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j8000

2 questions for using 3 weight line

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I get that, Vicente. But in my mind's eye, when you say "tight quarters", I see no room to fly cast at all, let alone with a longer rod.

I applaud you people who fly fish such places.

If I get into what I think of as "tight quarters", I pull out the spinning gear and forget all about fly fishing.

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With a longer rod it decreases the chance that you actually have to cast its easy for me to reach out and put a fly in the water 15 ft away from me without really casting.

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With a longer rod it decreases the chance that you actually have to cast its easy for me to reach out and put a fly in the water 15 ft away from me without really casting.

 

That's what I have also noticed. On the one good trout creek in my county the banks overhang with trees and brush and some stretches may have 10 feet wide of open space for maybe 10 feet over the water before tree branches become an issue. Yes, you can cast straight upstream or downstream. But a cast from one bank to the other has no hope of a back-cast. A side-cast stopped short can give you just the perfect drift under the brush and along the bank. That's not really handicapped with a foot longer of rod length.

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I don't understand the "longer rod is better with over hangs" etc.

I fish from a boat the majority of the time. When I get to a stretch of bank that has over hanging branches, docks, etc., I pull out the 5'6" 3/4 weight Steve built for me. I've got MUCH more control of my line as I snake it in, around and under the cover. My loop is lower, the trajectory is lower and I can roll out much farther under the branches than I could ever hope to with a longer rod.

 

I'm not arguing against you guys who like your longer rods ... I just don't understand it.

In most of the trout streams around here, you are not "casting" most of the time. You can completely forget that ten and two crap on a small creek in the woods. Most of the time, you don't have a loop, much less a tight one. Sometimes you hit an open area where you can actually cast in the classic manner, but most of the time, you are sidearming it, roll casting, just "flipping" it, or sticking your rod tip with a couple feet of tippet hanging off under a bush or tree limb. Sometimes bow and arrow casting to get under limbs. A longer rod will give you a lot more distance more easily with most of those methods. I very seldom fish a stream where you can stand there and just cast.

 

Now, sounds like you are fishing still water, which is 1000x different than moving water, and trout will usually not hit a fly that isn't drifting naturally at the same speed of the current. If you can't keep enough line off the water to control your line dragging, you won't catch trout. A short rod is horrible at controlling your line.

 

Getting the fly on the water is just a part of the whole equation. You have to get a good drift once it's there if you want to actually catch a fish. Often, your line may be crossing three or four current seams, fast current, and pockets of still water behind rocks. That line on the water in that situation doesn't work. Your fly will be skating downstream at 5x the current speed, which will make most of our wild trout hide under a rock for three hours.

 

Let's see you get a better "loop" in here:

 

 

post-56545-0-80988500-1552224553_thumb.jpg

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Yeah, thanks for that picture, Dominecker. That's the kind of water that I wouldn't even use a fly rod.

In that picture, it's looks like the water is less than 9 feet across. Wouldn't a 9 foot rod be more of a hindrance, getting out too far and preventing you from fishing the deepest part about 4 feet from you?

 

I love fly fishing. But that particular hole/stream would be 4' spinning rod action for me.

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Yeah, thanks for that picture, Dominecker. That's the kind of water that I wouldn't even use a fly rod.

In that picture, it's looks like the water is less than 9 feet across. Wouldn't a 9 foot rod be more of a hindrance, getting out too far and preventing you from fishing the deepest part about 4 feet from you?

 

I love fly fishing. But that particular hole/stream would be 4' spinning rod action for me.

If you ever find yourself in Northern Maine Mike, then most places that look similar to that are listed in the rule book as fly fishing only.

You're crafty, a good angler, you would have no problem figuring it out.

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I always save the spinning gear for places over 50' wide or more than twenty feet deep.

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In that picture, it's looks like the water is less than 9 feet across.

If you ever find yourself in Northern Maine Mike, then most places that look similar to that are listed in the rule book as fly fishing only.

You're crafty, a good angler, you would have no problem figuring it out.

 

Thank you, Dave, for the last statement. As to the first sentence ... for now ... I'm just glad I don't live in Northern Maine! wink.png

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In that picture, it's looks like the water is less than 9 feet across.

If you ever find yourself in Northern Maine Mike, then most places that look similar to that are listed in the rule book as fly fishing only.

You're crafty, a good angler, you would have no problem figuring it out.

Thank you, Dave, for the last statement. As to the first sentence ... for now ... I'm just glad I don't live in Northern Maine! wink.png

But the winters are so wonderful Mike.

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But the winters are so wonderful Mike.

 

I'm not the sharpest cookie in the deck ... but even I know that's just NOT RIGHT !!!

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In that picture, it's looks like the water is less than 9 feet across.

If you ever find yourself in Northern Maine Mike, then most places that look similar to that are listed in the rule book as fly fishing only.

You're crafty, a good angler, you would have no problem figuring it out.

 

Thank you, Dave, for the last statement. As to the first sentence ... for now ... I'm just glad I don't live in Northern Maine! wink.png

 

Ya I've never been up there in winter but from what I've seen and heard they can have it ! But we have been traveling up there in the nicer months 2-3 times a year since 1989. We're slowing down though, soon it will be less frequent than that.

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Yeah, thanks for that picture, Dominecker. That's the kind of water that I wouldn't even use a fly rod.

In that picture, it's looks like the water is less than 9 feet across. Wouldn't a 9 foot rod be more of a hindrance, getting out too far and preventing you from fishing the deepest part about 4 feet from you?

 

I love fly fishing. But that particular hole/stream would be 4' spinning rod action for me.

If you're 4 feet from the place where the spooky wild trout are, they're already long gone. You gotta fish the hole above you standing in the one below it. And of course, that's a more extreme example. Most of our creeks aren't quite that bad. I prefer to use spinning gear on bigger water.

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Would casting a 5 weight floating line on a 3 weight rod risk breaking the rod? I assume the line would be too heavy and cause damage to the rod, or am I wrong?

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I've broken a tip by repeatedly casting the full length of a 7wt on what I later learned (after breaking the tip) was a 5 wt rod. For short casts it is fine.

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