Lighter line

If a rod is rated at 580 for the minimum wt., what happens if I throw a 480 wt. line? I don't see any harm coming to the rod, but what else happens?

Depending on how wide the grain window forgiveness is maybe nothing but my experience with a line too light was that it would not anchor well enough to load the rod for a cast. I was able to adjust and develop a cast stroke that made it work but it was very difficult. It should be mentioned that I was 100 grains light also. I will be surprised if you don't encounter casts that sort of collapse in mid flight as well as the front end not wanting to turn over. If you can avoid it don't waste the time spooling the line and making a trip to water to test it.

Thanks Ard. Kind of figured that would happen from tossing single handed rods over the years. I'm still thinking of that 15ft. 9wt. with a window of 551 to 672grains.

rockriver said:

If a rod is rated at 580 for the minimum wt., what happens if I throw a 480 wt. line? I don't see any harm coming to the rod, but what else happens?

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I have a similar issue with a 12'-6" spey rod that I just got, while I have line for an 11' switch rod that is just about 50 to 100 grains too light. It casts, but probably not as well as it could. I was wondering if adding a floating tip would make it cast better by adding some grain weight.

I don't really know. My guess is it will help.

Generally adding the weight will be helpful. Since you are talking about a floating tip even more so because a floater will not adversely affect the timing when anchoring the next cast. If you were to add a sinktip that would perhaps create more problems because it will do as the name describes and sink, that would make the current line even more unable to get the tip up from the water. Something to think about is what the weight of that floating tip is. Knowing this will be helpful when you are choosing the line for the rod in the future.

I once had a Scientific Anglers Spey line with the 4 tip system. When you tried the sink tips on it my rod was woefully unable to get that line up. When you put the floater on the head you could immediately zoom out 90 foot casts. The lesson for me was to revert to using my old mini head system and incorporating those sections into my leaders instead of attaching them directly to my floating lines. You can find a full explanation of how I do this right here in the Spey section in the techniques forum. At first glance the system may seem confusing but I wrote things out as detailed as I could in the effort to try helping folks understand why it works and why I do it.

One of the first hurdles I ran into with 2 hand rods was that unless you actually knew someone with an identical rod you were in the dark as to what line will give the best results. That problem often leads to us owning several lines for which we have no use. It's unfortunate but that's the way it sometimes goes.

Ard

Hardyreels said:

Generally adding the weight will be helpful.

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I kind of tried it with a makeshift tip. I had some old 7 wt SA saltwater line sitting around, so I decided to experiment. The head is 32' and weight is 197 grains, so I cut off the front taper and 16' of the head which should have given me about 100 grains of line. I added a braided loop and looped it onto the switch line. It did not help. It may have been worse. But I think it is because the switch line is not designed to have a tip added, so it goes from the weighted head to a front taper and then to the add-on tip. So thick to thin to thick again. Not really the way it is supposed to work. Adding a tip is probably a valid idea but not for this line. If it had been a skagit head that was too light, but designed for a tip to be added, it might have worked, but not with this line. The rod throws the switch line very nicely in an overhead cast, so I will keep that for surf, and then I'm going to try the 510 grain Rage Compact for spey casting.