Line Twist: Diagnosis. Still a Problem, But Maybe There is a Treatment?

Those of you who read this regularly, (and both of you know who you are), will remember that last season especially, I had a major problem with line twist.    It hit me whilst tench fishing, legering, and more recently it has again struck whilst I have been float fishing at distance with worms.

Line twist on monofilament can become a nuisance or even  a major disaster if ignored.   My tactics to date have always been to change the last 100 yards of line, every two or three trips. It hasn't really been enough, as a single day's fishing can impart a vast amount of twist to the monofilament. Well over a thousand twists is not a rare occurrence. Regular replacement of my line was possible because I use fairly cheap line. Actually very, very cheap, but it still seems a decent product, although it becomes quite a palaver every week or so, to strip 100 yards off each of three reels and then to reload them.

I suspect that much of the mumbo jumbo I read in the angling comics, comparing various brands of line and their resistance to twist, is just that: mumbo jumbo.   No monofilament line is going to be able to avoid line twist, none will be significantly better at it than any other brand.  It is  a problem that depends upon how it is used, and not how it has been manufactured. How supple the line is may have a small effect on how badly the problem manifests itself.

Line twist causes one major problem: the twist can show up near the rod or reel, by visibly twisting itself together, almost like a platting effect, but with two, not three component threads.  Worst case scenario is that these then form multiple twists, leading to tangles and knots, some large enough as to need cutting out, as the knots become ever more difficult or near impossible to undo.  Even if the major tangles are avoided, the twists can cause coils of line to leap off the reel, as if alive, adding ever more twisted line to the tangle risk. Such loops can then catch any projecting parts of the reel or  the rod rests. It is a problem that if unnoticed will quickly reveal itself once a fish is added into the mix.

Replacing mono with braid does not reduce the twist: but , braid being more supple, does allow far more twists in the line before it shows up as a problem. It will delay the onset of trouble. Of course being much more expensive it does nothing to reduce costs of replacement.

Because of my own problems, I have done considerable recent on-line research into fishing forums and the like, but find mainly that there is a lot of clap trap written about twist, by people who have obviously not thought deeply enough about it, or who have gone off at a skewed tangent and written absolute cobblers. Many simply repeat the mantra of others before them. None seem to have correctly analysed the problem.  So; having failed to get any satisfactory explanation or solution to the problem, it was time to do some deep thinking and analysis for myself.

Firstly: what is my objective?

I wish to fish, as much as possible, with zero or negligible twist in the section of line in the water. Put another way, when the line is cast out I do not want it to display any significant twist. It must not put me at risk due to being twisted.

Secondly: How is twist generated?

Line on a new spool, as manufactured, is entirely without twist.  So if it is transferred onto a centrepin reel, by putting an axle, say a pencil, through the spool, and allowing that spool to rotate as the reel is filled, then we will put no twist onto the reel.  All will be perfect.    If instead, we allow the line to slip off the side of the spool, then one twist would be added for every 360 degree loop of line as it comes off the spool.   The direction of twist depends from which side of the spool the line slips off.  Line twist on a centrepin is not what we want, and this therefore is not a method any angler would normally use when loading a centrepin.  The amount of twist that would be put onto a centrepin in this way would only be about one twist for every 6 or 8 inches of line. In normal use this would not present a problem for the centrepin, more twist is to be expected from simply retrieving a trotted float a few dozen times.

There used to be ( and maybe still is) a reel that purported to combine the best features of a centrepin, together with the free casting of a fixed spool reel.  It was a simple design, which reeled in exactly like a centrepin. To cast out the spool was rotated 90 degrees, to become side on to the rod, and the line then would come off the edge of a chamfered spool, allowing long casts to be made. It was called the Alvey Sidecast. It had a major design problem though, in that for every loop on line cast out and retrieved, one twist of 360 degrees would be added to the line.  Cast by cast, the twist would build up on the reel, and eventually show itself and cause problems.  Alvey recommended the use of a swivel to help counteract this, but swivels, even ball bearing swivels, do not work very efficiently in reducing line twist.   I had realised myself that swivels did not solve my own problems. I even went to the expense of buying some ball bearing swivels, only to find they were not much better than the bog standard article.   Swivels may help a bit, but they do not prevent twist.  There is simply too much friction involved, and added to contamination by bits of weed or grit, they soon allow just as much twist to develop as if they were not there at all.

The fixed spool reel was invented for ease of long casting, and the rotating bale arm was a method of solving the Alvey twist problem.  And it does an excellent job.


Use a fixed spool reel, without the bait runner, and without using the clutch, and you will generate no line twist (in the cast part of the line), as long as the end tackle does not rotate.


