I bought a st croix legend ultra 8' 5 weight several months ago to use to fish for panfish and small bass but wondered what would be the max. size fly you would use with a five weight.
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I bought a st croix legend ultra 8' 5 weight several months ago to use to fish for panfish and small bass but wondered what would be the max. size fly you would use with a five weight.
I throw crappie/bass flies up to 2/0 with my 5 weights (several brands) without problem.
Tim
You can chuck a pretty big bug with a 5-wt.... But your question depends on how far you want to cast, too. I have thrown 1/0 streamers with mine with little problem.
I think it largely depends on the wind resistance of the pattern, rather than the size of the hook. Mostly because of the fish I'm after, though, I'm generally tossing mostly size 12 to size 6 flies with my 5 wts.
I have a 5wt that I use for most everything. I have thrown 2/0 streamers to snook and caught one. Last week I caught a trout on a size 28 spinner pattern. I might be wrong in using it for all these different size flies but I have had good luck. If the wind is up I will use an 8wt for larger flies but the 5 wt does good for trout flies of different sizes.
Jim
If you go to the basics section on site it says to a size 8 with a 5 weight,but i thought it would handle to a size 6 with little trouble,i do understand
that a bass popper with rubber legs will grab more wind compared to a clouser in the same size.My next problem is the size reel i have,i have
a loomis glx 7' 3 weight and a 7 1/2' 4 weight glx and my current reel is a galvan ob-2 rated for 3-4 weight lines 50 yds backing-wf4w line.With
a wf5w line it might hold 30 yds but the reel is only 3" round with a .80" width spool,am currently looking at ob-3's and a few on site here but
don't want to spend alot with holidays coming up.
Thomas,
Take a look at the Okuma brand. I have one for my 3wt and my 6wt. They certainly aren't the cream of the crop, but for the money, they are more than sufficient for what I use them for. I picked mine up on ebay for something like $30. They have standard and large arbour models you can choose from.
TT
Instead of looking at getting another spool for you current reel, I would suggest thinking about getting a lower cost reel for the 5wt. Orvis has the Battenkill III Mid Arbor Reel on sale right now. That's what I use with my 5wt SC Legend Elite rod and I love it. The reason. is that the reel you have won't balance your rod properly unless you use some lead core line as your backing. The spool for your reel costs more than the reel I'm suggesting and it won't be an ideal solution to your problem.
Thomas,
The guides to fly size-v-line weights that you see are general guidelines. Like most generalities, they leave out the specifics like the casters skill, the patterns wind resistance, differences in the rods and lines (these can be significant from brand to brand, and even model to model with rods) local weather at the time of the cast, etc. Essentially useless after the first field trial.
There is no 'limit' the the size of fly you can cast on any rod. It's just how effectively you can cast it. You won't hurt your rod, and if you find you can't cast a certain size fly of a particular pattern, then try a smaller one or a different dressing until you find the limits of both your tackle and your own casting stroke. It varies for all of us. It would be nice to 'know' but it's mainly trial and error, with a bit of necessity thrown in.
I decided long ago that I didn't need to own every rod weight. I settled on 3s, 6s, and 9s. (plus a couple of 2s...). I find that with the proper line and reasonable distance expectations, I can fish deer hair bugs to 1/0 with the 3 wts. I regularly throw 3/0 bugs, balsa and foam popers, and large streamers to pike with the 6 wts.
YMMV.
Buddy
I have a 4 weight glass rod form ages past... I can cast non wind resistant flies out to blue gills to the backing if I want to on it, but I couldn't get a #10 woolly bugger past the shore without it snagging me or something close to me.... The action is jsut too slow, I'm not atht good of a castr ( though I out cast everyone with a dryfly on teh same flipping rod) or something in the formula is not right.
I say test it out and see what you can do.
