Confused

[Ernie]

I really appreciate all the help!
Thanks Ernie

[sagefisher]

Ernie,

We are more than happy to be enablers, providing you with the knowledge you need to get totally hooked on fly fishing.

Enjoy.

Larry ---sagefisher---

[Kaboom1]

Surprised that no one has offered this advice yet!! Ernie, if you will pm your mailing address to me I will send you a 6' 6" "Furled" leader, It will be made from 4" test Berkley monofilament. It will be 12# test and should have no problem turning over large fly's using 4' - 6' of 6 - 8 lb. test mono for a tippet. It will also last you up to 3 or more seasons.
I also make a 4' furled leader out of 6# mono that some claim will turn over a small car!!

While agree with Jack that a furled leader will be the way to go, the LAST thing you need is one 6'6" long....unless you are looking to get a new ear piercing!

The 4 footer Jack speaks of, or something in the 5 foot range will work just fine. Send me your address via a PM and I will put one of my Big Game leaders in the mail for you. It is the leader that I use for 99% of my bass fishing. The other 1% is done with a straight 5 foot piece of 10# mono.

By the way, nice to have you on board here...new guys bring the donuts!!

Brad

[Kaboom1]

Ernie

one more thing...At least you are not Dazed also...

I must be off...

Brad

[Luke McLeod]

Hey Ernie, another tip for new flycasters is to smash down those barbs! Barbless hooks are MUCH MUCH easier to remove... from ears, necks, arms... you get the idea. Bass fishing, you'll definightly want to go back to barbs when you get comfortable casting, but for now trust me barbless is the way to go! Luke

[Whitewolf]

You can over line the rod. You do NOT have to put only 5wt lines on it. You can experiment and discover what you like best. I probably have over 100 rods. But because of wife losing battle to cancer and I went away and sat on a lake and howled at the moon for the summer. Think buying rods was just a way of having social contact and coping. Anywhooooo.....

sorry bout that ramble. My info to you is you can learn to cast with ANY rod. Sure you don't want to use a clunker for ever. But get a good 7 or 8 wt and just fish THAT ONE ROD always. You will get very very good with it due to familiarty. Guranteed.....

Jim
good luck and have a good ride

[appalachian angler]

Definitely overline with a Wf6F flyline. What you lose in grace you will gain in power (ease of turning over big flies)

[FishnDave]

Not bragging but I catch 18-22 inch smallies in a fast stream and only once was beaten by a big smallie that the rod had a tough time handling.

!!!! WOW!!!!!
Those are BIG SMALLIES for IOWA!!! I really need to fish with you!


Ernie,
You've been given some great advice here. You can certainly catch bass with your 5wt. This year I fished larger poppers that were difficult to cast with the 5 wt. The 6wt handled them much better, especially with a good line like the Airflo 40-Plus. Even then a couple times I was wishing for just a little more rod/line in order to cast just a bit further, or trying to land a nice bass that had buried itself in weeds/algae.
For learning, like Sagefisher said, a 5wt is a great rod for learning and getting started. I've landed freshwater fish up to 25lbs on a 5wt...on 8lb test tippet!

[NJTroutbum]

OK....some great advice out there. Here are my thoughts...and I fish for bass with a 6wt rod. First, pick up a 6 weight bass taper line. Your rod will do fine. Will you lose the occasional football in the Lilly pads? Sure....but that is part of the fun. The main limitation of the line weight is the size fly you can fish. You will be limited to 6's & 4's tops in poppers. Avoid wood and stick with hair poppers for the 4's. Smaller flies generally mean smaller bass when dealing with bucket mouths. But smallies not so much. I use a 5’ furled mono leader, and maxima chameleon 8-10# leader for tippet.

[Ed_D]

Ernie,
I'll chime with my two cents worth. The rod casts the line. The weight of the line is what casts the fly. The leader needs to be able to turn over to deliver the fly gracefully. That means a heavy and stiff enough leader, especially the butt section. A furled leader will get you most o the way there.

You can overline a rod. if you want to. I have a 5-weight rod with which I can cast so-so using a 5-weight line but which becomes a cannon with a 6-weight WF (weight forward) line. With a furled leader, it will turn over a fly so heavily weighted that a spinning rod will cast it.

I an not familiar with your make and model of rod, but some 5-weights are entirely suitable for bass in the sub-10-pound class. I generally fish streams and the largest bass I take from them are seldom much over 3 pounds. My 5-weights are fine for those little guys. Texas mileage may vary. If your rod has enough backbone in the butt and mid-section, then you should be ok for smaller fish, but you might not be able to horse big fish out of cover.

There are some rules of thumb which might be useful, but they are only rules of thumb:
Bright day, bright fly. Dark day, dark fly.
With poppers, some people like to let the fly sit after landing on the water until the first ripple has moved out at least 3 feet.
Casting with tight loops is all fine and well, unless you are using a cast with more than one fly, then open your loops a bit.
Barbless/de-barbed hooks are very good if you should accidently hook yourself or someone else.
Wear impact resistant sunglasses. It will probably never be an issue, but if it IS an issue, it can be a big one.

Whatever you do, don't take up fly tying. If you do, there is little hope for your escape from this sport.


Regards,
Ed