Rickard Gustafsson | Saturday, 6 June 2026
Dandelions and fly casting goes together, right? The fly line seems to love them at least. If there is a dandelion in the vicinity of the fly line it will find it and get stuck in it. Extra helpful that the dandelions grow really quickly even if the lawn has been mowed.
They have a good use though. At the end of the lifecycle they are perfect to find the wind direction. The slightest movement of the air will be reviled by the little parachutes of the seed. That can be really useful some days when you are casting and cannot understand why the distance casting isn’t going as you expected. The leader won’t turn over as expected. Or you can be pleasantly surprised when you realise that you are casting quite well considering the current conditions.
Things going on right now are quite a lot but the most interesting is Piteå Open. The oldest fly casting competition, the place where it all started. I’m staying at the legendary Stefan Siikavaara and Anna-Karin. I guess talking about fly casting and playing snooker is on the table. I’ll ask him about joining the trend with softer fly rods as he has gone from a Method 9 to a Method 8 for his trout fishing. And I’m starting a new trend with softer rods in distance casting goes as my HT10 is in Spain in the rod hospital. Or I’ll cast a stiff saltwater 10. We will see.
Interesting thing is that dr. d posted on the board the same thing I started to think about recently. That the taper of the rod can be more important than stiffness for distance casting. Most rods can throw a 5wt longbelly far, some just makes the task a little bit easier. If you are looking for a rod that I would say makes the task a little bit easier without going for something “extreme” I would have a look at the HT5, HT6 and HT7. I know Paul says that we aren’t allowed to throw distance with the HT5 but it does a good job there. Casting well in the whole range from the leader to 120’+, is quite the range.
So now we have arrived at Anna-Karin and Stefans place. Been served a delicious curry and now tackle prep is going on. new shooting lines are being spooled. And soon we will try the new snooker table.
And tomorrow we will see how the lawn is. It’s been alternating rain and sun today. Dandelions grows fast.
Cheers, Rickard