The Trout Fisherman"s Equipment - Part 2
Wouldn't it be pleasant, once anyway, to go out on your favorite stream accompanied by your caddy carrying the rod bag with rods for every purpose all set up for you? You study the lie (of the fish, not the ball) and you call for the "35-Footer" or the wind being strong in your face you ask for the "Number three power rod.
" You do or you don't succeed with that fish and you move a few feet to the next lie or pocket.
A bit impractical isn't it? But you know it's done almost that way in some other countries.
Inasmuch as our personal frugality and our aversion to inconvenience prohibits a dozen or so rods with us on the stream at one time we are compelled, therefore, to choose one that fits us or fits the water we're fishing.
Choose the rod for your kind of activity whether it be a nine foot power rod or a seven foot wand for delicate fly casting.
With the exception of fishermen who wade waist deep and who must use a somewhat longer rod to get their line out and keep it up, the tendency is for shorter and lighter rods.
The average at this time is the 71/2 and 8-foot rods being the most popular.
In graphite rods the weight, has no bearing on its quality or efficiency, neither is it a criterion of what the rod can do.
"Action" is the important factor to look for.
A graphite rod weighing 21/2 or 3 ounces, correctly balanced with reel and line, may feel lighter than a 4-ounce soft rod incorrectly balanced.
So we pick a 7 or 71/2-foot light dry fly rod or an 8-foot medium dry fly action rod or a 9-foot power rod according to our waters, our ability or our choice of rods regardless.
We may even indulge our ego by selecting a 6-foot 2-ounce or a smaller and lighter wand to fish and play with.
REELS The reel is a necessary tool on which to store our excess line while using the rod.
The quality of the reel is of much less importance than the quality of the rod.
The exception is the incongruity of a top-line dry fly rod being fitted with a "Five and ten" quality teel.
It may work all right and then again and the "then again" always happens at most inconvenient times.
The single action reel is by far the most popular reel for fly rods.
It balances the finer rods more efficiently than the automatic reel which is much too heavy for the small part they play in fishing.
However, there is still a contingent of good fishermen who cling to the automatic reel and I have no argument with them.
LINES FIT THE LINE TO THE ROD! The line is an important aid for two reasons.
First it is a part of the connection from you to the terminal fly or lure.
Secondly, the line, in case of fly casting, is the part you cast not the fly which merely follows along.
It's somewhat of an amateurish gesture to attempt to "guess" the size line that will work with a rod where only the descriptions of weight and length of the rod are given.
I have handled rods of, for example, four ounces and nine feet in length where one might have the English softness and another be as stiff in the tip as the proverbial poker.
Those two rods would require lines of quite different weight...
I have perused charts in books wherein the writers have done this guessing.
From there on in their books I'm just a bit leary of any statements that a writer might make, and I cast a querulous eye on pronouncements of that writer's experience or his qualifications to advance serious advice.
" You do or you don't succeed with that fish and you move a few feet to the next lie or pocket.
A bit impractical isn't it? But you know it's done almost that way in some other countries.
Inasmuch as our personal frugality and our aversion to inconvenience prohibits a dozen or so rods with us on the stream at one time we are compelled, therefore, to choose one that fits us or fits the water we're fishing.
Choose the rod for your kind of activity whether it be a nine foot power rod or a seven foot wand for delicate fly casting.
With the exception of fishermen who wade waist deep and who must use a somewhat longer rod to get their line out and keep it up, the tendency is for shorter and lighter rods.
The average at this time is the 71/2 and 8-foot rods being the most popular.
In graphite rods the weight, has no bearing on its quality or efficiency, neither is it a criterion of what the rod can do.
"Action" is the important factor to look for.
A graphite rod weighing 21/2 or 3 ounces, correctly balanced with reel and line, may feel lighter than a 4-ounce soft rod incorrectly balanced.
So we pick a 7 or 71/2-foot light dry fly rod or an 8-foot medium dry fly action rod or a 9-foot power rod according to our waters, our ability or our choice of rods regardless.
We may even indulge our ego by selecting a 6-foot 2-ounce or a smaller and lighter wand to fish and play with.
REELS The reel is a necessary tool on which to store our excess line while using the rod.
The quality of the reel is of much less importance than the quality of the rod.
The exception is the incongruity of a top-line dry fly rod being fitted with a "Five and ten" quality teel.
It may work all right and then again and the "then again" always happens at most inconvenient times.
The single action reel is by far the most popular reel for fly rods.
It balances the finer rods more efficiently than the automatic reel which is much too heavy for the small part they play in fishing.
However, there is still a contingent of good fishermen who cling to the automatic reel and I have no argument with them.
LINES FIT THE LINE TO THE ROD! The line is an important aid for two reasons.
First it is a part of the connection from you to the terminal fly or lure.
Secondly, the line, in case of fly casting, is the part you cast not the fly which merely follows along.
It's somewhat of an amateurish gesture to attempt to "guess" the size line that will work with a rod where only the descriptions of weight and length of the rod are given.
I have handled rods of, for example, four ounces and nine feet in length where one might have the English softness and another be as stiff in the tip as the proverbial poker.
Those two rods would require lines of quite different weight...
I have perused charts in books wherein the writers have done this guessing.
From there on in their books I'm just a bit leary of any statements that a writer might make, and I cast a querulous eye on pronouncements of that writer's experience or his qualifications to advance serious advice.