That was probably Newton's Fourth law of motion, but as he did not lay claim to it, it is all mine!

Line twist, on a fixed spool reel can be generated in several ways.

Firstly, when loading the spooled line onto the reel.

 

There are three ways to do this:

1)  Ill thought out

2) Totally wrong and

3) The correct way.

The ill thought out method, is to wind the line off the side of the spool, in such a way that the line rotates off the spool and onto the reel in the same sense. It is easier for you to try this, and watch what happens, rather than my trying to explain it here.  Doing this, if the spool and reel are of the same diameter, the line ends up on the reel with no twist at all.   "Job done" say those who recommend this method.   If the spool and reel are of different diameters, then there will be a residual amount of twist imparted to the reel.  If they are identical diameters we do indeed get a reel with no twist at all on it.   Perfect until we cast out.  Then once we cast out, we gain one twist for every loop of line that comes off the reel.   With a five-to-one ratio reel, if the reel recovers a yard per handle rotation, casting out 50 yards, we will have imparted no less than 250 twists to the cast line.   5 times 50.  And that twist would disappear as the line was reeled back in.  But the ideal is not to have any twists in the line that has been cast out, not the line once it is back on the reel. 

The totally wrong method is to have the line come off the OTHER side of the spool.  Do this and you put TWO twists onto the reel for every loop of line transferred.  And on casting out that 50 yards you still will again  have 250 twists in the cast line. 

Method three is to allow the spool to spin on a pencil as you load the reel.   This will result in one twist per revolution on the reel bale arm, but once in the water it will be free of twist .   Twist on the reel does not matter in the slightest!   Wound onto the reel, line twist has no negative effects at all. It is not being used, and the twists are in effect captured, trapped and contained. Method three is the way to go.

This photo shows how I load line onto a reel.  The fingers are acting as an axle and also control the tension as the line is loaded. 
The line passes through the first ring to make the process fairly easy. 
 I usually hold the rod butt between my knees. 


Many anglers will tell you to allow line to come off the label side of the spool.  This is wrong and based on a misconception. It would load the reel with no twist ( assuming spool and reel are the same diameter), but once you cast out you add one twist for every loop of line that comes off the reel.   About 5 twists per yard.


Using the method in the photo, when you cast out the newly loaded line, there will be NO twist in it.
Twist is almost certain to be added as you fish, but at least you start off clean.





Another way to generate line twist is to allow the reel clutch to operate.  Whether that be a fish taking line, the angler rather stupidly reeling with the clutch set too lightly, or the bait runner operating, there will be one additional twist applied to the cast out line, for every rotation of the reelspool.  Every loop of line that a running fish takes, adds one twist.   If you are snagged and attempt to reel in with a slack clutch, then every turn of the reel handle, on a 5 to 1 geared reel, will add 5 twists.  These twists are NOT removed when you reel in. They will still be there on your next cast. 

One method to reduce this would be to reel backwards when playing a fish, rather than to use the slipping clutch.  I play all my fish this way, and apart from the very occasional rapped knuckles due to my carelessness, it has worked perfectly for me. 

You could also allow the reel to rotate backwards, rather than using the baitrunner, but that is perhaps taking things a little too far.

Another way that twists are added is by using end tackle that rotates on the retrieve.   Feeders are very prone to doing this.  Baits, particularly big baits, will cause line twist on the retrieve. Even a couple of maggots can act like a propeller in reverse, generating twist as they are pulled through the water.   If you are lucky, then alternate casts will have the bait rotating in opposite directions, cancelling out any problems. I am never so lucky and find that such twists build up, and can build up very rapidly indeed.   After just 4 or 5 casts, line can become almost unusable.  Catch a fish every cast: no problem, the fish itself prevents any twist being added....unless is swims around and around in circles.  Cast frequently and reel back in without those fish: possible big problem.


Fish with a heavy lead, and keep the line taught, and fewer problems will present themselves, but the twist will still be there. I prefer to fish fairly light.

It may be that some twist may be generated on the cast itself.  The truth of this is hard to determine, but such twist is likely to be negligible, and so I will ignore it.

What can be done about twist, if you cannot, due to bait choices and legering, avoid it entirely?

