9ft or 10ft?

[Waterfox]

I have several fly rods, all 9ft lenght. I usually flyfish from belly boats and I know that 10ft rods are more useful on that cases. However I was wondering about your preferences in general terms for a fly rod...9ft or 10ft?
Thanks in advance
Waterfox

[LadyFisher]

Regardless of what you may have read, it is not easier to cast a 10ft. rod, a longer rod is always harder to 'stop' than a shorter rod. Additionally, see the link below
[url=http://www.flyanglersonline.com/lighterside/croft/car40.html:8e49e]http://www.flyanglersonline.com/lighterside/croft/car40.html[/url:8e49e]

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LadyFisher, Publisher of
FAOL

[MarkKillam]

Ok...along those lines....would a 8'6" 4 wt be at a disadvantage with a float tube? The only two rods I really use much are my GL3 9' 6wt and GL3 8"6" 4wt. I prefer the 6 wt for buggers or "breezy" conditions and like the 4 wt for dries and calm conditions. Plus the fact that both rods are 4 pc where my others are two means that these are the two rods I have for use when packing a float tune into backcountry lakes.

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Take care everyone and cya around. Mark

[Waterfox]

Good joke LadyFisher and it's really true!
Waterfox

[lee s]

There is a 7 1/2' 5wt Fenwick glass rod around here that gets used a LOT in the tube.
If you are having trouble hitting the water behind you with a 9' rod, a 10' rod will only add a foot of distance to THAT spot! Like JC says, "keepeth thy backcast uppeth" will serve you better than a long rod.
If you build your rods, you can somewhat "balance" it by adding a few corks to the foregrip, thus holding it a bit further up.
We DO like our 10'er. It is a 5wt. We succumbed to the temptation by reasoning the advantage in mending and lifting more line over the poop in the ponds. It does that. It does keep our backcast about
1 1/2' higher than the 7 1/2' rod does.
....lee s.

[ducksterman]

Would a "very fast" rod be easier to stop?

If one had a longer very fast rod vs a shorter somewhat slower rod would it make up the difference perhaps????

[Fly Goddess]

I think a longer faster rod is great. I love my 9'6" 6wt. Orvis "TL". As far as hitting the water behind you, stop sooner! You don't have to muscle that longer rod as much to get distance. The newer upper end rods are very light although the TL was discontinued for the T3 which is a little lighter. You get what you pay for.

[Rich Ward]

There are 2 things that keep a flyline in the air loop shape and line speed loop shape is total up to you,longer lever means you can generate more line speed That is the only reason a 15' two hander cast a greater distance than a 10 footer. BUT INMO there are far fewer good 10 footer to choose from. than 9 foot rods.Most of my go to rods are 10 ft. for all aplacations. it is not right or wrong it is simply what I like. It would prefer to use fire retardent as fly floatant so my go to rods are FAST too.

Rich

[idahofisher]

The disadvantage of a longer rod is the longer the rod's length the less accurate casts become. A shorter rod will be more accurate.

The advantage of longer rods are their ability to allow more controlled mending (less line on the water) and being able to produce a higher back-cast which in turn can help increase casting distances.

This becomes apparent when back-cast obstruction becomes a problem, or when fishing from a float-tube or pontoon boat or wading deep.

The lower you are positioned in the water, the lower the casters center of gravity becomes. This tends to create a tendancy to open the back-cast up too much.

Rob

[Lew]

I like my 9'6" rod, but have noticed that you need to be really careful when you get your fish in close. It's easy to put a lot of strain on the rod tip when reaching to net fish, and if you're careless, or unaware, you can break it pretty easily. That's especially true for people with a short wingspan(like me). A few inches makes a big difference, both in arm length, and rod length.

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Lew