Curious about rod usage

[Roadkill]

My trout fishing rods range from 3 weights up to 9 weights with at least one rod in every weight in the middle.

The vast majority of my usage is in nine foot 6 weights which I consider the best all round rod for fishing in my locality. I often fish high mountain lakes in a tube as well as running waters of all sizes and gradients- from flat tailwaters to tumbling freestone creeks. Sometimes I find a longer rod superior to my short rod even on tight small creek fishing. The second rods I favor are 4 weights either for small fish or big fish on small flies, unless the wind is up and I am back to a 6 wt. again.

Like Hans when I travel to unknown waters I usually pack a selection of 4s & 6s. If I had to choose a single rod as my favorite it would be a Sage 490 LLB that I built.

[redietz]

I think the "standard" certainly around here, and I think in much of the US, is a 9' 5wgt for trout in streams. (Stillwater fishing for trout is not really an option here in the mid-Atlantic.)

I once had Montana guide tell to bring any rod I wanted, as long as it was a 9' 5 wgt. In a way, it makes sense, because it's a reasonable compromise for most conditions, if you can only own one or a few rods.

On the other hand, I have about 30 rods between 5'6" and 10', and between 2 wgt and 7 wgt for trout. I manage to find uses for all of them.

[flyfishwithme]

There is some very interesting comments on this thread.
I guess for the most part of my fly fishing history I had standardised on 9' rods. I started out using 7 weights and slowing migrated downwards.
For line weights I had standardised on 4 and 3 weights (now and again a 5 weight is I am back in Tasmania).
But for the past 2 years I have been using longer and lighter rods and my recent acquisition will probably remain with me for a while now.
Currently I use two rods. A 10' 2 weight and a 10'4 3 weight. Both from the same Italian manufacturer.
These are probably the best rods that I have used (and I get to feel most of them in my business) and a perfectly suited to 'hackled flies' and very light nymphing techniques.
I doubt if I will ver get back to a 9' now and would jump to a 8' for smaller streams. Pity really as I have some fantastic 9' rods.
Now an interesting question goes begging here. Is it because we as anglers are comfortable with a 9' rod that the rod manufacturers innovation has slowed?

[redietz]

Now an interesting question goes begging here. Is it because we as anglers are comfortable with a 9' rod that the rod manufacturers innovation has slowed?

I find your question itself interesting, because I see no evidence at all that innovation has slowed. There's more choices now than ever.

[flyfishwithme]

Choice I agree with, but I still don't see any real innovation in rod design or introduction to specialist tapers etc. I always expect to see change but what I really mean is a 'step change' in rod performance rather than small incremental change.

[Johnno]

I have 33 fly rods and am currently in a bit of a glass phase, trying to augment my collection with decent quality glass rods of 6 wgt and under (hard to fnd in NZ).

9 foot seems to me to be the "normal" length for general trout fishing around the world (I see that Sage have the 99 which I have yet to try out but speaking to those that have - they like it) although one of my fave 6 wgts is 8 1/2 foot and to be honest I don't notice the 6 inches less of length and I don't think anyone else would either.

I use a couple of 10 footers on lakes although they do get a bit of river use. A bunch of 8 foot 3 inch and under down to 6 1/2 foot rods in 3 - 6 wgt for small streams and creeks, I love shorter rods.

[BobSmith]

Phil,
In regards to a step change in performance, rod makers would have to ditch all their computer programs and spreadsheets and adopt a Barnes Wallace approach to rod design to get a radical change in performance. With all their money tied in to these programs and analysis they would be very brave to back the ideas of a maverick. The same ideology can be seen in the car industry, all the cars are beginning to look the same, as every major manufacturer is using the same computer programs to design and test the cars, Alex Issigonis would have never invented the mini car in today’s corporate world.
However in the world of cane rods there are some great rod builders out there working on their own tapers and coming up with some great rods that the big manufactures would not touch. I use a little 7” cane rod built to a Cattanach “Sir D” taper for all my small stream work fishing both dries and north country patterns, I have a feeling if I took that rod to sage and said “What do you think?” Their computer would blow up and they’d kick me out of the building saying it’s unfishable.

[flyfishwithme]

I reckon you are right Bob. But there are some niche rod builders speckled around the world who are raising the bar and exploring new approaches to design etc. Take Modern Flies as an example. They are constantly pushing boundaries and are very much prepared to work on any innovative approach to rod design. But, in the main part, you are correct. As with car manufacturers, are we doomed to small cosmetic approaches until someone comes along with a cheap radical approach that makes it viable for the larger mass market rod makers to move. I fear we are. However, if the market demanded more we might get those innovative designs as a matter of course. Unfortunately we, as anglers, are probably not pushing the boundaries ourselves.

[BobSmith]

I think it depends on how we as consumers approach the market ourselves; I believe we are now totally dictated to by the large tackle manufacturers, and the advertising tricks they employ that we are no longer allowed to make up our own minds in regards to weight, action and length or rods. The large makers emphasize the vastness of their rod ranges, but when you actually take a hard look at their ranges you notice a correlation across the board no matter whether is Hardys, Sage or Loomis to name but a few, they all push rods of the same action, length and weight, as to them rods are just another standard utilitarian product. They may promote them in some sort of soulful way to try and tap in to the anglers psyche but in reality they could just as easily be selling baked beans.
If we really want to change boundaries in rod performance and design then I feel we have to switch to smaller and in a sense more bespoke rod builders. Only then through discussing the types of fishing we do and the types of water we fish are we able to impart ideas to the rod builder, this coupled with trying different tapers and all-round conversation are we able to truly get the rod we require or deserve.
I would like to say that if a large number of anglers turned their backs on the large rod manufacturers, and sort out more bespoke rods, the big boys look to try harder in regards to innovative designs but that’s just the romantic in me.

[MrGando]

Sorry if I'm resurrecting an old post ,

I'm from Chile and I guess no one has posted some information about my country.

There are several rods for several areas here:

a) Medium Mountain Streams : I prefer a medium action 4 8'8'' or 9' rod.
b) Small Mountain Streams: The tendency is to use fast 7'6'' #3 or #2 rods, though I think those streams are awesome for glass-like rods (medium-slow) in the 7'6'' or 8'.
c) South Of Chile (trout), all the way down to Coyhaique. The staple rod is a fast #5 rod, it has to be able to cast on heavy wind. Some guys do preffer a 5 and a 6 when there's heavy wind.
d) South Of Chile (Salmon) , Spey tackle is getting popular now, I'm not very familiarized with it, but I think #8 is a good size from what I've heard.
e) Tierra del Fuego or the end of the world spey is really getting popular there too, I think a #7 or #8 non-spey rod could work too, but the winds can be very strong, so faster action rods are usually preferred.