Well, there is a lead that you can buy. Cast it out and as you reel in, it is supposed to rotate and reduce twist in your line.  It's called the Gardner Spin Doctor. In theory it works, but it has two problems:   because it rotates at a constant speed, as you gradually reel in the line, so it has a greater effect on twist reduction, the nearer the end tackle gets to you.   It does not redistribute and remove twist evenly along the length of the line.   I should point out here of course that reeling in a bait has a similar effect, putting more twists per meter into the line as you reel in and the hook gets nearer.   So maybe not a great problem, especially as, once you cast out again, the twists remaining will tend to equalise along the length of the line in the water.  A second problem is that the leads only remove twists in one direction, and I guess that such a lead is designed to remove twists due to clutch use.   The direction of that twist is predictable.  ( But do all bail arms, on all reel models rotate the same way?) The twist due to rotating bait or end tackle can be either clockwise or anti-clockwise.  So the lead would then be useful only perhaps half the time.

Another method would be to dangle a lead from a high building, tied to the end of your line and allow the twist to unravel itself.  this would work fine, but might take some time, and is hardly a convenient bankside solution.   And if you live in a bungalow, tough!

My own problem is due, I believe, almost entirely to the rotation of end tackle and baits.   Feeders or leads when legering, worms and similar when float fishing or legering.   So I cannot predict in which direction my twist will build up.   But I have had an idea.   

Use the reel to remove the twist!

Let's say that twist caused by use of the clutch on my reels is clockwise twist.   Clutch induced twist will always be in the same direction for any particular reel.  ( it is possible that on some other reel models the bail arm rotates the other way...I wouldn't know).

So if my baits have been applying anti-clockwise twists, then I can cast out my usual distance, use the line clip as usual, loosen the slipping clutch right off, point the rod down the line and wind away, thus cancelling out and removing 5 twists for every rotation of the handle, the clutch being so loose that the lead does not move at all.   As long as the lead does not move, I can remove all or most of the twist, by applying clockwise twist and then re-start my fishing.   I could guarantee the lead does not move by taping the reel spool to the bail arm.

If on the other hand my baits have been applying a cumulative clockwork twist, I can still use the reel to correct it.  After casting out, I can tape the reel spool to the bale arm to stop any relative movement between them, and then reel BACKWARDS to remove the twist.    So I have a fairly quick, bankside method of removing twist from my line, ( for twist in either direction), and no longer have the need to replace my line every week or so.  This saves me £1-29 for a spool, which would usually be enough to fill the reels on three rods, but more importantly, it gives me a bankside, quick and easy solution, to my problem. 

All I need to do is to decide in which direction to apply the correction, and how much of that correction to apply.  Examination of the twist loop which forms when a length of line is slackened will be enough to diagnose whether the twist is clockwise or anticlockwise.  So the direction of reel winding is fairly easy to work out.   

How many turns of the reel handle will be required is more difficult.  I could remove an amount of twist and then look to see how close I am to the twist free target, having a second, or third go until I get somewhere near the ideal of zero twists.   There is no point in going right down to zero, as the next cast or two will undoubtedly probably re-apply some twist.   

So instead I  designed an experiment.   I took a yard of my 8 pound line and applied first 10, then 20, then 30 twists to it.   You may think that these are very large amounts of twist to apply to such a short length of line, but my experience has been that when fishing I can generate many hundreds, if not a thousand or more twists in a few casts whilst fishing as little as 30 yards from the bank.  

Having generated the 10,20 or 30 twists in a tight length of line, I allowed it to slacken and looked at the size of the loop formed.   I was expecting the loops size to vary with the amount of twist: the more twist per unit length, the smaller the resultant loop. And so it proved. 30 twists in the yard gave me a loop size having an area of about the same size as a penny,  Twenty twists and the loop area was about the same area as a 50 pence piece, whereas 10 twists presented a loop size area similar in size to a 55mm lens cap.    See diagram below:

Approximate Loop Sizes Obtained From Twisting a Yard of 8 Pound Line. **

So if I get a loop size somewhere between that of a penny and a fifty pence piece from my cast line, I might then estimate that I have in the region of 25 twists per yard.    Multiply that by 30 yards and I have in total 750 twists.  One rotation of the reel handle on that 5-1 ratio reel gives me 5 twists, and so to remove the twists, a rotation count somewhere around 150 winds of the handle, in the correct direction, should see me reduce the problem to somewhere near zero, close enough at least to be able to fish on without a problem.


**Note that line of a different breaking strain would have given different loop sizes.




So that is the theory and the experimentation, and all that remains is to see what happens in the coming tench sessions.

  

It's Fishing...But Not as We Know it. (Part 2).

OK, Part two:  "What about the fishing?" 

The fishing I experienced in Thailand can also be effectively split into two parts. 

 The target (or bigger) species, and secondly: any smaller types of fish.

I am probably not going to say too much about the larger species (although that may change as I write), far too many others have extolled their virtues. I am certainly not going to list them, fish by fish, as I caught them. All are hard fighting fish, and as I said before, a main objective of the trip was to get into contact with some real scrappers, some large fish of exotic origins.