I noticed that with my loomis glx 4 weight that i use a rio grand line on that is 1/2 weight larger than a normal four weight that
when i tried casting for instance a size 10 panfish popper that it was hard to turn over even with a 2x or 3x leader with a larger
butt section that i would have thought would help.I just don't want the chunk and duck effect,thus the reason i chose the size
6 fly as it's maximum.
I fish #2 Sneakey Pete's on my 5wt all summer fishing for Smallies. I can throw a 1/0 or 2/0 clouser on it also, but it gets dangerous when the wind gets up...
So many factors come into play besides just the fly hook size. Angler skill, fly line, leader, fly shape fly materials, fly weight, and how materials are applied to the fly. Many anglers have seen Mark Sedotti's demonstrations where he casts 20+ inch long flies with a 7wt rod over 100ft. I usually do not cast anything much bigger than a size 6 bugger or size 10 panfish popper with a 5wt rod and often when casting flies this size I will use a 6 or 7wt line on the 5wt rod because I am usually casting short distances and want the load the rod. I can cast bigger flies, but find it easier to do with heavier rod/line combinations.
That Legend ultra is a fairly fast, and stiff 5 wt. If you want to throw the bigger panfish and bass flys with it, it would be happy to handle a WF6F line...all it takes is a little timming adjustment to your casting stroke. I have even thrown a WF7F line on my 8'6" 5wt slow Orvis fly rod and it handled it very well (this rod is howerever very parabolic in action, allowing for the overlinning if I just slow down my stroke and let the rod load to the cork). Fiberglass rods will take overlinning very well also due to their slower recovery time and typically heavy butt sections. Sorry, drifting off ona tangent. Practice casting in the yard or local ball field with different line weight lines and you will expand your rod's horizon.
aa
I have the same rod and mostly use it for dries in the 16 to 12 range and streamers & buggers no larger than 6. On the larger and heavier flies I also open up the loop (which reduces distance) which avoids 'wind' knots or clunks from the fly hitting the rod (or me). I like good casts and tight loops, so if I was planning on a day of larger flies I would just take a 6wt rod for streams or a 7wt rod for lakes.
Decades ago in the old school for fishing bamboo fly rods, from a SA Fly Fishing Made Easy page; a #5 weight line would handle a range of fly sizes from 12 - 22, a #6 : 8 - 20 & a #7: 6-16. Now with the graphite #6 weight & an intermediate #7 weight flyline plus a 7 1/2' tapered leader plus a 12" bite tippet of 20-25lb fluoro usually stay with hooks of #1 or smaller on the salt. For larger flies just take a bigger fly rod. Haven't broken a fly rod using this size range of hooks to line weight guide yet; but overlining a rod does up the hook size without breaking the rod & if you cast fairly well alot of rods will take overlining 2 weights up ( or down ). Used to be choose the targeted fish, size the flies needed, match the line weight to the fly size & then choose the fly rod needed. Generally go up 1 hook size, #10 hopper or cricket on the #5 weight with a 9' leader & 2 hook sizes with a #8 crayfish with a 7 1/2' leader, or change line &/or rod.
Many of the previous posts say this either directly or indirectly. "It is the line that casts the fly." Big flies require heavier line to pull them along. Heavier lines require heavier (in rating) rods to get the velocity required. It's all physics. Read "The Mechanics of Flycasting" on my website if you have trouble sleeping. www.HATofMichigan.org and go to the ebook page.
Bob
... but I have fished a tandem of ( two ) heavily weighted size 6 4XL stonefly nymphs under a large yarn indicator using a medium fast 9' for 5 wt and a DT5F line. Yes, it took some concentration, and it wasn't the easiest rig to manage, but I did catch trouts on the South Fork of the Snake with that set up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas
The point is - just go do it. You'll find out what works for you with your skills and equipment.
John
In my "experience" the line or rod #'s have NEVER dictated to me as to what baits I can/should use. I can usually, as in my golf game, " finesse" whaterver is in my hands at the time to do whatever I wish it to do.
Mark
PS: I lied about the "golf"