pike fly rod?

[jkilroy]

Northern Pike love bunny flies. They are Barry Reynolds favorite fly, all black, red/white, red/yellow and chartruse. They are heavy to cast. If you are serious about catching big pike get at least a 9wt. You will not regret it.

[Erik Osterby]

Have you considered building your own rod from a blank. You've got some time before ice out. Some of the sponsors will have kits or you can put together your own components. I have found that for the money I can build a much nicer rod than I can buy. There is a section here on rod building and your local library may have some books. If you look around you can find some great blanks on sale.

[Micropteris]

Ever think about getting a rod and using three different size line weights on it?

Lighter lines for smaller flies and presentations and heavier lines for bigger flies and wind. I know it is considered bad voodoo on this website but it's a heck of a lot cheaper and you get more use out of a single rod. Like say get an eight wt rod and get lines in sizes 7, 8, and 9 or 8, 9, and 10. After trying it out and you really want to get a 10 wt later you already got the line to use for it.

As far as backbone is concerned any fish can be landed on any rod as long as you know what you are doing. It's called practice, trial, and error.

[peregrines]

Hey JZ, that 5 footer has your name on him. Make sure you post the pics!

I don't fish for pike (yet) but I do a fair amount of fresh and saltwater fishing, so take these comments for what they're worth... which may be nothing but here goes... and no offense intended to any previous posters recommending a 10 weight.

A couple of thoughts, since it sounds like you're building your inventory of rods... what weight fly rods do you own now? And what else, (and how often) will you be using it for?

If I could only have 2 rods for to cover most FW situations, I'd want a 5 wt for trout and panfish and an 8 for LM, SM and FW striped bass, steelhead, salmon, large trout in big rivers and pike.

INMHO, a 10 wt is at the extreme heavy end of fresh water fly rods. It might be ideal for pike but unless you're going to do a lot of it, and/or a lot of big water salmon/steelhead fishing it might be overkill.

If you'll be doing a lot of bass fishing in ponds and fall fishing with streamers for big browns with occasional expeditions for pike or big water steelhead you'll probably get more use out of an 8.

Personally I'd lean towards the 8 because if I ever did want to add a heavier rod for freshwater down the road, I'd want it to be a 10, not an 11 or 12 which are designed more for fighting big (100+ lbs) saltwater fish than for casting. Most 10 weights are sweet casting rods by comparison to the 11 and 12's in the same rod family. And having an 8 and a 10 would be more versatile that a 9 and a 10.

For fishing those big flies that have been mentioned, I think you should consider overlining the rod: say an 8 wt rod with a 10 weight line. (If you geta good deal on an 8 weight combo with rod, reel and line you'll have a great bass outfit and can pick up an extra WF10 wt for your pike trips. And you'll already have a 10 wt line for a 10 wt rod if you ever pick one up down the road.) It would be good to test cast with a heavier line before you plunk down the $ tho.

As for those 10" rabbit strip flies, wow! I use them up to 5-6" or so in the salt. For bigger flies (to imitate mossbunker and herring) I use flies with or without a spun deer hair head (to push water) and a sparse dressing of synthetic fibers which don't pick up water like rabbit. I use stuff like SuperHair (10"), Angel Hair(8"), Polar Plus Fiber (10") EP Sea Fibers (9 1/2") to give a meaty look.

Here?s one without a spun deer hair head I found on the web (not tied by me) so you can see the style and size:

http://www.bunkerflies.com/IMG_0222.jpg

And LadyFisher had a post on a question about flies for barracuda (!!!) and posted a link to a fly of the week, with tying instructions, from a while back. JC caught a big ?cuda on this:

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytyin ... 0fotw.html

Have any of you pike hunters tried stuff like that?

Good luck JZ, let us know what you decide. Am looking forward to the pics of you holding up all 5 feet of Old Snaggletooth.

Best regards and good luck,

Peregrines

[Big Bad Wulff]

I found some great closeout rods for the kids..... Orvis Streamline for $29.00 at Sierra Trading Post I think.
Now I use them instead of MY more expensive rod!! Very nice rod for the $$

[JZ]

i have some good news, and bad news

good: I just talked to probobally the most knolagable flyfisherman i've ever met, Leroy, and a freind of mine Kelly palmer. they both said ... get an 8 weight! so, i have the orvis 4 peice clearwater 9 foot 8 weight coming in the mail.

Bad- my 6 and my "3" weight

i started out with a three weight,that my brother had, so this christmas i got a six weight, but it turns out that the salesman made a mistake, and the 3 weight was really a 5/6 weight.

More good- it turns out that the "three" weight, is, actually, to a bunch of people, the nicest dryfly rod they have ever used, so i gues that the pro angler "3" weight is something worth looking for!

[peregrines]

Congrats JZ sounds like you've got a honey of a rod in the 5/6 already and the Orvis should be great too.

Start tying up those Pike Flies!

I use flies like these in saltwater on my 8 wt with a short leader tied on size up to 1/0 and 2/0 hooks
(Mustad 34007). For big flies on my 8 I try to keep them sparsely dressed to make them easier to cast and add some crystal flash to make them stand out.

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytyin ... 1fotw.html

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytyin ... 0fotw.html

and my all around favorite go to fly a sparesly dressed Lefty's Deceiver:

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytyin ... 7fotw.html

And for top water, a Crease Fly:

http://www.flyfishsaltwaters.com/Creasefly.htm


Some of these SW patterns might work for you too in pike fly colors and shouldn't be a problem to throw on your 8 with a good WF line.

Good luck. Catch em up dude!

peregrines