What size flies are you using with your 5 weight

[Thomas]

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.

[Panman]

I throw crappie/bass flies up to 2/0 with my 5 weights (several brands) without problem.

Tim

[quivira kid]

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.

[FishnDave]

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.

[jim635]

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

[Thomas]

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.

[Thunderthumbs]

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

[Mato Kuwapi]

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.

[Buddy Sanders]

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

[papaguss]

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.