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billyzj

bass fly rods

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I have 2 Medalists 1500 series that are approaching my old Medalists in quality. I bought one for carp fishing and the other for the salt. Sadly, the 1595 has not seen a lot of use but the 1598 has been in the salt several times and it has held up well. In fact it has fared much better than my old SA that was made by Hardy and cost much more than the Medalist. They may not be quite as good and won't know for several years but they look good. The old Japanese takeoffs where junk but these new china models seem to be near the 60's models quality if not equel to them. The 1500 series have the exposed rim and are a little heavier than the 1400 series reels. I am more than happy with the ones I bought and if I find that I need another fresh water reel I would not hesitate to buy another of either of the 14 or 1500 series reels.

 

As far as rods are concerned, Eagle Claw is marketing a few glass rods that are cheap. I don't currently own one but I have handled them and they are slow action rods. The ones I saw were around $30 and I wished I had picked them up I was just too frugel (tite). I am going to try to get back to the flea market that had them and get them. They would make good starter rods.

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Your fishing conditions also can make a big difference. Fishing over heavy weed beds with a 5 wt is just asking for a bass of a lifetime to dive into a salad that you can not lift with a noodle rod. Also, if you fish to deeper sructure lighter rods cannot handle the heavier sinking lines required to get you down before your boat blows you all over the place. IF you face those two needs you need a at least an 8 if not a 9 weight.

 

LaCrosse makes excellent, affordable, rods.

 

Reels for bass are just a storage tool. I back off all my brakes to a point that they just prevent backlashes and use my reeling hand on the spool for adjustable braking. Do the ame thing with Great Lakes salmon but you need a reliable brake for those high speed devils.. Bass rarely run any distance.

 

Rocco

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Your fishing conditions also can make a big difference. Fishing over heavy weed beds with a 5 wt is just asking for a bass of a lifetime to dive into a salad that you can not lift with a noodle rod. Also, if you fish to deeper sructure lighter rods cannot handle the heavier sinking lines required to get you down before your boat blows you all over the place. IF you face those two needs you need a at least an 8 if not a 9 weight.

 

LaCrosse makes excellent, affordable, rods.

 

Reels for bass are just a storage tool. I back off all my brakes to a point that they just prevent backlashes and use my reeling hand on the spool for adjustable braking. I do the same thing with Great Lakes salmon but you need a reliable brake as a bckup for those high speed devils.. By contrast bass rarely run any distance.

 

Rocco

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i had a eagle claw 8/9 weight before thats the one the broke,did not throw very far,i also never used the reel to bring em in cheap reel i had just wouldnt reel in any fish,all i ever fish is the grass and pads

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if i were to get a 7/8 setup would it thow the smaller poppers,ive got a variety of big and small,just wondering what you guys think

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Rocco...

 

I fish weed infested waters that are full of all kinds of 'stick ups' (drowned trees) and have never had a major problem keeping bass out of both with a 5wt, and have not seen the need for a heavier rod for such waters. I find that if I use a straight piece of 12-15lb monofiloament about 6-7 feet long for my leader/tippet, I have no problems of the type you mention. Ihave evenused 15lb Spiderwire with great success. As noted bdefore, I base the day's rod and line weight on both prevailing wind and type of fly I plan to use. I have never had any trouble getting flies, designed to be fished subsurface (Clousers, Woolhead Leaches, Crayfish patterns, streamers, etc.) down in 8-10 feet of water with a 5wt Full Sink line either. Though I have one, I have never fished a 9wt Full Sink line for bass.

 

Billy...

 

A direct response to the 7/8 wt rod question is YES!

 

Howefver, you apparently do not fully understand the relationship between the fly, the line, and the rod. The maximum size of the fly is determined by line and rod weight; but, not the minimum size. Therefore, you can throw a #32 dry fly with a 15wt line and rod; but, you can't throw a 5lb. brick with it. In other words, as the line and rod weight increases, the size, mass, and wind resistance of the fy you can throw also increases, but the smallest size remains the same.

 

When one can readily fight, and bring to hand, our coastal redfish with a 5wt, you should be able to handle most anything you have mentioned. HOWEVER; using a 5wt all day in 15-20mph winds can be a real killer! An 8wt would be a much wiser choice under such prevailing wind conditions; even a 9wt would not be too big to help 'cut through the wind'! Likewise, casting an 8wt all day for bream and small bass could also be a" killer". This is the reason why 90% of the members of Texas FlyFishers in Houston, Texas, my 'Home club', recommend a 5 wt and an 8wt.

 

You are to be commended for doing the level of homework you are doing before making a 'final decision'.

 

Cheers!

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Rocco...

 

I fish weed infested waters that are full of all kinds of 'stick ups' (drowned trees) and have never had a major problem keeping bass out of both with a 5wt, and have not seen the need for a heavier rod for such waters. I find that if I use a straight piece of 12-15lb monofiloament about 6-7 feet long for my leader/tippet, I have no problems of the type you mention. Ihave evenused 15lb Spiderwire with great success. As noted bdefore, I base the day's rod and line weight on both prevailing wind and type of fly I plan to use. I have never had any trouble getting flies, designed to be fished subsurface (Clousers, Woolhead Leaches, Crayfish patterns, streamers, etc.) down in 8-10 feet of water with a 5wt Full Sink line either. Though I have one, I have never fished a 9wt Full Sink line for bass.

