Having read all that's been written here, I still can't agree with you Craig! A 20m tape measure measures 20m. A 3m tape measure measures 3m. Give or take a cm or 2 for operational/human error. Centimetres don't count in the grand scheme of things. The point here is that a line meter will give you a reasonably accurate measure of how far your line is out. We're not measuring cm, but rather metres, and even if there is a few meters discrepancy, it's still good enough to measure any improvements made in technique, which is the point of using it in the first place. To me, it's not really important whether you cast further than me or not, it's whether I'm improving that's the issue here.
From a competition perspective, when comparing 2 different anglers' casts for brownie points or for trials or whatever, yes, point taken, all things need to be equal, and a line meter's readings can't really be used. A proper Laser metering device would be 1st choice...
It's a fascinating subject...
i agree with reefz
for the normal avg joe..... cast + line counter + measuremnet. 100mts is 100mts
as time goes, 100= 110 = 120 etc etc.
thats what he wants to know.