10' Single Hand trout rods

[lee s]

aa,
If you do not like that rod...........I'll take it off your hands
....lee s.

[hap]

I've got a 10' 4wt TFO BVK. I like it for many of the reasons you mention -- longer reach, easier mending. Its great for nymph fishing, especially on bigger water. However, I have broken it twice (over a few years). TFO has a life-time, no questions asked warranty with $30 fee and pretty fast service, but it's still a pain to break a rod.

I cast quite a few 10' rods before buying the TFO and would offer some general observations ...

10' rods are heavier. That might seem obvious, but the actual weight difference and the added fatigue from casting / rod handling all day might not be so obvious. The extra weight and length also makes it more of a challenge to balance the rod with a fly reel (I ended up putting a Konic 2 on mine rather than the Velocity 1.5 that I had intended). In any case, check the rod weight and if possible, string up the rod with the line / reel you intend to use and see how it feels.

Quite a few guys I know are going to lighter line weight 10' rods. So rather than a 5 wt or 4 wt, many are going 3 wt or even 2 wt. My buddy got a 10' 2wt Sage ESN several months ago and he loves it. He uses it for small and large stream fishing and both dry flies and nymphs. If I was doing it again, I think I'd go with a lighter line weight 10' rod.

It seems to me that the manufacturers are pushing the envelop with the rods. As the rods get longer and they try to keep down rod weight and maintain faster action, the rod walls get thinner and more fragile. Breakage with 10' seems to be more common. I'd make sure the rod has good warranty service.

A couple of minor points ... They are harder to transport -- my strung up 10' rod fits in my RAV4 but just barely. The extra length makes it more of a pain to clear iced up guides.

All that said, I'd still get a 10' rod.

The TFO BVK 10' 4wt is my favorite rod for a huge chunk of the fishing I do these days... I bought four different 10' 4wts and cast all of them quite a bit before dumping the other three. A Thomas and Thomas was the least favorite, followed by a Sage FLi (IIRC), and a G Loomis was pretty good, but what I had been looking for was a Metolius...

I broke the BVK the first day I fished it and they were very good in shipping me a replacement tip... I was out of town fishing and they shipped to an alternate address before getting the broken tip back. They admitted the tip had a manufacturing defect. It has caught a ridiculous number of dolly varden, grayling, lake trout, rainbows, round whitefish (a seriously cool fighting fish!), and a number of salmon that just had to get in the way. It is an extremely smooth casting rod and really loves the AirFlo Ridge lines.

[appalachian angler]

I have been enjoying my new-old-stock RPL 5100-3 rod on the three brief outings thus far. Best fish so far was a 13" Brown, so I have not been able to fully test it's fish-fighting characteristics. I will say that it really shines with the Airflo Ridge Supple Tactical WF5F line for light nymphing with long leaders and an NZ style yarn indicator system. I have also fished it with a Cortland 333 HT 10' sink tip (wf5f/s) and it threw and handled this line with aplomb using smallish wooly buggers. Was fishing yesterday off the buttress off an old mill dam, smacking stocker bows in the pool below and each time I would miss a hookset, or clear a snag, the rod tip flexed back right up against the stone wall behind me...cringing. Needless to say, she has some fishing scars (hopefully just surface scratches)now, from what was a truly 'pristine' rod. I think I am now hooked on the idea of fishing a 10' rod and hope it shines in other arenas too! Already thinking on getting another 10' rod

aa