The All Around Rod And Your Comments
It still amazes me that some "experts" make blanket statements regarding trout behavior. This is, well, kind of dumb! Trout in tailwaters behave differently than freestone trout. They don't have to deal with the environmental stresses of high water, low water, COLD water or warm water. Life is stable for them. A stable environment allows a stable food supply to exist. The biggest bonehead truism that I hear is that trout like to put on the feed bag in the Fall to prepare for Winter. The trouts' need to eat is controlled by the water temperature, period. Trout will feed more at 48 degrees than at 38 degrees. In the low 30's they are shutting down and you have bounce the fly off their noses. Did You Know: Trout consume more calories in May and June than in the Fall and that's not because there's more food then. Kenny Cahill
I get asked this question all of the time. "What's the best all around fly rod"? The answer is simple - it's the one that feels the best during most fishing conditions. Now, that answer is not a cop out but the truth. One rod may feel like a dream under one condition and totally suck under another. You want a rod that feels good and fishes well under as many different conditions as possible. You don't want to be like the newbies in this sport who seem hell bent on turning fly fishing into golf with a bag full of rods for EVERY Condition. Here's what I look for in a rod for trout fishing:
First, We will leave material out of this and focus on the most popular rod building material: graphite. I love bamboo because it is beautiful and if well made fishes well too. Some of the old "factory rods" were best used as tomato stacks. Fiberglass has it's following and I would never give up my old Fenwick which was as good as fiberglass got 40 years ago (a great dry fly rod) but I have my doubts about the newer fiberglass rods which seem too "progressive" (read "slow"). They don't have the zip of my Fenwick.
One does not need a dry fly rod, a nymph rod, a streamer rod and so on. Just a rod that does most things well.
A Small Stream Rod - 7.5 feet to 9 feet in a 3wt. The Swift, the Mill and the North are small stream and you can cover all sections of these rivers with those lengths. Mine is an 8.5 foot 3 wt., of a moderately fast action, matched to a 3 wt double tapered line. I can nymph with this (don't need a nymph rod) and then use this crisp rod to launch dries. Now, I seldom use weight on the on these rivers under normal conditions. A weighted fly cast with this setup leaves something to be desired. (Double tapered lines don't throw weight very well). If the flow is high and I have to use weight I'll bring along a 3wt WF line to solve the problem.
Big River Rod - When I know that I'll be fishing larger water like the Millers, Ware and the EB I'm bringing my 9ft 5wt with a weight forward line to the show. It is a moderately fast rod that handles heavy stuff really well yet can blast a size 16 BWO out there quickly and into the wind to boot. (big rivers are windy). I can fish EVERYTHING with this rod, period!!!!
A few notes:
1.You don't have to go ultra light with a dry fly rod. I had a client catch a brown on a size 30 fly using his 6wt!!!
2. As I said before, I have guided hundreds of fly fishers and very few show up with a nymph rod or even own one. These rods are not, generally speaking, good casting tools. I own one, given to me as a present, and it is the worst dry fly rod I've ever cast.
Your Comments
As I've said many times, the Comments section of this blog is a blog-within-a-blog and no other New Englad fly fishing blog shows this kind of engagement by its readers. Case in point: my last 10 blog posts before this one had 90 comments. All blog formats cannot distinguish between a readers comments and the authors comment. Comments by me totaled 45 or 34% of my total. Some blogs have author comment totals that are well over 50% of the total or even more!!! You have given us reader engagement and that's what I want. There are no drive bye page views here. You guys are readers!!!
First, We will leave material out of this and focus on the most popular rod building material: graphite. I love bamboo because it is beautiful and if well made fishes well too. Some of the old "factory rods" were best used as tomato stacks. Fiberglass has it's following and I would never give up my old Fenwick which was as good as fiberglass got 40 years ago (a great dry fly rod) but I have my doubts about the newer fiberglass rods which seem too "progressive" (read "slow"). They don't have the zip of my Fenwick.
One does not need a dry fly rod, a nymph rod, a streamer rod and so on. Just a rod that does most things well.
A Small Stream Rod - 7.5 feet to 9 feet in a 3wt. The Swift, the Mill and the North are small stream and you can cover all sections of these rivers with those lengths. Mine is an 8.5 foot 3 wt., of a moderately fast action, matched to a 3 wt double tapered line. I can nymph with this (don't need a nymph rod) and then use this crisp rod to launch dries. Now, I seldom use weight on the on these rivers under normal conditions. A weighted fly cast with this setup leaves something to be desired. (Double tapered lines don't throw weight very well). If the flow is high and I have to use weight I'll bring along a 3wt WF line to solve the problem.
Big River Rod - When I know that I'll be fishing larger water like the Millers, Ware and the EB I'm bringing my 9ft 5wt with a weight forward line to the show. It is a moderately fast rod that handles heavy stuff really well yet can blast a size 16 BWO out there quickly and into the wind to boot. (big rivers are windy). I can fish EVERYTHING with this rod, period!!!!
A few notes:
1.You don't have to go ultra light with a dry fly rod. I had a client catch a brown on a size 30 fly using his 6wt!!!
2. As I said before, I have guided hundreds of fly fishers and very few show up with a nymph rod or even own one. These rods are not, generally speaking, good casting tools. I own one, given to me as a present, and it is the worst dry fly rod I've ever cast.
Your Comments
As I've said many times, the Comments section of this blog is a blog-within-a-blog and no other New Englad fly fishing blog shows this kind of engagement by its readers. Case in point: my last 10 blog posts before this one had 90 comments. All blog formats cannot distinguish between a readers comments and the authors comment. Comments by me totaled 45 or 34% of my total. Some blogs have author comment totals that are well over 50% of the total or even more!!! You have given us reader engagement and that's what I want. There are no drive bye page views here. You guys are readers!!!