At least a dozen red tailed Amazonian catfish fell to my rod. Some good sized ones, none of record breaking proportions though.   They were my favourites: beautiful spotty heads, with gaping mouths, long barbules and a skull you wouldn't easily dent with a large jack hammer. My first one took a deadbait, a small herring like fish, but I later found that even small baits were a suitable enticement for these cats. They seemed to prefer the marginal parts of the lake, but maybe that was because any unused fish baits were tipped into the lake by the ghillies each evening. Right into the shallows.



Red Tailed Catfish

The second species I caught were Siamese carp. Half a dozen or so.  I didn't get the largest caught during the week, but had fish to maybe thirty five pounds. Apparently that  is none too big for the species, but they all gave a good account of themselves.

Small and Peaceful Siamese Carp

 The fish above is probably the smallest I caught and is a lot better looking than the bigger specimens were.  Nice edging of red on some of the fins. The fish is being held by one of the ghillies. I wasn't about to get myself wet for the smaller fish. Some of the slightly larger fish were less than happy about my staying fairly dry:

Larger and Stroppier Siamese Carp

But I suppose any fish with a gob approaching the size of the Mersey Tunnel, is going to have something to say about being caught.  One of my carp surprised everyone by taking an eight inch fish deadbait.

Small Siamese, Big Gob.

I foulhooked one carp, and it went rather ballistic, charging off at warp 6 speed.   It was not long though, before the line went slack and the hook provided the evidence: a single scale was firmly attached, that to the best of my knowledge, was a scale from a Siamese carp.



Sizes mentioned here must be taken with a pinch of salt.   That is not to say they have been exaggerated, rather the converse. I erred on the conservative. Weighing the fish would have been difficult at times, especially for some species, so sizes were estimated.    One ghillie was on a work experience trip. Cheap labour maybe, but nevertheless, far better for him than selling fries in MacDonald's. I don't think he had much real angling experience.  Got on well with him. He was almost as daft as I am. He tried hard but didn't quite make my grade of idiot. The other was a dyed in the wool carp angler, one who had stayed on at the lake, having bartered some extra fishing in exchange for work as a ghillie on site.  He was OK, a good bloke but only the carp seemed to really matter to him, and he spent considerable time trying to get me to chase  carp as my main quarry.  He failed.    So the two ghillies, I soon realised, were less experienced at estimating fish sizes that I was myself.   And it had to be faced, fish of the sort of sizes caught in Thailand are rare in the UK, and no matter how much I measure the photos, and calculate lengths, girths and weights, there is always going to be a degree of guesswork involved, especially with the bigger fish.  Which brings me on to the third target species:  Arapaima.

Arapaima are another South American species, and one that grows very big indeed. They are a little different in that they breathe air, coming to the surface at intervals to take a breath. In Thailand they appear to be bred especially for fishing resorts ( but possibly also as a food source).  The weather conditions and climate certainly suit them, and they probably have comparable growth rates to those  in the Amazonian areas where they are normally found.  I read that in South America, they are somewhat endangered, so perhaps breeding programmes in Thailand can only be a good thing. It would be sad to lose such a really large and spectacular fish species from the planet. Better to have some specimens outside of their usual haunts than to have none at all. 

I landed three arapaima, all weighing into three figures, with the largest, best guess/estimate, being about 205 pounds.  This took quite some time to land, with my legs actually turning to jelly part way through the fight. I sat down to complete the process.   Now I don't think the fight should have taken anywhere near that long, but the lake's owners specified that they be played very lightly.   I had to allow the ghillies to set my clutch.  This setting was, I am sure, only about 3 or 4 pounds, to judge from the bend in the rod when the reel gave line. ( I may have sneaked the odd bit of finger onto the spool at times though).  I was told that despite their size, arapaima are delicate fish, and would suffer if played too hard.   My own thoughts on this differ: I feel that playing a fish for such a long time is bound to stress it more.   I would rather have had the fish in the net in about twenty minutes, and I saw no reason why that would not have happened had the clutch been set differently. 

200 Pounds of Fish Makes Quite a Hole in the Lake, After Surfacing to Breathe During the Fight. 

 I accepted that, when the fish came up to breathe air, that the line should be slackened. It seemed reasonable to assume that interfering with the fish's breathing would really have upset it, and caused extreme panic.  But I could see no reason why, for the rest of the time, much greater pressure could not have been applied.  My feeling is that the approach adopted was totally wrong.   I was sure that, with such a light clutch setting, a big fish such as this was just having a good swim up and down the lake and I was doing little more than waiting for it to swim near enough to the net to be encased in it.  It was only when I was allowed to tighten the clutch, so as to avoid having to play and land the fish in darkness, that I felt much progress was being made.   Light tension, combined with barbless hooks, means extra care was needed whilst playing the fish, but there was surely no need to be quite so gentle.

