[misterchengmoua]

hey everyone! im new to the sport of fly fishing and i am thinking about building a fly rod. is there such a thing as an "all around fly rod"? what i mean by this is, i want to fish mainly for bass, pike and maybe carp. i also want to fish for trout and panfish-on occasion only.
i was thinking about getting an 8wt TFO TiCR. fit it with recoil snake guides and rec reel seat components.
any thoughts?

[dorian.ducker]

Welcome Mister....I am new to the sport as well! From what I understand you are really looking at needing two different rods. A Trout rod will typically be a 5 wt, although anything from a 3 to a 6 is pretty generally accepted depending on the situation. I would say an 8 wt. is overkill big time. I am sure other people with more knowledge about the other fish you want to fish for will post and help you out. Good luck with your rod purchase!!!

[Frank Whiton]

Hi cheng,

Dorian is right, it will be hard to have one rod to cover all the fish you are interested in. If I were doing this I would pick the one fish you are most interested in or will fly fish for the most. If it is Bass and Pike, the 8wt would be a good choice. The TFO TiCr is a fast action rod and will be harder for you to learn how to fly cast. If you build that rod then you should think about some lessons or at least get a good fly casting DVD. The problem I see is you may have trouble casting the TiCr and give up on fly fishing. If the Bass and Pike are not very big, then a 6wt may be a better choice for you. I know how big the Pike can grow in your country so I am not sure what is your best way to go.

New fly fishers usually start out with a trout weight rod with a slow to medium action and learn how to cast before they move up to an 8wt fast action rod.

Frank

[BigCliff]

Welcome to the group!

Frank's advice is right on, btw

[plland]

I would add is to say that heavier rods are typically selected for bass and pike for more reasons than just giving you an advantage in fighting the fish. If you want to be casting 4-7" long pike streamers any great distance, you simply need the heavier rod, not so much for the rod weight, but more for the weight of the heavier line. They say in fly fishing you are not casting the lure, you are casting the fly line; well your fly is piggy-backing on the momentum of your fly line so you need to select a fly small enough that it won't slow down your line speed too much. Another thing they say is that you use big flies for big fish, small flies for small fish...YMMV.

On the other hand, a heavier line can and will make a louder splash when fishing stillwater when compared to a lighter line. A fish might hear an 8wt fly line a lot louder than a 4wt fly line and will use a bit more discretion in approaching any food nearby after that unnatural splash your 8wt line made. Most people remedy this with longer leaders and tippets, but imagine taking an 8wt rod fishing for trout or panfish on a creek that's 10-25 feet across, and has fishable pools that are 12-30 feet long, and maybe you can see the advantage of a 3 or 4 weight rod.

Also, I've found that when you pull in a small fish with an 8wt rod, it's not nearly as fun as pulling in a small fish on a 3wt rod. The 8wt is like a telephone pole and you can tell that the fish isn't really fighting, but rather "dangling" from the rod tip. With the lighter rod, you can feel the smaller fish fighting, which is fun! Although, some care should be taken to avoid over-fighting a fish because if you tire out a fish too much, then throw them back into the current, they can die. I've heard that in pike flyfishing tournaments up north, all applicants are required to use at least a 9wt rod to minimize over-fighting of the fish.

So that's a lot of back and forth. Sorry about that. Basically, what it boils down to is that in fly fishing, just like every other aspect of life, there are compromises. The commonly given advice is a good one: buy a rod targeted to the type of fishing you like the most or plan to do the most, fish with it, and then decide from there whether you need a second rod. Also, lots of fly fishers start out with a lesson or two. Lessons can be very helpful to get you started casting well and to give you access to another fisherman's equipment to maybe test drive a 4wt and an 8wt side by side.

[misterchengmoua]

thanks for all the tips. i probably will stick with something heavier. i do tons more bass and pike fishing than trout and panfishing(we dont have a long trout season-2 weeks or so-and also a long drive from where i live). if i do decide to flyfish for trout and panfish, i will look at getting something around 4-5wt.
thanks everyone!