See ..... I told you Ben would be able to answer this better than me!
aye.. what Ben said...
Mike, I've not had enough time to play with the switch rod yet to give you an informed answer, sorry. here's some rambles for now...
My gut feel so far is that the switch concept of seamlessly going from overhead to double handed casting is kinda flawed in practice, nice in theory. it *feels* to me that a single line to allow you to do both these things would be too much of a compromise, giving you a line that wouldn't quite deliver 100% on either front.
I'm basing this on needing to have a consistent loading point. With the current line (Beulah Elixir) i've got matched to the rod:
- for d/handed spey styles, the loading point is with about 6-18" of the running line (and all the belly& tapers) outside the rod tip. and that feels about right.
- for over head casting-handed, you have to bring a chunk of the head (i'll lump the rear taper/belly/front taper together) inside the rod rings or else it threatens to overload. Now that is OK, it works, but it looks/feels a bit lumpy because of the thick belly/long front taper profile, the reverse of a 'normal' WF shooting head, kinda. (Note, based on very few minutes of actual Ohead casting so far!)
My instinct then is to decide which style of casting is most required and get the line (or line & head combo) most suitable.
For me, that's veering towards treating the switch rod as a
light, short double-handed rod for spey style casting. For that, I'd seek a line that allows me to load the rod in tight spots (not big open pools with loads of loop forming water behind me).
It might be that a running line and a combo of heads of different weights would work.
More likely, in practice, and given that I know reasonably well the nature of the places I'm usually fishing, I'll end up with one ideal line for D/handed styles (and bumble along with it if I need to switch to O'head for a few minutes). And a different line for the days/ situations where I'd expect to be overhead casting the bulk of the time.
Heh, we need a reversible head... thin long taper and short fat belly... put the belly (and hence the mass) at the back for D/H, put the belly at the front for O/Head... when the taper is at the front, it smooths down the power transition; at the back it becomes a kinda running line for the belly. there's a silly thought...
Mike - i've also spooled up a heavier head for the switch rod, but due to dirty brown water and rain & other stuff, not yet had a play. will drop you some more thoughts on it later.
cheers
iain