Another criticism was that the landing nets for arapaima: long bits of heavy grade knotted netting stretched between two eight foot parallel poles, were highly inadequate.  With largely untrained ghillies, two of my arapaima actually got out of the net.  One broke the line in doing so, leaving me with just two, rather poor photos. The other, my biggest, forced its way out, and then had to be played a second time, back into the net.  The nets were just a long rectangle of mesh.  There was no end netting to prevent a fish from swimming back out from between the poles, a fact they took full advantage of.   I feel a much softer mesh should have been in use, and that the net shape should have been more like a pig trough, with ends designed to keep the fish in place, once netted. Human muscles, without the help of a suitable net, just cannot control and compete with a lively thrashing arapaima in its own element.

I did make a few changes to the way I fished, rather than just accepting the prescribed methods and baits, and I feel this helped me hook this fish, the biggest arapaima, and also a few others.  But had I not anticipated there would be restrictions on how I fished, I would have gone home very resentful indeed, that I could not fish my way, with my own tackle.  I am sure I would then have caught more...and in perfect safety.  I have, after all, been fishing a hell of a long time. But I compromised...rather more than I would have liked, for the sake of a peaceful week.

 

200 Pound Plus. Lovely Red Edging to Most of its Scales.

  I found the end tackle odd: compulsory 4 ounce leads, even for short casts. Reason given: they need to be sure the fish won't swallow the lead.    Easily solved: just put the lead more than  9 inches away from the hook.  All rigs were 9 inches between hook and lead.  And I have never heard of any fish ever swallowing a lead. But all of the rigs I used were subjected to two or three JayZS special tweaks before I attached any bait to them.  I really hated the end tackle set up.   Even after the tweaks I did not find it was approaching an ideal.    My apologies to the ghillies, they will have to re-tie any rig I used, to get it back to the site standard. Heh heh!

I must re-iterate here: this trip was about catching a few fish.  It was simple fishing for large fish, and not angling for them. The fishing itself was not difficult.  Treated as happy hour, a lightweight trip, it worked just fine for me.  Had I taken it more seriously I should have been very unhappy.  I don't like others making decisions for me when it really matters.


One thing for me to think about is that they used the slipping clutch for all the fish. I prefer to reel backwards myself.  In using the clutch, week after week on the resort rods, they are applying a LOT of twist to the line. One twist for every rotation of the spool. This much twist on monofilament, would result in its twisting about itself, into "T" shaped offshoots from the main line.  It causes line to flip off the spool too, and can (and does!) cause major tangles.   I have a lot of problems with line twist when legering, and nothing I do seems to be able to avoid it.  Not even ball bearing swivels.   But line twist did not show up as a problem in Thailand.  Why?  Simple!  They use braid as a main line, which is so supple that any twist does not seem to cause major problems.   I might have to test this theory out on the tench this year.   I have high hopes....just need to check the club rules to see if braid is allowed.

 

I had more freedom with the smaller species: whether fishing for livebait or just generally passing a bit of time catching tiddlers.  I felt they would have preferred me to do this with the 3 foot long bit of bamboo, equipped with a small hook and three of four feet of light line, that they supplied to other anglers. Instead I used tackle I had taken with me and fished just a few feet from the bank.  What a rebel I was.  Not entirely ideal though, float fishing 5 pound line, 16 hook on a 3 pound test curve carp rod.  But I caught fish, some for livebait, others just to pass a bit of time.   I didn't in total spend more than 9 or 10 hours fishing like this, but maybe I should have done.  

The predominant species was tilapia. A cichlid species.

  

Tilapia

The tilapia is very widespread across warm countries because of its suitability as a farmed food fish.  They taste lovely.  We used to catch  and immediately cook them over a fire of coconut husks in the Philippines.  Few better tasting freshwater fish exist. Tilapia in the lake were prolific, mainly just a few ounces in size, but my tackle enabled me to catch them up to a couple of pounds or so.  They have a chunky body and a lot of finnage, so punch well above their weight on the end of a line.

 

Java Barb

Next most common species was the java barb. None of these were over about 12 ounces, but they looked very much like a brighter, shinier version of our own silver bream.  The anal fin, body shape were similar, and they even had an identical copious coating of slime.  They liked bread, and I had taken a loaf of Warburton's with me.  Doesn't everyone?

 Other occasional captures on my float gear were small Asian retail catfish. They were quite astonishing fish, with highly flexible whiskers almost as long as their bodies.

