How To Choose A Fly Rod

Hi, I'm Gavin Hodgson, fly fishing instructor and manager of Grangers Fishing Tackle here in South Kensington, London. We're going to talk you through some of the techniques and tips and help you get started in fishing. Okay, how to choose a fly rod.

Many things to consider, but probably the most important thing to consider is what most people forget and that is fly size. When it comes to fly size, that's the deciding factor on what lane we need to cast the fly and hence, what rod we need to cast the line. It works all that way.

Obviously, the size of the fish comes into the equation at some stage but starting with the fly, if we look at things like the very small, tiny little thing back there, then we can get quite a nice lane with that. For fly rods, we can even go down to this thing here, our little flyer which is for 5 foot 2. Now, this little thing is not going to land very big fish but it's perfect for that slight fly, it's perfect for taking close in the spaces and small streams, that's what it's designed for.

So stepping up with fly size, so we got things like you know, small dry flies, standard dry flies for stream fishing for trout or even small scale fishing. Lane sized are 4 and 5. So, we look at the 4 and 5, let's see.

This is a nice aim for 6 foot 4 that handle those flies at a 4 width and length with pretty decent presentation perfect for the job of fishing trout on most streams, medium sized rivers and even on small still waters where casting is short and it's safe fishing for trout. When it comes to considering a larger water trout, places like reservoirs, we often need to cut bigger flies. So a fly that size would be real tricky thing to cast for any of the rods that we've mentioned so far.

I would opt for 7 or 8, a good 6 might cast it but a 7 width could see it best and where we would end up fishing multiple flies. That is a point fly, then the 7 width is going to be your choice of rod. And a name for 6 or 10 foot number 7 is a very popular tool.

The name of the 6 or 7, good reservoir rod for bank fishing, a little boat fishing would be good too and if you're going to opt for the boat fishing, then this would rather be the best. Stepping back to trout fishing on streams, there are certain things here where our fly choice has to increase. So, our fly choice size has gone up from the tiny little guys to the main fly.

So when we see this main fly, we're going to have to step into the main size. Light lane rods just simply won't cast these flies and I would more often than not, choose a 5 or 6, would be the best to cast a lane size for a fly like a main fly. We really need to step up our river rods.

So trout aside, we've got a lot of other species to catch. We're going to look at saltwater fishing. In saltwater fishing, we start casting heavier flies, larger shrimp or beef fish imitations that really need just a heavier lane to throw them out there.

We play around with the fly line tapers to get us the turn of a bigger fly but in general, an 8 or 9 fly line would handle that fly much better than a 6 or a 7. When we start looking at saltwater rods, here we got a nice lane with reels on it, this is the keener fit that we choose for that with the appropriate fly line. Moving on from there, then we look at the larger saltwater species.

Here's a tarpon fly that can be used for many species but to learn something like a big tarpon, you obviously need a very heavy rod to catch flies like this. That's a rabbit dressing with halibut front, it's going to be quite a heavy fly when it's wet. And certainly fishing with your 8 width or your 9 width, you can cast it but it would be a messy presentation and you, struggling in the situation.

Stepping up to 10, 11 or even a 12 width fly rod, that would handle that with no problem at all. And when we look at the 10 width fly rod in comparison to the 8, it's a little beefier in action, a lot heavier in the butt, quite a powerful tool. Go