'll soon get a fat bill. (No, YouTube isn't the real answer to that one in my view.)

It is a fact of digital life that people are not prepared to pay for web content. Which means that any "magazine" project must be supported by advertising. Now that's a tricky road to go down - look what happens with traditional magazines. Tell me this: how impressed are you when you discover that the glowing rod test you've just read was written by a bloke who works for the rod company? Thought so. This bending of the rules - some call it a straightforward con - destroys both editorial independence and reader confidence. If you can't believe what you read, why bother reading it?

So, logic says that worthwhile, independent information must be paid for by, say, subscription in the case of an internet publication. But the track record of such ventures suggests that nobody wants to pay. Ergo, nobody gets the depth and width of coverage they would like.

On the personal side, I'm not bothered one way or the other. Unless, that is, somebody comes up with a formula that not only works in the business sense but also taps into the huge benefits that the web allows. How about this. Your mobile phone buzzes. The message says something like, "Big cod catches at Dungeness. Log on for latest news." So you key in your username and password, and there's a video clip of what's happening on Kent's most famous cod mark. The fish are hitting the baits RIGHT NOW. You can see exactly what's going on - tackle, tactics, baits. The complete picture in real time. Want to ask a question? No problem: hit the email link, type in what you want to know, and the guys on the beach will get back to you. Maybe there's a phone number to call instead. I don't know about you, but I'd happily sign up for a deal like that.

New products. Magnets. Okuma reels.

I’m doing a few more products for sea fishermen, including sweatshirts, polo shirts and tackle box stickers. All the graphics are custom-made and can be personalised with name, team and club details. Click for more details.

Removing magnets
With few exceptions, Daiwa’s 7HT Mag being one of them, CT beach reels with magnetic control tend to be over-braked. The minimum setting still clamps down on the spool hard enough to strip away valuable metres. The quick cure is to take out one or two of the tiny magnets inside the controller.

On ABU multipliers, the elements are held in position by magnetic attraction to the controller’s steel back-plate. Simply pull them off using forceps or small pliers. But first, mark the faces so that if necessary you can put them back with the correct N-S-N-S polarity sequence. Breaking the sequence seems to have no measurable effect on the reel’s performance, but it does affect how well the elements stick to the back-plate. The last thing a CT needs is a magnet flying loose halfway through a big cast.

Okuma Magnetix multipliers
Daiwa, Penn and ABU have ruled the multiplier roost since the Stone Age. Other decent casting reels such as Newells come close in quality and performance – and some are actually better engineered – but for one reason or another most new multipliers that appear on the beach scene soon die without trace. The cheap 6500CT clones are the worst. They’re not worth having as a gift.

Okuma could prove to be an exception to the rule. While unlikely to challenge the market leaders, they seem more committed than most to producing decent quality and performance at budget prices. The Magnetix MG-30S is a good example. Holding 230m of 0.5mm mono, fast geared and magnetically braked, it is worth considering if you do a bit of heavy work now and again and cannot justify shelling out for one of the Daiwa SLSH range. Operationally, the Okuma seems fine. The big question is: how much of a hammering will it take, and for how long? The sample I had on test for a couple of years came through pretty much unscathed. Whether it would take a beating week in, week out is another matter.

Why I don't use braided lines

Modern braided lines are excellent in many respects. Low diameter and almost zero stretch are compelling reasons to choose braid for a variety of fishing, including lure work and deep-water boat fishing. The combination of strength, extreme sensitivity and low tidal resistance cannot be achieved with ordinary monofilaments.

Despite having tested all kinds of braids, I have never been tempted to use them for routine beach fishing. Their diameter makes them quite difficult to cast from multiplier reels. Retuning helps to some extent but doesn't compensate for braid's nasty habit of not flying off the spool cleanly. Coils tend to dig into each other even if you use an open-weave spooling pattern. Wet braid often feels as though it is slightly "sticky" coming off the reel; nothing like as clean as mono.

Fixed spools and braid are a better combination. Were I seriously intent on using braid, that's the route I would take. Casting performance is outstanding due to the low diameter. Braid escapes cleanly from a fixed spool. Or at least it does to begin with. Watch out when line twist builds up. Super-smooth casting suddenly becomes a nightmare of tangles, often with great webs of braid tearing off the spool and catching in the rings. Ever tried undoing a major birdsnest in braid? Unpicking is impossible. Scissors make little impression. It's a knife job. And it costs a fortune.

The price of braid is the final nail in the coffin. Even if casting and everything else goes without a hitch, I know for certain that I'll run into snags on most of the beaches I fish. Pulling for a break could cost me a tenner a time on braid, whereas nylon is too cheap to bother about losing.

From the beach angler's point of view, braid's huge advantage is that it doesn't pick up the tide anything like as much as 0.35mm mono does. I've mentioned before how frustrating it is to fish some of the East Coast beaches on spring tides, when 8oz of lead stands no hope of holding firm. Those same tides are easily fished with 4oz and braid. For me, that's the ultimate temptation. Hack the price to, say, double that of decent mono and I would make the switch for some of my fishing.

In general, though, I'm happy with mono. It casts far enough, fishes OK except on furious tides, it's cheap, reliable and runs nicely from my reels. I like the stretchiness, which is a handy buffer against mistakes and unexpected surges of water when you're cranking a fish through the backwash.

The instant distance boost provided by very thin lines is yours to enjoy without switching to braid. Load a fixed spool with 6-8lb monofil and see how you get on. I've fished clean beaches this way for years without serious problems. It's actually quite hard to break the stuff when you're snagged. Beaching fish is quite simple provided that you take your time and use a long multi-section leader.

The same leader design makes casting smoother as well. Try using your normal shock leader backed by a few metres of about 20lb mono, then the reel line. If either of the leader knots tends to catch in the butt ring, play around with the leader length until the cast flows nicely.

Learn to feel the cast

When you're learning to cast, working on changes to your style, or getting used to a new rod, it's necessary to be fairly analytical and mechanical. Swing angles, where to put your feet and arm action are good examples of things to be measured and controlled. But what you don't want to do is become a robot.

Once the mechanical side has been sorted out, good casting is about timing and flow. Timing and flow produce a distinctive feel to the whole casting action from pendulum swing through to release. After a while, when you've practised hard enough to iron out the big inconsistencies, every cast you make should feel more or less the same as the last one.

Timing and flow happen when each step of the cast blends with the next, and when you and the tackle work as one smooth unit. These are hard concepts to explain, but they're very distinctive and clear when you experience them. You can also see flow and timing in other casters - they're the ones who cast miles without appearing to make any effort.

As soon as your casting starts to go well, put technique on the back burner and instead concentrate on the cast's feel. Sense what's happening; don't try to analyse it. You'll discover that getting the various steps in your technique to gel into one smooth sequence is ten times easier when you work by feel.

Watching the lead on the backswing is a great example. We do it like that when we begin because there is no option. But even if we keep an eagle eye on the sinker it is difficult to synchronise the peak of the swing with the beginning of the power arc.

Do it by feel, though, and the whole process is dead easy. There is a distinctive feeling that confirms the sinker's arrival at the top of the swing. Wait until you sense that it's there... then make the cast. Dead simple. Not only that, but there's all the time in the world to unwind yourself and power the rod through. This power stage also has a distinctive feel.

Right now, imagine yourself making your usual cast. Can you feel it? If the sensation is clear, it's because you have developed strong muscle memory. Learn to use it more. When you cast by feel, you can do it with your eyes shut. Control and distances will improve. And pendulum casting at night will be just as easy as during the day.