Asian RedTailed Catfish

Note the green perch bobber float.  It was made by a guy called Mike Cootes, who calls himself the Purple Peanut...or maybe he just calls his website such. But he makes absolutely beautiful floats.  So nice that I am almost reluctant to use them.  But equally it would be such a shame not to use them.  A bit like having a Ferrari that never leaves the garage. So I used them for catching small fish in the margins.  I feel that I should now use the term "Peanutting" to describe the very action of messing around in the margins to catch tiddlers.  The float worked well.

But this tackle did not just attract small fish. Three times  that size 16 hook, carrying a minuscule bit of bait, less than half the size of a pea, hooked into something far bigger. Three times my precious peanutting float was dragged eighty, ninety, maybe a hundred yards down the lake.  As the float became more distant, my fear of losing it increased in proportion, if not exponentially.  In each case I fought back, bringing the fish most of the way back.  But then the light line gave way.  The fish had not broken the line, but had abraded it, reducing its strength.   The last few inches of line felt rough to the touch when I reeled in after losing the fish.  I suspect all three were good sized red tailed catfish, which had taken a tiny bait. The cats have abrasive pads just inside the mouth, very similar to a Wels catfish, but also that hard head might well have guaranteed the destruction of my line.   Three exciting ten minute sessions. I should have liked to have landed one of them, and maybe I should have spent more time "Peanutting" for them, so that Mike could have had a more spectacular photo of his float and fish, but  the five pound line was far from ideal, and my chances of success were  reduced by it.

But apart from a few niggles, it was a generally good week abroad. Nice fish, great wildlife and it is not everywhere that a young Thai lady will bring you breakfast down by the lake.

Lastly this:  You won't get many of these down the local canal. A Long Snouted Pipefish.

OK I Cheated. I Caught this One in the Landing Net.   Bye.



Rods, Test Curves and a Forthcoming Trip.

More rain! Much more rain, so the rivers are out again for a few days.    And just before Christmas. Time for all true anglers to gain a few "brownie" points.  " Yes darling,  I'll come shopping with you.  I'll not go fishing today, I'll stay home especially  so that I can come shopping with you".  I would actually prefer that she write a list and send me out, carrier bags and cash in hand.   The process is much quicker when I don't have to watch her nip into any other shops en route.  I can get a bag of sugar off a shelf in about 1/3 the time she would herself take. For her it has to be the "right" bag of sugar.  Know what you want, grab it, bag it, and as long as you don't forget too many items, or miss out anything vital to the continuation of life functions, it is quicker and far less painful to leave "her indoors" safely indoors.

"Still raining darling?  Yes, I'll help you write the Christmas cards."   This last with some reluctance, as I am sure her wedding vows included the words  "and I will, every year, write all the Christmas cards"  ... it was  in the ceremony: just after  " do all the ironing", surely?

Part of my own wedding vows was to ensure that my son was brought up properly.   I have partly failed in this, for, having been thoroughly outclassed and smashed by a Trent barbel one night, on his first trip chasing the species, he has not been led into becoming an angler. Catching a grayling did not enthuse him, and at age twelve, a net of a dozen half pound tench and bream, when other anglers caught nothing, has also had no lasting effect.  He simply finds fishing boring. Has he no shame?  In all other respects he is fine: doesn't like football,  loves cricket.  And as a single guy, he has developed a logical way of dealing with women.   His main rules seems to be:  

1) Lacrosse is much more important than any girlfriend.  

2) Never be in a relationship just before Christmas, never be a couple on Valentine's day, and dump any female of the species at least a week before her birthday.  This is not based upon the cost of having to buy a present for the occasion, more about not having to strain the brain trying to think up what the hell to buy her. Always an impossible task for any bloke.  You may think you have found the perfect gift.   Highly unlikely.  Check in a fortnight...she will have exchanged it.

There are always swings and roundabouts of course, and, having voluntarily given up three, maybe four days by the river, there has to be a compensatory flow, to use up the acquired brownies.   So I have booked my 2014 fishing holiday abroad.  I shall not publish any details here,  not yet anyway, secret squirrel still peeking around that old oak tree maybe, but a couple of items in the small print are worthy of a note.   The tour company does not provide tackle,  but I do have a couple of travel carp rods: 2.75 pounds test curve, that may well be of use, if not exactly designed for the job.  Reels are another thing.   I do not have any solid, meaty pit reels.  They have not been needed, as my recent angling has not included any long distance carp fishing.  So I did not have such reels.   Not until today, when two Christmas presents to myself arrived.    The tour company has recommended that I use some 40 pound breaking strain monofilament.  On Ebay, bulk line spools seem to run out at about 30 pounds B.S. So I figure that will have to do the job.   It is a subject worthy of some discussion, as I find many anglers have little or no idea why they are using the line they have chosen.

