Viking Lars | Saturday, 27 April 2024
At some point most fly fishers will end up owning several fly rod. Some need to have - some nice to have. If you’re exclusively fishing for trout, a 5-wt is all you’d ever need, but if you spend more than a handful of days on a stream, at some point you’ll have the need (or create it) for another rod. Maybe a lighter rod for dries, maybe a heavier one for streamers and sinking lines. And I won’t mention lines again, because that can explode.
Especially if/when you begin fishing for different species an all-rounder 5-wt won’t cut it. Some types of fishing requires a longer rod, a heavier rod or even a lighter rod. A lot or people buy and sell used gear, maybe buy new and sell on when you want a new rod or reel for that matter. Some stick with their rods forever, some buy new ones and end up with a huge quiver. If one’s a big fan of a particular brand, new series might be desirable and discontinued models are passed on or left in a corner. Some brands stick with their models for longer than others. But I digress.
Especially as a beginner, it’s good to seek advice on choosing rods. If you want to trout fish in rivers, my recommendation is the above mentioned 5-wt. Big still water and scandinavian salt water, a 7-wt. Pike - an 8-wt. Salmon a 13’-wt. If you want second rod for the same fishery, I recommend skipping a size. If you have a 7-wt for big still water and want a lighter one, get a 5-wt. Down line you might add a 6. I’ll admit to having more rods than I need and some don’t see much use, but they remain in the collection for various reasons. For some reason, I only use 7-wts for single hand salmon fishing. In the salt, I mainly use a 6-wt and the second rod I pack is an 8-wt. I want a significant difference. I might need to handle more wind, bigger flies, longer casts - maybe all three. And I find I go to the 8-wt more and more often. It does is all and an 8-wt line reaches 25m with ease - significant easier than a 6.
As said above, a beginning salmon angler should generally choose a 13’ and as a second rod I’d add a 15’. Signifcanttly longer to make a real difference, it’ll handler bigger rivers, floods, fast sinking lines and really big flies, And the longer rods and heavier lines just cast further. After a 13’ and a 15’ it more or less goes into nice to have than need to have. But nice to have is, well, nice to have.
If you’re a keen fly fishers and odds are that you are if you’re reading this, you’ll end up with a good handful of rods. I promised not to, but you’ll likely end up with a lot of lines well, but that might be a subject for another FP.
The rods don’t have to be top level 4-figure rods. Entry level or budget friendly rods are better than ever and a good starting point. They’re certainly not on par with top level rods, but still much better than they were 10 years ago.
In conclusion, unless you’re taking up salmon fishing, maybe fishing for big, tropical silvery fish, a 4-wt, a 6-wt and an 8-wt will see you through a season of more or less anything.
Have a great weekend!
Lars
PS: Speaking of salmon, when you read this I’m heading home from River Dee. Can you imagine the level of planning ahead that sometimes goes into running this stuff. It’s Saturday 27th and I wrote both this and last week’s FPs on Friday 19th. I was listening to 1980s stadium rod while writing, so excuse typos and incoherent content (White Snake, Bon Jovi, Guns ’n’ Roses, Iron Maiden, Scorpions etc. if anyone’s curious). If the fishing was good, you'll hear about. If not... Well, maybe you won't :-).