[macknnc]

Recently reread his "Fly Fishing Heresies" book in which he advocates a longer rod. Wright uses (or used. The book was written in 1975 and I have no idea of Wright, a WWII vet, is still alive. He'd be pretty blamed old if he is, though) Anyway, Wright's choice was a nine foot rod claiming such a rod is far superior in every respect to the shorter ones. Now I used an eight foot and eight and half fairly regularly..and like Wright prefer bamboo above all other material, and his theories seem to work out pretty well for me.

But my experience is by no means extensive. Some of you fellows get more flyfishing in during a month than I do in three years. So what do you folks think?

[Nooksack Mac]

In an earlier book, Len Wright, who now fishes where the backcasts never tangle, preferred an 8 1/2 foot five -weight. The question of rod length is ultimately unanswerable. For myself, fishing with fly tackle that properly fits the present circumstances is a lot of the pleasure of the sport. I use rods from 6 to 16 feet (but I don't use the ones at the extremes regularly). There's a reason that, in the age of graphite, nine foot rods are so popular. I like 9 1/2-foot rods for sink-tips and large flies on steelhead rivers, winter and summer. (Or I used to; now I'm usually swinging a spey rod on those occasions.) For dry fly work, where we work the rod hard and fast, I rarely use rods longer than 8 1/2 feet, even on open waters.