But first the rod: Manufacturers wax lyrical over rod-ring quality, the finishing of the handle, the whippings, how well the carbon fibre has been laid, but when push comes to shove, there is usually just one figure that is on all anglers' minds.   Test Curve.    I don't know where the term first came from, but I suspect that Richard Walker may well have had his fingers poking deeply into that particular pot of jam.   The most often quoted way to measure a test curve is to put the rod handle horizontal, and hang weights from the tip until it makes an angle of 90 degrees to the butt.   That is never going to happen.   It is impossible to get to a full 90 degrees under those circumstances.  The rod, any rod, whether it be a barbel or a marlin rod, would break first.      In the same way that the Large Hadron Collider would need an infinite amount of energy to accelerate just one single proton to 100% of the speed of light, so you would need an infinite force to bend a rod set up in that way to a full 90 degrees.  So what to do?   Well it is obvious that you CAN bend a rod to more than 90 degrees, but to do so you need to change the angle of the line.    So I would myself define test curve as the minimum force, which, when exerted on the rod tip, bends the tip so as to make an angle of 90 degrees to the butt.  (Forget all that horizontal butt nonsense). The angle of that force, the angle made by the line, will be greater than that 90 degrees , and so will not be directly in line with the end of the rod tip.  

This is all very ( slightly?) academic, but what use is it to the angler?   For most anglers it is quite simply: how stiff is my rod?   For such an angler no more is needed, nothing else is required.  He goes out and buys his carp rods to a prescribed test curve and is happy.   But two rods with the same length and the same test curve may be very different in their "action".   For "action" we can simply read "what shape is the curve of the bent rod".   Some rods  are very stiff low down, with the tip section assuming almost all of the curve.   Others may be designed such that, at the test curve point, the rod displays a fairly constant curve throughout its length.   Tip action, vs "all through" action. The two rods will feel very different when playing a fish.     The "all through" action rod will have far more "give" when playing a fish.  I won't define the term "give", because, as an experienced angler you will know exactly what is meant by it.

With which rod can you apply more force?   Interesting question, and not an easy one to answer.   To simplify, we might consider two different "ideal" rods.  Both 12 feet long, one so stiff as to have no bend in it at all,   the other which bends into a perfect sector of a circle. Let each have an 18 inch handle.   Let us give the "all through" rod a test curve of 3 pounds, and make the assumption that is is possible to achieve that with the line at the 90 degree angle.   It won't be quite accurate but near enough as to make little difference to the precision, and no difference at all to the principles involved.   So now apply that 3 pounds to both rods.    Both rods are now acting as levers.   The completely stiff rod requires you to apply a force of 8 times the three pounds of tension in the line.  The handle is 1/8th of the rod length.  3 times 8. You have to pull up at 24 pounds in order to put three pounds of pressure on the fish. Now consider the all action rod.   It is curved into a quarter circle, the arc of which is 12 feet long.   Simple "O" level maths gives you the radius of that circle as approximately 7 and a half feet.   The effective length of the rod has been reduced to 7.5 feet, and the shorter lever only requires 5 times the force to be applied to the handle.   So you are putting that 3 pounds of pressure on the fish, with only fifteen pounds of force on the handle.     How many of you would have thought the reverse?    More force with the stiff rod?   Not many.   Case solved?   It might seem so, But not completely.   Not that easy I am afraid, because keeping the carbon tip at right angles is not how rods are used..     

Once the rod is in the zone playing a fish, you do not keep the rod tip at right angles to the butt for very long, certainly not with any powerful rod.   Once a fish starts to fight hard, the angler has no choice.  If he wishes to wind up the pressure on the fish he must do two things:   In order to increase that pressure, he must move the bend in the rod closer to the butt end, where the rod is stronger, stiffer, and can therefore exert that extra pressure.   To keep the line at right anglers to the butt is possible with a lot of heaving, but because of the leverage effects described, the angler would have to put a very large amount of force on the rod handle. So, the angler will automatically tend ( or be forced by the fish) to point the rod down more towards the direction of the line, and therefore towards the fish.   The butt will often then be at no more than 45 degrees to the line.   This reduces the effective length of the lever, and allows the angler to apply more line tension to the fish, without the same sort of increase in the force applied at the handle.  The rod is a variable length lever.   It is a lever that gets stiffer, the more force that it is being used to apply.   At shallow angles to the line it becomes almost like a poker, and at such angles the rod becomes less important, it can no longer absorb any kicks from the fish, and so you then become more dependent upon the reel to control the fight.  The clutch kicks into action, the rod can do little more to help, other than acting as a mounting handle to make holding the reel easier.  The rod has, at this point lost all its "give", and you have become reliant on the stretch in the monofilament to provide that function. Few anglers using lines of say eight pounds and above, EVER exert anywhere near the full line tension on a fighting fish, unless the rod is pointing more or less down the line.   The leverage effect is simply too great.  Think back to that last snag when chasing barbel.  Did you, even for a moment, consider pulling for a break with the rod held high? Of course not... because you, and the rod, were probably not strong enough to succeed!   You pointed the rod along the line and walked backwards, and were surprised, even then, by how difficult it was to break that line.  Yes? Now compare that with how much force you were putting on that last big carp or barbel you caught.  Unless you are a very unusual and exceptional angler, you were pussyfooting with that fish.

