What weight rod do you recommend when casting large bass poppers/flies. I remember in my early years, I used a 9-weight, which seems like overkill. However, casting large poppers can be a chore on smaller rods.
What weight rod do you recommend when casting large bass poppers/flies. I remember in my early years, I used a 9-weight, which seems like overkill. However, casting large poppers can be a chore on smaller rods.
A popular recomendation is to use an 8 wt. rod. I can vouch for this as I have tried to cast some large flies with my 7 wt. An 8 wt. just handles them so much better.
Hey Steve,
I still use two nine weight rods for my big poppers and flies even in fresh water. I fish a large, deep lake (Hartwell in SC) and distance IS important not only the LMB but particularly for stripers and hybrids. The extra backbone doesn't seem like overkill when you are trying to keep the big boys out of the brush and tree tops. Just my 2% of a dollar; I'm sure others will disagree. 8T
This is not a question or problem for me anymore since I won the Sage Smallmouth Bass fly rod! Sorry!
This rod takes care of that problem and it is so light in the hand that you can use it all day. If anyone spends a lot of time casting larger flies and poppers, this is the rod to get.
I am very proud to have won this rod and I can highly recommend it to anyone.
I do a lot of LM Bass fishing and have tried various weight rods over the years.
The lake, across the road from my house, has a lot of bank side vegetation that's a real bear to either go over, or through so I often fish "over it" to reach certain hot spots that hold bass.
I also, often use my 'Toon, to fish this lake and others in my area and like to keep my bass bugs as high off the water as possible on my backcasts.
So, to solve both situations, I started using a 10' 6wt. T & T rod, with a Bass taper WF line.
With a shortened leader, ( 6' x 5X usually), to turn over the poppers and deer hairs, this combo works exceptionally well!
Just, another .02 worth.
Saint Paul-"The Highly Confused"
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
I use 8 or 9wts for large popping bugs, gurglers, crease flies etc. Since 8 and 9wt rods are often designed to load optimally with 40-45 ft of the rated line extended, if I will mostly be making casts shorter than this, I will upline by one or two line weights to help load the rods. If I expect to be making both short, medium, and long casts, I will use the rated line.
Steve,
'Large' poppers/flies is a bit subjective.
I use a 6 wt. for most of my bass fishing with poppers and hair bugs up to about a size 1. For 'larger', those 1/0 to 5/0 baits, then an 8 or 9 is fine. All this is using normal 30 to 60 foot casting distances as a 'given'.
I prefer to use lighter rods for bass, they just don't fight all that hard and these heavy rods are overkill in most intances, but you do need the heavier lines for those big baits.
Good Luck!
Buddy
It Just Doesn't Matter....
One thing about it ... if push came to shove and your rod options became less and less, a heavier weight rod will still catch small fish and cast all kinds of flies and lures. But the lighter rod is more limited. I do my share of large bass fishing and use an 8wt; besides the weight of he fish, there's the "chuck and duck" aspect, too.
On my Alaska trip this past August, I took my old favorite 5wt for the cutthroats and the 9wt for the salmon and dolly varden; never in my life have I had, at times, to hang on to my fly rod with both hands!
Fly
I don't throw a lot of really big poppers (rarely larger than size 2) so a good strong 6wt usually does the trick. In the wind, or with particularly air-resistant bugs I'll pull out my 8wt.
If it swims and eats, it'll eat a fly.
For smallmouth and largemouth on the local creek I use my 8 1/2 ft 5 wgt. On larger rivers and lakes, I'll use my 9 ft 6 wgt. With the materials available today it's not that difficult to tie a 5 or 6 inch long fly that can be cast with 6 wgt or a 4 to 5 inch fly that can be cast with a 5 wgt. These rods will also handle poppers/sliders/gurglers and Crease flies up 3-3 1/2 inches long..