Fly rods and drivers

[sport]

I have been pondering the similarity of fly rods and golf driver marketing sales pitches. Every advertisement
tries to sell us something that provides more distance, greater speed, less spin, faster action ect. etc, etc. My question is this WHO NEEDS IT? Has another glacier gone through and widened all of the rivers in North America? OK, I am older then most of you, (55-60), but I have fished every major river in New England, and several out west, and I can't for the life of me find the need for a rod that shoots line like a cannon, other then salt water into the wind. I pulled out some Orvis and LL Bean catalogues from 1971 tonight and the all of the rods are 71/2 foot 5 wt, and 8' 6 wt. They did not offer a 9' rod back then other for a 9 weight line. I have a much easier time bringing a fish to net with an 8' rod, instead of a 9 ft rod. Why are all of the rods made by ALL of the major rod builders 9'? The same reason drivers have heads as big as pumpkins. No one wants to learn the proper techniques. How many times do you really need to cast more then 45'? How many times more then 30'? Why can't I find a 8' 6 wt new rod today? I would appreciate some feedback on this, I don't think I am alone on this one.

[Chad]

Sport,
Have you ever noticed that what was once the B-all and End-all of rods a few years ago, is now replaced by a new B-all and End-all rod making that one obsolete? I always chuckle when a rod from 5 years ago that had "arrived", is now forgetten about by the same manufacturer. But hey, it's an indusrty, and many folks make a living at it, so I guess I don't blame them...

[ducksterman]

Sport,
You might enjoy reading ..."The Right Rod For The Experience" by Dave Whitlock in FlyFishing & Tying Journal...Fall 2006...

I just happened to have read it tonight before reading your post...the same subject...

[Bugsy]

redacted,,,,

[Bear742]

Sport,

It is good to see someone with an historical perspective. I frequently get asked what it was like fishing with Isaac Walton.

They (9'-10' Fast Rods) are like Color TV. To oversimplify, once everyone had perfectly good Color Televisions in the 19-29" range, what happened? Did people stop buying TVs and start getting sets of the Great Books? No, we got a whole slew of bigger, thinner, clearer, plasma, digital gagets that cost more. My favorite thing is watching the adds that show how great their fidelity and resolution is on my standard 27" Magnovox

Back to the rods. Howell Raines said,"Orvis is the only one making money on fly fishing."

John Gierach pointed out,"You might find out that you can't cast any further with your new Orvis than you did with the Eagle Claw."

Do people listen?

That 'splains why we have the ever escalating rod wars. Next let me to point out that the 8 and 8 1/2 foot rods are easy to find. eBay is brimming with them. The fact that the rods are used is not a problem since Fly Fishing has a well established tradition of preferring old stuff.

And, besides the bamboo craze, there is even a faddish return to glass under weigh. It is acceptable to show up at the chalkstream with a White Wonderod provided you have a good line about how you spent months searching for the model finally locating one in Cape Town. Don't tell anyone that Cape Town is the nickname for your garage.

The same independent spirit, that inspired "exempt employees" to exchange their white shirts for pastel shirts in the 60's, lives on. You are free not to buy one of those $800 leading edge space age technology lifetime waranteed things. Besides, in about 5 years, you can get one on eBay for $70-80 plus shipping.

Once I thought Silaflex was the name to conjure with.

[Marco]

Sport,
I see we live in the same town ( and probably sub-division) . We also share to a "T" the opinions stated in your post. My 8' Eagle Claw cast ALL the line I ever needed to cast and probably would have caught ALL the fish I ever wanted to catch. After that rod, I bought newer and better rods so that I could..........................

Mark

[Jim Sentell]

Hey "sport",

Something about age and gullibility, isn't there?

As Struther Martin said in "Cool Hand Luke"...."what we have here is a failure to communicate..." It's an industry-standards, industry-driven sport just like golf and all the other sports. If you don't have this new-fangled rod you won't catch diddly because you won't be able to cast that 106' to where the fish are!!!!!

And, even though we are doing fine catching and only need to learn and practice some better casting techniques, we go out and buy a new $655 rod so we can cast farther.

We listen to the "industry" and the "experts" because they know more than we do. What ever happened to curiosity, experimentation and discovery?

Now, as a caveat, I fell into the same BS eight years ago and have spent thousands, many thousands, on fly rods and reels. To satisfy a curiosity, and shut-up my fishing buddy about this fly fishing, I bought a Scientific Angler's kit at Dick's while shopping for more power worms.
Well, I caught the bug, got better and was told I needed a better rod and reel: so, it went to St. Croix, then Orvis, then Sage and finally, Winston.

Over that time period I read, studied, watched, experimented and learned. Now, what's gone forever? All the above.

What did I learn? The industry, perpetuated by the experts, are building rods that are "castable"; the farther the better.....what should they be building; rods that are "FISHABLE".

http://www.byrdultrafly.com/fishlev.htm

http://p097.ezboard.com/Achieving-Glass ... =153.topic

Is it going to change? Hell no! Not as long as we keep buying what we're told to!

Jim

[StephenPrunier]

I kind of look at it like this. The Driver would = a 9' fast action Rod. The 9 iron / wedge would = a 6' Bamboo Rod. Like the Golf companies. The Rod companies try to match each style of golf club with a fly rod. I have only a couple rods. I have a friend who has 15! I fish with a 2 iron and a 7 iron He has so many he has to leave some out of his bag . I read an article were the author recomended having 3 rods strung and ready to go so you don't loose any time during the hatch! Thats right 3 rods. To me thats just nuts.

[perch]

Lets face it Sport,we are a consumption driven society.
Mine goes faster than yours.
Yours seems shinier than mine.
Lets out-gear the guy on the other side of the stream so that he thinks I know what Im doing.
"I must know what Im doing cause all of MY gear is new and top of the line".
We've all met the guys like this.
Do you really need to gear "up"?
Also ,let face it Sport ,we all know that golfing aint really a "sport" . It's anotherwise nice walk interupted by hitting and chasing a rotten little ball!

[Jordan]

I don't know, Stephen. I often string up more than one rod when I fish. Usually two, but occasionally three. I have one with a Polish-style nypmhing setup, and one or sometimes two with dry flies. Part of this is because I tie my own leaders, and lack any sort of quick connection mechanism. If anyone else has ever rigged up double dropper nymphing rigs, you know that even with fast hands, it takes some time. I do pre-tie rigs of varying weight and depth, but it's still a pain to switch them out, while preserving the old rig for future use.

With the dries, I just enjoy using my bamboo rods. It's not a matter of overconsumption or some kind of sporting mania. I do it because I like casting to rising fish with a shorter, slower rod. It's just plain preference. Could I go and fish only one rod - sure, I do it all the time, but I also like being able to switch. To you it might be nuts, but it's the way I like it.