buying a new rod.

I've only recenty came back to fly fishing in the last year after 15 years away ( 14 years old and didn't appreciate the finer things in lifewhen I last fly fished). I have fished a varieity of rods weight wise ( 4-8) and lengths and have a decent idea of what I want that way. Price wise I have my budget, but a huge improvement of my under $100 combo is what I am looking for. Overall I am looking for a medium action 7 weight rod in probably a 10' lenght.
I fish alot of small lakes and a float tube will be a future purchase.

My question is should I buy a 2 piece or 4 piece rod? And what differences can I expect between a 2 piece vs a 4 piece? I expect the action of the four piece to be stiffer than the two piece, am I wrong to think this? I'd like to travel some with my new rod but at the same time don't want to sacrafice the action of my new rod too much.

What is my best option?

-Hillard

hi Hillard, you won't notice a difference in the action between a 2 or 4 peice rod these days, so I would recommend the 4 peice for the convenience factor.

What Garic said!

i hate 2 peice rods they dont fit in your trunk. but 4 peice rods suck sometimes putting them together get 4 peice with the alignment dots on them like tfo rods have

4 pc all the way for me. Or at least 3. I have a 10 ft. 3 pc 8 wt. I built on a Dan Craft blank. It's not to bad to take along.
Alignment is best accomplished by starting with the tip section and letting the guies hang below the rod. when you see equal amounts of each guide on either side of the rod you are straight. Real easy for me to see with this method. I put the butt section on last and get it close. Then put the reel on and fine tune it. Just my nickle's worth.

4 piece hands down

Over-all convenience, go with the 4 piece, if you haven't been fishing in 14 years you will be amazed at how good rods are now. On the alignment, anyone can take a toothpick and a bottle of fingernail polish and put the dots on. The reason many rod companies don't is they don't stay....eventually they come off. Putting the top and bottom sections together and then joining them is exactly what we do.

Hi,

I have two 2 piece rods, and one 4 piece rod. I almost never use either of the 2 piece rods anymore because the 4 piece rod travels so much easier; it just fit in our car better. Even on trips when the heavier 2 piece rod would have been the better choice, I would take the 4 piece rod because the longer rod just got in the way while driving and the 4 piece would fit in the trunk. However, we've just purchased a used minivan, so my 2 piece rods can now fit in the vehicle, so I'll use them more now. If I were replacing them, however, I would get a 4 piece rod.

As Obi Wan said, "Use the fours, Luke".

- Jeff

LadyFisher :idea: fingernail polish ohhhh, I have some rods to paint. Thankyou would have never though of that

I have a 10' 8 wt that is a two piece and the only reason was that it was cheaper than the 4 pc and a rod I won't be using all the time.
I did buy a 10' 5 wt that is a 4 piece. I tell you, the tube on the 8 wt is LONG. Have a hard time getting it into my Zuki.
My vote is 3 or 4 pc.

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I think I will go with the 4 piece when I buy my new rod this fall. I just have to wait till cash flow improves to lay down a good chunk of change on a nice new rod. Just have too many other commitments to take care of in the next few months. Brothers wedding in september that I have to fly back to Nova Scotia for and another wedding back east I have to miss but my fiance has to go to. Guess it gives me time to do my reasearch to what I actually want in a rod.

I've been fishing this summer with a cheap department store rod but have had the chance to borrow a few high quality rods way beyond my budget from friends. I would like to have a rod like my friend but am basically limited to around $500 total cost for my new rod reel and line. Easy enough to find more than a few models for that budget.

While day to day transport of a 2 piece rod isn't much of an issue for me, the potential to fly with a longer rod tube isn't as attactive to me as a shorter 4 piece rod tube. I'm not taking any fishing gear home to my Brothers wedding (dispite that there should be some Atlantic salmon in the Margaree Rive when I'm home) some what because of length restrictions airlines have and lack of time. I'm only making a short trip and am in the wedding so disapearing to fish won't go over well with his new wife.......She's already warned us of the consequences ;)

:D
HMD;
Check out Hook & Hackle kits. You can build a great rod for little money! Yes you can do it with very little expense!

Hi,

I have a cabelas five piece stowaway, my girlfriend has a three forks two piece when we pack up to go fishing her rod case is always the odd man out because its so long. So my prefereance is more towards more sections for the sole reason that it takes up less space. I have fished and casted both rods and there is not any noticable differance lest wise to me.

wireguy

I'm actually thinkng about building a rod in the winter but I will still probably buy the one I was planning on in the fall. I tend to fish a variety of water and fish species so one rod is not going to do it all. I tend to fish alot of lakes with some decent size trout, want to tackle pike on the fly rod too, but then I also fish small creeks and we fish for perch sometimes too.

I'm thinking I might build a 2wt rod just for the small streams and perch fishing I do and use the 7wt 10 foot I want for lakes. I have a cheap 7wt now and when I go home for my brothers wedding I'll be bringing back another rod that needs some repair. I left it back east when I moved out to Alberta as I couldn't fit in in my car and figured it needs some work anyways. Now I want the thing, I forget what it is but remember it as a pretty decent rod. It's just missing a few guides due to past storage abuse it suffered being left in my mothers garage for 10 years. So basically I'll have my hands on 4 rods by next spring once I buy the one I want and get the others set up.