Fly Rods

For most fly fishermen buying a new or used fly rod is a simple and uncomplicated task that requires very little knowledge about how a fly rod works. Some fly fishermen may even get all the information they need from a sales clerk at their local fly shop or sporting goods store. Unfortunately this lack of knowledge can affect how well a fisherman does on the river. The performance of your fly rod can directly affect your success in catching more and bigger fish. Your fly rod is the cornerstone in becoming a good fly fisherman.

Fly fishermen, like all consumers, have been brought up in the trappings of the most advanced consumer driven economy in the world. Advertising, marketing and branding have made consumers a prime target for product commercialization. This type of commercialization can be traced all the way back to school days when kids wore labels instead of clothes. How all this relates to fly fishermen is simple. Many fly fishermen, especially new fly fishermen, are simply going to go to the local sporting goods store and buy a Sage or Orvis fly rod because of the brand name. How much of that $800 price tag is brand name?

Now, I'm not implying that Sage or Orvis are bad rod companies. On the contrary they can make a good rod, however, just because they make rods does not mean they have the best rod for you. Even if you know what length and weight rod you want, going to the fly shop or sporting goods store and wiggling a few Winston rods around is absolutely the worst way to buy a fly rod.

Read more: Fly Rods

There are a number of things you can try, and when one seems to work the best then perfect it and you will see a huge improvement in your catch rate.

1. When a fish takes you fly set the hook by using the rod and not the rod and line together.
   
   • When the line is loose in your guides only the rod will move up. The line will glide through
   • the guides thus taking the pressure off the knot on the fly. There will be enough pressure
   • on the fly to set the trout. Later after the trout is on you can apply more pressure if you
   • think you need to.
2. If you keep breaking off fish, say using 6x tippet, try going to a 5x tippet. That easy
   solution may be all you need to keep fish on.
3. Believe it or not most anglers set the hook to fast. The old one thousand one, one, one thousand two rule works for a lot of anglers.
4. Small trout will take the fly very quickly and aggressively, but larger trout seem to be a little more mature about it and will take the fly leisurely and less aggressively. Take your adjustments accordingly.
5. When all else fails you can buy special shock absorbing leaders. These leaders have a built in rubber sock absorber in the butts sections that will absorb the extra pressure you put on the leader when you strike to hard.

If you have ever spent a lot of time in planning a road trip to a river you've always dreamed of fishing, it's critical to the success of that fishing trip to have the right flies in your vest. You may have spent the winter tying numerous new patterns or replenishing the flies in your fly box you used up the year before. Or someone may have fished the river you're going to and was successful using one particular fly and you've made sure you have plenty of those on hand for your trip. Whatever the case maybe you know enough about fly fishing to know that you should have a good selection of flies for your trip or you're going to have to take your fly tying kit with you. What you don't want to do is to drive 3 hours to the river, get out of the truck and walk over to the river and say " Now what do I do"? You haven't been on the river more than five minutes and you've already run into a brick wall.

Read more: Bugs and Boxes