Flyfishing many years, I have gone through many rods, long, short, stiff, soft, expensive or cheap... different combinations. Now, I have stonger and stronger feeling developed in my head. That is what if I only can use one rod. What rod would be the one? This is a funny question and have been broght up many many times in public forums. But I doubt people really think about it, really seriously consider this is the important question. Well, this is maybe NOT important at all if we are really dealing with rod number
per se. Because you can easily own/afford several rods by following what magzine feed you. What I am try to figure out here is the other perspect of fishing. Maybe I should re-phrase my quesion as what type of fishing you (I) enjoy most? I enjoy backpacking and fishing in the mountain most, if I only can use one rod. That would be Mcfarland Fiberglass 3/4wt 6-7 ft 5piece or something similar to that. This question was enlightened by a obsevation of recent outings. I was fishing for striper in a big river, the other young man was using a lure quite masterfully. Honestly, I was very surprised by his great distance and accuracy, his skill admired me. Maybe I am just not a good spey caster, I am working quite hard compare to his little lively lure. His lure was sexier than my fly, if I am a fish, I will eat his lure first. Am I going to use lure? No, Definately not. I am not standing in the river fishing for fish... I like fishing because of the fly. The fly type of fishing : )...
On the other hand, if I only can use one rod for nymphing... (for some reason I enjoy the "zen" of nymphing a lot.) I would say the rod should be SAGE XP 590. This is a amazingly sensitive rod... you feel your hand is touching the river when the fly is bouncing... I first use this rod when I was in Utah last summer. I hold this rod for about one minute, I quickly realized this is the ultimate rod for nymphing, period. It weight like my other 3wt rod, feel so light and so sensitive. My flies dip in the exact spot I want it to be... I feel I was using laser pointer to feed the fish...Weird ha... My favorite rods across the soft and stiff ends.
4 comments:
Mark, excellent pics and great thinking... I must say, I agree with your observations. I sometimes think how cool would be to sell all my rods and reels and fish only with one or two freshwater and one or two SW outfits... Really, you can do alot of things that way.
"I sometimes think how cool would be to sell all my rods and reels and fish only with one or two freshwater and one or two SW outfits... Really, you can do alot of things that way."
Vlad,
That is EXACTLY thinking in my head! : ) The spiritual fairy is there ... remind us what is the essence of FF! : )
When you think about it, it is just stuff, things, objects... This is very healthy thinking... It is much better to fish 100 days a year with one or two rods, than two days a year with 50 (or 100) rods ;-)
Ha, good point! Vlad,
One of my friends is a professional guide. A very accomplished angler. He said, he need take 3-6 months to know the sweet spot of a rod, and he fish almost everyday. For a weekend worrier like me, I do feel better and better after certain hours of fishing, I think it take time to build that special connection with a rod. : )
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