 

Billy...

 

A direct response to the 7/8 wt rod question is YES!

 

Howefver, you apparently do not fully understand the relationship between the fly, the line, and the rod. The maximum size of the fly is determined by line and rod weight; but, not the minimum size. Therefore, you can throw a #32 dry fly with a 15wt line and rod; but, you can't throw a 5lb. brick with it. In other words, as the line and rod weight increases, the size, mass, and wind resistance of the fy you can throw also increases, but the smallest size remains the same.

 

When one can readily fight, and bring to hand, our coastal redfish with a 5wt, you should be able to handle most anything you have mentioned. HOWEVER; using a 5wt all day in 15-20mph winds can be a real killer! An 8wt would be a much wiser choice under such prevailing wind conditions; even a 9wt would not be too big to help 'cut through the wind'! Likewise, casting an 8wt all day for bream and small bass could also be a" killer". This is the reason why 90% of the members of Texas FlyFishers in Houston, Texas, my 'Home club', recommend a 5 wt and an 8wt.

 

You are to be commended for doing the level of homework you are doing before making a 'final decision'.

 

Cheers!

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If you want cheap and good rod, look for a high quality fiberglass 6 or 7 or 8 weight in a yard sale. Rewrap the guides and refinish and you have a treasure. IMHO you can cast a large fly easier in a slower moving forgiving fiberglass rod. My last find was a 5 weight Fenwick with the original aluminum tube for $25 on Craigslist. It needed nothing. I really just wanted another aluminum tube.

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Perchjerker,

 

Glad to hear the 5wt works for you in thethick stuff. . It takes a lot of skill to land a monster in such waters and I give you a lot of credit for the approach as it can be very satisfying. (I was into UL spinning for bass years ago and landed some good fish -- to 8lbs-- on 4 lb line but only from fairly open waters.)

 

But I still say there is a definite place for the heavier fly rod system. My main experience with bass in serious weeds is Back Bay on the north end of Albermarle Sound In NC. The Bay is really a 4-5 foot deep dish that goes for miles. It resembles a green golf course more than a lake but for the trails cut through by motor props to the odd duck blind. The vegetation grows dense and you need every bit of lifting power in the rod to keep a good bass from diving and wrapping you in the jungle and thereby getting a direct pull that either shreds a knot or pries out a hook. Bass in the 7-9 lb class would eat a 5wt alive in that stuff. Some Fl, SC and TX bass lakes also have flats that are near as bad in vegetation density

 

As for fishing deep water, I still prefer a really fast sinking line for fishing large streamers off of steep dropoffs and over deep structures. The heavier lines get deeper faster and give me a better feel for the flies' action.

 

Regards,

Rocco

 

.

 

 

 

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Rocco...

 

Your points are well made, and I do NOT disparage heavier lines and rods. All I am saying is that bass can be successfully landed in such areas on a 5wt rig. You are absolutely correct about certain Florida and Texas reservoirs being weed choked. Lake Fork, near Dallas, and Lake Conroe, near Houston, are both excellent examples. A major problem made by the majority of guys who fish such stuff with the long rod is that they use what some who fish Lake Fork thusly consider to be a 'self-defeating' leader; one with knots in itI You not only may have a 5-6lb bass on the fly, but you may aso have a 5-gallon bucket full of moss draped over the front end of the fish, and hung up on the knots. The whole mess may weigh 15-20 pounds, or more, including the fish. This is why many who fish such waters here, including myself, use a single strand of 12-15lb mono as both leader and tippet; the knots are eliminated that can collect moss like a haybailer, and the tensile strength of the material is sufficient to enable one to boat the bass.

 

One professional guide on Lake Fork is a profound advocate of using Spider Wire instead of mono because, for it's tensile strength, it is much smaller in diameter than mono. A characteristic which enables it to "cut through the weeds", to use his very words, and thus eliminating the 'bucket of moss'. His photos of the differences in what one brings to boat when using a knotted leader, and compared to what they bring in when using Spider Wire, are astounding! They will definitely make a 'believer' of even the most 'devout' skeptic. Incidentally, these are photos of what his clients catch. And, believe it or not, it WILL turn over a big deer hair bug with finesse!

 

(Thank heavens for polyploid grasscarp; they have almost totally eliminated the Lake Conroe weed problem!)

 

Regards!

Frank

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If fishing debris with all the nasties you want the heaviest rod in your hands cause you are gonna get a butt kicking just about everytime. Sure I use a 3wt an awful lot fishing for bass with my personal best 19.5" but every fish heavier have handed my butt on platter! It sucks to lose them! I used a 6wt last year and had a huge bass on up to kayak and decided to make one more run in the weeds and promptly snapped the tip off the rod. So morale of this topic is go ahead use smaller rod but If I could change it when the opportunity arise with a big fish on I am wishing I had my 9 or 10wt without thinking about it cause they are not as easy as trouts!

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Billy,

 

I have been using a redington crosswater in a 9' 5/6 wt and have had fantastic results. Got it on sale for under $40. It has handled some bass up to around 4 lbs with no problem, I am using a cheap shakespeare 1094 reel and cant complain. Rod and reel set me back around $50.

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Read my original post and found evidience of another brain spasm In recommending rods, I printed LaCrosse while thinking St Croix! Its ahrd getting old.

 

Rocco

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