Rods & Reels
Vibrations and power
Grips are made out of cork. Full stop.
If you're crazy maybe birch, or rattan. And if necessary duplon, which helps in the salt, where cork falls apart after a week of hard fishing.
Cork is proven, and I agree gives an awesome feeling, even when wet. But cork has a certain characteristic which is not beneficial for all rods - It dampens the vibrations in the stiff carbon blank.
For most applications this comes in handy, because it makes the casting less tiring. Not if you're fishing ultra light and small nymphs, in a stream for trouts for example.
Depth control is extremely important and often key to success. Especially the larger specimen hold close to the ground of the river which wants you to ideally guide your nymph "along and around every stone". For that you need to feel what you're doing - damping elements are not helpful here.
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- The future is here -
Thats where the carbon fibre (CFK) grip comes into play. CFK is light and stiff, it will transfer every vibration that comes through the blank. I first experimented with carbon sleeves over a core for the grip. They do the job, but have a severe problem - they're stiff. Like really stiff. And here we probably have to make a short excursion into physics. If you buy a rod with a length of 9ft, its clear what you get. It measures 270cm from tip to but. But thats only half the truth, unfortunately. Your reach is defined with this length, but not the length of the blank that actually accelerates your fly line and fly. This part depends on how the grip is made and is especially important for lighter rods. If you ever casted a 3wt 9ft rod it bends down into the cork grip, you can feel it flexing under maximum load in the grip itself. The blank wants to work there too and make use of the energy that is stored in the most powerful part of the blank (because of the larger diameter).
So in short, a longer grip makes the working part of the blank short, it kills the action. The same with a stiff grip, which kind of cuts the action off at the starting point of the grip. Thats not what we want.
So how can we combine both worlds? A grip that transfers subtle vibrations and on the other hand doesn't kill the action of a fragile rod?
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We make it hollow!
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Those CFK grips are hollow all the way down to the reel seat. The blank can flex freely inside of the grip. This gives you the extra power and energy in the cast but makes you feel every stone in the drift with a weighted nymph.
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Feel the difference.
- Welcome to the candy shop -
- Hollow, what else? -
- The weapon, a light euro stick -