FLYMPH FORUM

Hello All,

I'm new to this forum and this is my first post. I became passionate about fishing traditional spiders and soft hackles about a year and a half ago. I'm a grad student in NW PA and mostly fish with wets on the medium sized streams in the Mercer and Lawrence County areas. My home waters are in the Neshannock and Slippery Rock Creek drainages. I'm glad to find a forum dedicated to these flies and this type of fishing. I've been reading a lot of the posts and there is a ton of great info. Please keep up the great work. Also I'd like to thank Mike for creating this great online community.

My first question would be on rods for the traditional North Country and Border techniques (Stewart, Tod, etc..). I'm looking for a 10' rod in a light line weight (3 or 4 wt). I've been looking at the Grey's Streamflex 10' 3wt. Does anyone have any experience casting or fishing this rod? Any comments on rod action or suitability for this style of fishing?

Does anyone have any rod suggestions on this criteria. I know Dorber makes 10' blanks from 1-4 wt (I've heard these are really soft). I thought of buying one and having someone build it for me, but I'm not sure who builds rods in the Western Pennsylvania area.

Any info would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks,
Jay Crumbacher

(P.S.) I'm also interested in joining the International Brotherhood of the Flymph. Any info on going about this?

Jay, welcome to the forum. I'm the unofficial keeper of Internation Brotherhood of the Flymph membership, so i'll add your name to the list and you'll be responsible to uphold the standards set by the IBF. Which means have fun with this forum and contribute as much as you like. There are some amazing people here and its growing daily. Thanks for the request.

William

Jay, and everyone else. This might be a good time to mention this. I understand there is now a direct connection between the IBF and this site. The old IBF site never really had a list of members, so I amassed the list on the Fly Fisherman forum, which has and I hope will continue to work as a hub, or as another hub for IBF activity. Certainly all of the IBF sanctioned swaps are handled there. anyway, I say that to say this, at some point and all in good time, there should be a place on this forum/new IBF site to list members and to make certificates available. I see a lot of new faces and a bunch of old ones (some older than others with signs of age creeping in) here, so if you would like to be a member of the IBF and are not currently, please let me know by email or PM here. I'll do my best to maintain a current list.

thanks for your support in this.

w

jcrumbacher wrote:(P.S.) I'm also interested in joining the International Brotherhood of the Flymph. Any info on going about this?

Welcome aboard, Jay. I think a wave of the mouse will be all that is required to join the brotherhood, but you'll need to learn the secret handshake.

I'll leave it to others to answer questions about the rods. I'm in the market for a softer ten foot 3wt as well, so it should be interesting to see the responses.

Aaron

Edit: William got the drop on me. Welcome to the fraternity.

jcrumbacher wrote:Hello All,

I've been looking at the Grey's Streamflex 10' 3wt. Does anyone have any experience casting or fishing this rod? Any comments on rod action or suitability for this style of fishing?

I have the 9' version. I've only fished spiders with it, and find it very suitable. The 10' version is probably even better.

http://www.visionflyfishing.com/page.ph ... 30&pid=106

Hello Jay,

This is a link regarding rods. How about a 10'8'' #3, or an 11'1'' #4? I have not tried these myself, but an experienced friend tells me that the 10'#4 in this series would be my perfect spider rod. Myself, I will this upcoming season experiment with a double-handed match rod, a la Mike Connor for upstream fishing.

dd

Jay- I have a Hardy Marksman 10' 4 wt. that I love for almost all the fishing I do. I have a friend who has the Grey's 10' 3wt and he loves it (he also has the Marksman)! I think you will find the 10' Marksman more acceptable for a wider range of situations. I initially bought mine for deep nymphing (which it was designed for) but it is a pleasure to cast a brace of wets with it as well. Check http://greatfeathers.com/ They are a distributor for Hardy/Grey's here in Maryland.

Welcome to the forum, it's a great resource. These guys are talented and passionate tiers and fisherman!

Thanks for all the info concerning the rods. I'm going to try to make it out to Lancaster to cast the 10' 3 Streamflex. Also thanks for the info on the Brotherhood.

Thanks,
jay

daringduffer,

Looked at the rods in your link and was thinking about a new 4 wgt, then looked for a dealer. Nothing in the US at all. Guess I'll have to talk to my mates in the UK about the rods..

I just bought a 10ft 4wt Cortland from a fellow on the Southeastern Fly Fishing Forum for $120.00. He also has 3wt for sale. I have been fishing it with a WF5 on it and it seems to work very well, for such an inexpensive rod.

Hello, Jay. Looks like we fish the same streams. In my experience the SR is not particularly outstanding soft hackle water. I've never had any great success there. Bucktails and winged wets have always worked better for me. The Neshannock, on the other hand, is a wonderful soft hackle creek. On the subject of rods, I'll try to send you in a whole other direction. I fished graphites for a while, and they were fine, but after I got my hands on a long, soft Divine bamboo, I sold all my graphite rods. Later, I got really lucky and found a couple old greenheart and lancewood rods. Wet fly heaven. The solid wood rods aren't really meant for modern style casting. It's a close -in game with a long rod and a short line -- not for everyone, but great fun. I know those rods don't turn up everyday, but they are out there, and, in the longer lengths, they won't cost you an arm and a leg. Just something to think about. Maybe I'll see you out there. I'm the old guy with the chest pack, floppy hat and greenheart rod.