help with selecting Flyfishing setup

[Mark Harris]

Hello all,

Until now, I’ve only fished the high-lakes by casting lures.

I would really like to give flyfishing a try. I’m planning on taking a flyfishing class at the local community college.

When it comes to fly rod/reel combos I don’t have a clue.

I’ve looked at a number of “beginner combos” but they are mostly 2 piece which is kind of long to be packing into a high-lake. I’m hoping to get a little help from some experts for suggestions.

Here is what I’m looking for:
1. As cheap as I can go and still have an effective setup.
2. Something I can break down enough to easily pack in.
3. proper size and length??? I’ve seen rods from 8′ to 12′-6″ What is ideal for typical high lake fishing? Also, I’ve see rods refered to as different weights. Again, what is ideal?
4. Is there a set-up that I can cross over from high-lakes to steelhead fishing if so desired?

thanks,

Mark

[Jim Welch]

So, I have been doing a lot of research in the last 6 months for this exact question. I used to fish the hi-lakes with an Eagle Claw Trailmaster rod set up, it was an ok spin casting rod and a lousy fly rod, you could remove the handle, spin it around and it looked like a fly rod.

I like Brian Curtis, started taking a fly rod up with me and put a spin reel on the back, it did a decent job, but not a great job at both types of fishing

As a result of one of the threads on the Trail Blazers forums, I saw a 7 piece rod from Cabelas called the Stowaway 7 that intrigued me. I also saw on the Orvis website a rod that the whole end section can be swapped out between a spin handle and a fly handle, but the outfit was above my pay grade (more than $300).

I also did some research on the Stowaway 7’s and some of it was pretty good, it wasnt a Sage or Loomis level, but the reviews came back better than I expected.

The last piece of info that factored into this equation was that I read somewhere that when you are bushwacking up a hill with a bunch of stuff on your back, its easiest and safer if everything is on the inside of your pack, I always had attached my sleeping pad and fishing rod tube on the outside, and I would always end up with a big wad of leaves caught in the cracks of the pack/rodtube and pack/sleeping pad connections.

So I will be trying a new packing philosophy this season, EVERYTHING goes IN the PACK.

I mean EVERTHING.

so my current rod tub is too tall, the Stowaway 7 rod tube (with rod in it) is only 20 inches long and they were selling the blanks for dirt cheap around christmas.

so I bought some blanks and put spinning handles on them, I also went on ebay and got some good deals on factroy made 7’s.

So now I have the equivalent of the Orvis system only much cheaper.

the rod cost me 85, the blanks cost 25 bucks each, and I got a rod case with the rod,. the spin handle costs 12 bucks.

so now I have a system that I can swap out the butt end from fly to spin casting, and have the best of both worlds.

Or so the theory goes…..

Jimbo.

BTW, the blanks and fly rod are a 5 weight, 8 foot rod. I have a TFO Midge reel with 3 cassettes, one with weight forward floating, one with weight forward floating with and intermediate sinking tip and one a full sinking line. I also have a small Shimano reel with 4 pound test line on it, I am looking for info regarding the new 4lb test that is the same diameter as 1lb test.

and if you check out my posts on the Trail Blazers website you will see a file with what are the essential lures and flies the Trail Blazer and Hi-Lakers use.

Good Luck!

[Author]

Posts