Tail Waters
On the last blog post I wrote a short description of what a tail water is and that is because of some misconceptions that linger out there.
Ken
Ken
12 comments:
Ken,
Years ago I used to fish size 20 and smaller dries with a 6wt rod and a 6X tippet and I caught fish. I agree that you don't have to go ultra light. Right now my dry fly set up is a 3wt rod/line. I will go to a 5wt if it's windy or high water.
H.G.
To me, the leader design makes all the difference for fishing drys. Specifically a George Harvey style leader! The rod, whatever material chosen, just needs to be comfortably balanced in hand for comfortable casting.
Agreed on rod weight...its probably best for most anglers to stick with one or two rods for trout and then maybe another for salt. I too have a Fenwick 6 weight from 35 years ago...it was my only rod for my first 6 years of fly fishing, much of it done on the Swift much of it with tiny drys and nymphs. I probably caught more fish in those early days per hour of fishing because I was zoned in 100% on what I was trying to do. I didn't get gear happy because I had just enough money for gas and some fly tying supplies. Back to now...the trout rods are a 9 ft 5 weight Scott and a 8ft 4 weight T&T from the 80's. The Scott does it all and the T&T is used for small streams-both could cross over easily and do the job of the other but I like them for what they are...I have tried a bunch of rods but always tend to fall back on these two..because they work and suit my casting style. I have one saltwater rod (Orvis H3 9 wt)that is phenomenal for launching big flies from the boat but lets face it, I don't love casting it-its better than most but I will look at a 8 foot 8 weight glass from NZ next week upon consultation with a friend. He said it does the work and you don't feel beat up after 5-6 hours of slinging saltwater flies from the boat...we shall see.
Anonymous 8:14,
Simply put and simply correct!
BobT,
I bought my Fenwick 6wt at Spags in 1973 and still have it. A great small to mid sized stream rod. I've gotten used to longer rods so I don't put this 7 footer in play very often.
Good luck with that NZ rod!
Ken
Ken
I got mine at Spags too around '83! I did however get the line from Paul Kukonen's shop in Worcester...He put me onto both the Ware and Millers way back then! It was at first blush it was a room with a bunch of boxes and frankly a bit scary to walk into but the guy had all sorts of fly tying and fishing gear as well as a deep knowledge of fly fishing for the time!
Let it RAIN!
BobT,
He also had a great fly fishing film collection. He loved the Bear's Den section of the Millers!
Chico,
We had a lot of rain today and more in store for tonight. It will be interesting to see if it moved the stream gauges.
Ken
I learned a hard lesson in nymphing a few years ago when I first got into it with my 9ft 5wt. I will truismically claim the 9ft 5wt (Medium/Fast Action) to be the most versatile fly rod. A great first rod for sure.
I was using way to light a tippet with that 5wt. I couldnt land a rainbow on the Deerfield to save my life. I was taking bad advice from local shop owners and youtube. It was standard nymphing advice but in the context of euro nympher tackle (10/12ft ft 3wt). The 5wt doesn't support 6x fluro very well at all. The rod is too rigid and doesn't give or bend like a long 3wt. I made three trips to the Deerfield that year, hooked many and landed none. Always broke off. I'm also an ape. So, I figured I simply suck at landing spunky trout on a big river.
I went back the next year with 3x nylon tippet and landed my first Deerfield bow on a size 16 Frenchie. Then an hour later, caught another with 4x tippet on a size ten royal wolf on the same rod and leader. I made the change because the nymphing dried up, the fish were surface feeding and there were big ass brown mayflies floating down the river. This was a big day for me. I felt blooded as a trout angler.
There is a lot of truism out there coming along with the rod specialization neuroticism. In the Army, we called them sorts gear queers. They have all the cool stuff but they aren't always the most resourceful problem solvers or teachers. Master the basics. Also, I'm not surprised that 6x fluro tippet costs four times that of 4x nylon and magically every youtube influencer and fly fishing show host is telling people they can't go without it. The idea that an average outdoorsman needs competition grade tackle and a specialized rod and reel with extra spools is a bit silly.
My 5wt is my M4. My 3wt is my pistol. My 9 weight is a 60mm mortar tube.
Another funny story. I bought a sage dart 3wt once because I had money to burn. My wife and I got back from a trip to the whites and I put it on top of the truck cap when I was unloading our stuff. She took off woth the truck to pick up a pizza. I never saw the rod again. That burned. 1,000 bucks for the rod reel and line. That hurt. I loved that rod. Now I fish with a Redington trout classic 3wt (200 bucks). I notice the difference. It's a little more flexible or soft maybe; noodly or floppy. However there isn't anything I can't do with that which I could do with the sage. If someone is casting well, it's more likely the person than the rod.
I concur. A good rod should give you options in fishing techniques not limit the fisherman to one trick angling. These sorts of rods are common and affordable. Stiff enough to feel a highstick nymphing take and set the hook; or drive some line with a far shot. Soft enough to cast a dry fly in a way that feels efficient and effortless with a delicate landing.
All those things have more to do with the angler than the rod. That all purpose rod is right under everyone's nose and most people looking for one probably already have it. It's probably the first rod they ever bought.
I got my two 9wt on clearance for 150 bucks. That thing can send it.
TFO 9WT***
Jake,
There's a lot of hype out there when it comes to fly rods. a $1000 dollar is not 5 times better than $200 dollar fly rod. Your Redingtons and my Redingtons are proof of that. I had one nymph rod given to me and it is a horrible thing to cast and actually hook a fish with.
Ken
Thanks Ken great topic. I hope your season is going well.
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