How to choose a Fly Rod

With an industry full of space age terms and space age claims how do you choose the right fly rod for your fishing needs? One that will provide a lifetime of pleasure and performance, but wont cost you a second mortgage.

Todays entry level graphite fly rods in the $100 - $200 range are as good as premium rods of just a generation ago. Like everything else advances in manufacturing and technology have provided the fishing rod manufacturer with new tools and techniques to produce a quality fly rod.

Lets face it most casting is done in streams of about 20’ - 30’ in the spring and less as the season gets along. Fly fishing expert Tom Morgan said, “ During the last forty years most trout have been taken from 20’ to 40’ and I expect the next 50 years will be the same.” Some fly fishing guides go as far as to advocate learning to cast and catch fish at 10’ to 15’.

So with this in mind long casts are not always necessary. Although a good presentation is.

If you are a beginner there are a bewildering number of terms relating to fly rods. Lets take a look at the ones that we will need to get us fly fishing.

Fly Rod Actions

Our choice of rod material will be graphite.

Fast - Tip flex: The top 1/3 of the fly rod flexes under line load. This rod loads very fast and requires quick timing and reflexes.

Medium - Mid flex: The upper ½ of the rod flexes under load. This action is slower and allows a more relaxed casting style. It is a good flex action for the beginner fly fisher. It is a more forgiving and less frustrating rod action to cast when starting out.

Slow - Full flex: This rod flexes from tip to butt. This action produces a slow recovery rate and a slow line speed. In my opinion this action doesn’t produce the power required for a hard hook set.

For our money a Mid flex graphite rod would be a good choice in terms of casting stroke, hook setting power and all around fishing performance.

Remember a good quality entry level rod can be purchased for $100 - $200 and we can assured that we are getting a decent fishing rod with many years of use. One we didn’t have to 2nd mortgage our house or use the kids college fund to purchase.

Remember a good rod needs to come with a good warranty. So when you catch a car door it won’t hurt as much.


line weight and rod length and reels

When we have decided on our type of fly rod we need to decide on our line weight and length of rod. If you are going to fish small streams 15’ across a shorter rod might be in order. But an average 8 ½ foot is about right for most of our fishing needs as length goes. As I think most of our fishing is in the 20 foot to 40 foot range casting range a 8 ½ foot rod gives us good leverage and casting power.

Line weight is somewhat determined by the fish we will be fishing for. But a good all-around weight forward floating 6wt is a good choice and one that you won’t go wrong with on most streams. A weight forward floating line will load our rod quickly and is good for flies from dries to terrestrials and into a moderate wind on our medium action rod.

For a balanced system we ill need a 6wt fly reel for our rod. A good reel can be bought for $50+ after all its basic use is to hold the line. You as the fisher person do 99% of the work. Get a disk drag reel. Any good fly fishing book or store clerk can show you how to put backing and your line on your reel.

This rod will meet 90% of stream fishing needs.

Leaders for fly fishing

So we have decided on a 8 ½ 6wt medium action fly rod and a 6wt disk drag reel. With our 6wt line we are best suited to fish hook sizes 1/0 to 12s and with the correct leader we can push this to 16s and 18s

A good all purpose 9 foot knotless taper leader is our choice. The spring trout fishing here in the North East is a good time to use Blue-winged-olives in sizes 12 to 16 so a 4x leader is our choice. To this we can add a 12 inch 4x tippet and we are set. But remember we can fudge our numbers and use a 3x to 5x tippet to extend our fly sizes with no harm done.

How to fudge and rearrange our gear to suit our fishing is the essence of fly fishing. It is what will take us to the next level.

Review of setup

So to review we have created a balanced fly fishing system of:

8 ½ foot 6wt medium action graphite fly rod

6wt disk drag reel

9 foot knotless tapered 4x leader

4x tippet for hook size 10 - 14

This is our basic balanced system for trout fishing in most of the streams we will encounter. We can cast 20 feet to 40 feet with it. Fish fly size 10 - 14 with our tippet. And have a great day of fishing with it.

With this outfit we can change-up our tippet and line type and extend our fishing range to meet our fishing needs. The essence of fly fishing is to be as changeable as the streams we fish.

Put your outfit together, tie a piece of yarn to the tippet and practice casting. There are more books and videos on the market about fly fishing then there are fish in all the streams. Any good book will get you started casting and reading the stream. Take a lesson from a casting instructor. But get out there and fish.

Warranty

As with any purchase a lifetime warranty is a must. Never purchase a fly rod without one. I have caught 2 car doors with mine. Lets not forget the ever elusive ceiling fan. With a good warranty you can get your rod fixed with little or no cost to you.

Next time flies. Sometimes they catch more fisherman then fish.