A quick note on braid:
Braid is usually used at quite high breaking strains, and allows you to feel the movements of the fish far more directly.  But having no give in itself, virtually no stretch, it cannot compensate when the rod's natural give has been overridden by using the low down power of the rod blank.   So, pointing the rod down the line whilst using braid can be risky.  A fast moving fish cannot be stopped dead, it has to be slowed down.   Stretchy monofilament helps you to do this when the rod cannot itself provide that "give".   Doing the same thing with braid takes more skill.   

Tie a length of 10 pound braid to a tree branch.   6 feet below tie a 5 pound brick to it.    It will hold that brick up quite happily.  Lift the brick just a couple of inches and drop it: the braid will break.  Braid takes any change of strain instantly. Monofil will stretch and absorb that impulsive force over a longer time.  It is far more forgiving, and helps you deal with sudden movements of a fish, or a brick.
I have not discussed casting. Specifically the casting of heavy weights to distance.   The line strength adopted, with possibly a shock leader, is most relevant here.    And the rod has to be capable of dealing with that  line strength, or as much of it as you use during the cast. Not too much else to say there.   Earlier readers may well remember that I shattered a rod, trying to cast a heavy weight a long way.  In reality I was using too heavy a line for the rod design.  Too heavy a line works, but only provided that you do not allow it to bend the rod past its limits.   Whilst playing a fish, I could have used any strength of line with that rod, simply by pointing the rod towards the fish.    When casting, the rod WILL bend, no other option, so  for any rod that will be used to cast feeders or heavy leads, the ability to cast without endangering the rod, is the main factor when choosing it.   Heavy rods are designed more for casting, rather than for playing a fish.   If it also plays a fish to your satisfaction you have a bonus.    

So:  back to the fishing trip:  do I use that 30 pound line on my holiday, or do I search out the recommended 40 ?    Well, if my carp rods were that unbending idealised rod described above, in order to break the line with the rod held at right angles I would have to pull back at 320 pounds!   No chance,    but by pointing the rod much more towards the fish, I should be able to keep quite a goodly amount of force to try and slow the fish down.  But I will be reliant also on setting that clutch right.   For any freshwater fish to pull with a force of 30 pounds or more would be quite something, and so I do not expect to get broken.  A shorter rod, much shorter than these 12 foot carp jobs  might help me apply more force, but I am not about to buy two more rods specifically for one week's holiday.  When catfishing a couple of years ago, the rods I used were of five pounds test curve, 12 feet long and very stiff.  I did hold the rods fairly well up, and so must  doubt that I ever pulled on the fish with more than 15 or twenty pounds of force. If that.   They were big fish, feeling very heavy on the line, but how much force was really involved at the end tackle?   Far less than most people think I am sure.   For the rod is indeed a lever,  but one designed to benefit and to give the mechanical advantage to the fish.     In any event I shall also take some spools of 15 pound line.

The final conclusion for rod choice and line choice is simply this:  an experienced angler will almost instinctively know what is right and what is not right.  He will not need to go through all these sorts of thought processes. But to do so is quite interesting.  When I broke the rod, I knew very well that I was taking that risk. The inexperienced angler will not care too much about rod and line choice, will use what his mates are using, and will probably get away with it due to the modern trend of fishing very heavy.  I myself still prefer to fish lighter.  I like to think I have needed a level of skill when landing that fish on this lighter tackle, rather than to know the outcome in advance, to know that the fish has no chance in hell of breaking my heavy gear.

Apologies if all the above became a little too detailed. Some of you will have undoubtedly stopped reading already. Probably one of my more controversial texts. I have dumbed it down, tried to eliminate having too much science, and much has been missed out. I needed to do something to avoid the Christmas build up, and with the rivers out, writing a blog seemed appropriate.  Next I should probably start packing for my trip,  less than 3 months to go now.