Choosing a Fly Fishing Rod

Series Summary

Fly fishing can be traced back to the 2nd Century A.D. Macedonian fishermen who attached feathers and wool to hooks to create a fake fly to lure fish to the their fly lines. Fish have been taking the bait ever since. However, a fly fisherman cannot expect to throw the line in the water with no forethought to placement or fly casting technique. Fly fishing effectively requires good fly casting technique, practice and finesse. Fly fishing instructors get paid to give fly fishing tips for fly casting to help other fly fishermen learn the skill and art of fly fishing. Get fly fishing tips and fly casting tips in this free video series on fly fishing featuring fly fishing instructor Ron Lauzon. Lauzon teaches how to choose the right fly fishing rod by size, how to choose a fly fishing rod by weight, how to choose fly fishing line, how to roll cast a fly rod, how to overhead casting, how to Spey cast a fly rod, how to fly cast a perfect loop, how to cast in the wind and how to cast a fly rod with a sink-tip line.

Video Transcript

"When we're choosing a rod, the equipment that we need to start out fishing with. The first thing you want to think about, is what size body of water, are you going to be fishing? Are you going to be fishing a small river? A large river? Are you going to be fishing a big lake, a small lake? Are you going to be dealing with wind? You also want to think about the size of line, that you're going to be casting, the size of fish you're going to be trying to catch, and then also, the size of fly, that you're going to be casting, and then the other thing that's really important, which a lot of people don't think about, is how the rod is matching your personality. In other words, are you an aggressive person? Athletic? Are you easy going? Do you do things smooth? You want to get the rod to match you, as close as you can, to meet all the conditions, that you're trying to accomplish, so we're going to talk about rod actions. This is a traditional, old Fenwick Fiberglass Rod. When you flex it, see how it flexes pretty much, all the way down to here? This is called a Full- Flex Rod. This is good for like short cast, fishing small streams, and that kind of stuff. The next rod we're going to move into,is what you would call a Medium Action Rod. Now, medium action and the word flex, are inclusive, but I'm going to kind of break them down, and talk about flexes as the overall flex of the rod ,and the action is how it bends, so when we actually put some force to this rod, do you see how it bends in the middle? so, this is going to be a Medium Flex Rod. Now, when we slow it down, see how it still bends in the middle? so this would be an excellent rod for a person who is kind of athletic, or aggressive in their casting. You want to try to match a rod to a person's personality. The next type of action that we have, is what you might call a stiff action, but mostly in the industry, they call them Fast Actions, so as you can see when I flex this, how the whole rod is stiff. Well, this is going to be a great rod for casting in the wind, but the disadvantage about it is, because it's so stiff, unless you are using like six pound leaders, or three X Tipits, as X is designated in the fly fishing industry, then you're going to break off a lot of fish, so that's the disadvantage of having a nice stiff or Fast Action Rod. Most of the time when we start thinking about fly fishing, we think about fly casting with the Single Handed Rod. That's the most commonly used, and the one's that can be used in most situations, but then the other type of rod that a lot of people don't think about, is a Two Handed Rod. That means that the rod is actually held with both the top hand and the bottom hand, or it can be changed around. That's what you call Spay Casting, and Spay Casting or Spay Fishing, is the ability to be able to cast a line in situations where you have no back cast room, and so that's where the Spay Casting Rod is used the most. Also, with the rod being longer, you have the ability to control the line, after it is presented in the water. Whereas, the shorter rod limits you, with how much control you have of the line, by the length of the rod."