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What Is A Grain Window?

… A grain window defines the engineered grain carrying capability of a fly rod blank underline load …

…The primary purpose of posting the grain window on our two handed fly rods is to aide the caster in achieving a correct and balanced rod/line marriage.

How to use a Grain Window

The S2H13678MKX has a grain window of 500 to 800 grains, and we will use this rod as an example.

S2H13678MKX blank description:

13'6" 7/8 wt. MKX 4 pc
Speed of recovery: Fast/medium fast
Flex: Deep flex
Action: Progressive
Taper: Regressed butt

Recommended Lines  

13'6" 4 pc 7/8 wt MKX S2H13678MKX-4 <> Grain Window: 500 to 800 Grains
Short belly SpeyBelly length to 55'Belly wt. To 600 grains
Mid belly SpeyBelly length to 70'Belly wt. To 650 grains
Skagit HeadHead wt. 550 to 600 grainsTips: To 200 grains
Scandi HeadHead wt. 500 to 600 grains
Head: 2.5 to 3 X rod length

How to use the low end of the grain window:

The low end of the grain window for this rod is 500 to 600 +- grains, and would define the minimal amount of grains that will allow the blank to load efficiently.

The low end of the grain window would most often be applied by those casters that will be sourcing power from the top 2/3 of the blank. Some casters may refer to this as "tip casting" or casting off the tip of the rod.

Casting off the tip of the rod is often applied by those casters that will wish to deliver lighter grained line systems while utilizing minimal anchors. This applied for the delivery of both shooting heads and short formula length Classic Spey lines. This would be typical of classic Scandinavian style touch-and-go techniques utilizing (for example) Snake Rolls or Single Speys. This delivery style is best performed with a very economic compact stroke, minimal caster expended energy, and predominant power sourced from the lower hand.

How to use the high end of the grain window:  

The high end of the grain window for this rod is 600 to 800 +- grains, and would define the maximum amount of grains that the rod will allow the blank to load efficiently.

The high end of the grain window would most often be applied by those casters that will wish to distribute power and grain load in such a way as to utilize the full work capability of the entire blank, taking power well into the cork. Some casters may refer to this as butt loading or deep loading the rod.

This is best demonstrated in two scenarios:

  1. This scenario would typically be applied during sustained anchor line management typical of Skagit style shooting heads with extreme sink tips in tow. The grain total managed here would be the combination of head and tip weight. A Skagit shooting head of 600 grain with 200 grains of T-14 in tow would net 800 grains... This would meet the high end of the grain window.  Overall anchor management and achieving constant tension of Skagits will best be accomplished with a compact economic stroke and minimal caster expended energy; utilizing predominant power sourced from the lower hand.

  2. In situations of line management of total aerialized grain weight beyond the rod tip of mid to long belly classic Spey line systems. This scenario is often best accomplished with a more open stroke and longer sweep to manage longer belly beyond the rod tip. For this: Relative even power is best sourced from a balanced combination of both the high and low hand.