Rod and reel question

FAOL Community Fly Anglers Online
1

Ok so here we go my first major fly fishing questions

I have a berkley cherrywood c40 8 recommended line aftma (whats that mean) 6 wt or 7 wt with a shakespeare (ok) free stripping automatic no 1824reel.

The rod is in great shape as is the reel. I understand it is a 6 or 7 wt is the line I should use but wich one should I go with and should it be waight forward or dbl tapered.

should I stick with the automatic reel or get myself a standard one?

also what is a good price to pay for line? one place has them for $30 each but others have them for 60 and up

Also is it good to have both floating and sinking or does the type of flys you plan on useing call for the line?

thanks

2

I’d go with a weight forward taper, 7 weight, floating line, often referred to as a 7 WF-F.

Although I haven’t used them, I’ve heard very good things about the Hook and Hackle House brand fly lines. Hook and Hackle is a sponsor of FAOL so it’s a win win:
http://shop4.mailordercentral.com/hookhack/prodinfo.asp?number=HHFWF7F

The aftma stands for American Fishing Tackle Manufacturer’s Association. They use a standard system for weighting the first 30 feet of fly lines, so that you can compare apples to apples when shopping for fly lines for different rods designed to cast specific “weight” fly lines.

As far as the weight goes, i think a 7 weight might be a bit easier to cast with your rod than a 6 if you’re new to fly fishing, and the weight forward taper will let you throw wind resistant flies like poppers and stuff for bass a tad easier than a double taper. A floating line is the most versatile for most types of fishing- you can use it with poppers and dry flies on the surface, as well as flies that sink a bit like streamers and nymphs, and heavily weighted stuff like clouser minnows if you need to get a bit deeper. Down the road, if you find you need to get deeper you can add a sinking line or sink tip line, or a much cheaper alternative is a 5 or 10’ sinking poly leader that you can attach to the front of your floating line. But you’ll get the most use out of a floating line for most situations.

Good luck.

mark

3

thanks i’ll look at them

4

I would prefer a standard reel. It’s lighter and will be fine for most fishing situations.

For line, it’s hard to go wrong with Scientific Anglers, Rio, or Cortland. Even their cheaper lines are good.

If you haven’t already, check out the “Fly Fishing Basics” section of the site – lots of good info in there.

5

Another reason to go with a weight forward line is that your automatic reel probably doesn’t have a lot of capacity and weight forward lines take less room. Without casting the rod I can’t reconmend a line but a six weight will also take up less room on the reel if that appears to be a problem. For now the automatic reel will work fine. If you keep fly fishing you will eventualy want another outfit.

6

You probably won’t like this advice, but I think you are making a mistake.

Most of the replies assume that the rod is satisfactory although you have not told us what species or where you are planning to fish. I also doubt that anyone of us has ever cast the rod you are referring to so how can we give you information as to whether it is a good beginner rod?

It sound to me like you want to build your fly fishing outfit around this rod. I’m not sure that this is a rod that is best for a new fly fisher. Berkely is not a brand known for fly fishing equipment or design.

I’m going to recommend that you take the rod to someone who is a experienced fly fisher and see if he/she thinks the rod is worth using. I suspect that this rod may be a “buggy whip” rod that is too flexible, so before spending money, have the rod evaluated.

I googled the rod and found this, which is probably not the same rod but it indicates to me that the Berkely Cherrywood rods were and are of lesser quality construction.

http://www.troutlet.com/Berkley-Cherrywood-Fly-Rods-P219.aspx

An accomplished fly caster can cast with virtually any rod. But a beginner will have a hard time casting a floppy rod, especially if they are transitioning from spin fishing. So I think you need to examine the rod and see if it is graphite or fiberglass. If it is fiberglass, it is most certainly very old and probably not suitable for you. If it is graphite, it could be OK but you need to have someone look at it.

If the rod is not suitable, then there are plenty of high quality but lower priced rods and reels that you can buy either as a kit or separately to learn on.

My question to you is what species are you planning to fish for? Are you planning to fish rivers or lakes. If rivers, how large and how brushy are they. I think that is where the discussion needs to start.

7

i fish bass and trout as well as cat but cats are bottem lol

8

CharlaineC the rod you have and the reel you have are fine if you are happy with them. I happen to have one of the rods and give casting lessons with it. It is fine. Although a lot of people do not use the auto reels they are fine as well. If you are fishing lakes and ponds then you will want a intermediate sink line in a 7 weight. You will get better casting with a 7 weight line, the rod will load better, and although ron’s lines (hook and hackle) are outstanding lines start with something a little less expensive. I recommend aquanova lines and you can get seconds for about $10.00. I have used these lines and they are good. If you don’t want seconds then go with firsts for about $14.50. Here are the sites I use for them

new lines http://www.dorber.com/product.html

seconds http://www.discountfishinginc.com/Order/ProductStore.asp?ProductSystemId=2417&CategorySystemId=128&ParentCategorySystemId=0

9

with no offense meant to harleybob87…

I have also taught with the Cherrywood stick and likened to using JC’s broomstick. I would not recommend learning with it…

There are better inexpensive rods out there…and used rods are always coming up for reasonable prices.

As far as the reel, for freshwater species, most can be landed on any reel. I don’t like the trigger models because they do not allow the caster to really learn how to manage a typical fly reel. I would prefer the use of an inexpensive Pflueger Medalist to a trigger reel.

I think I still have an old 7 WFF that would be an OK line for starting out. Bmail me your snail mail address and I’ll send you the line.

Regards,

Dianne

10

Dianne no offense taken. I don’t take ofense to anything in general. My only thing I was in my backwards way trying to point out is that if you are happy with what you got use it. To many times people get hung up on price of equipment and miss the point of fly fishing which in my opinion only is to go out and enjoy mother nature and all the wonders she has to offer. If you catch fish that is a plus Just a old man’s rantings LOL

11

As simply as I can put it:

You want to know if your rod & reel are good? You tell us. :wink:

I’ve caught fish on fly rods ranging, in price, from $20-500 and every single fish was fun.:smiley:

My opinion on line is twofold:

First, while I haven’t been fly fishing very long, I have the same advice for all of the surprisingly large amount of my friends that have asked me about getting into it: if you want to ‘splurge’ in any one area of your setup, splurge on a good fly line. You will learn to cast your rod naturally, and for trout, your reel is really just a line holder, but you will use that line on every single cast. You’ll be handling it, watching it, casting it…and while a good caster can force a junk line to do what he wants it to do, a good fly line will give a beginner great confidence and peace of mind, knowing that if the cast didnt roll out like you wanted it to…well…it wasn’t the line’s fault.:wink:

Second, as far as floating vs. sinking, I asked about 4 different people that same question when I was building my first setup (after the beginner kit).

The guy at the major outdoor retail franchise said, “Yes, get a floater and a sinker, that’s a great idea!”

The guy at the big fly shop said, “You dont have to, but it will help you be prepared for any situation.”

The guy at the little, self-owned local shop said, “You can get a sinker if you want one, but it isnt necessary at all, I dont use one.”

And the guy that first showed me the ropes said, “Why would you want a sinking line?”
:smiley:

He went on to add, “You can make a floating line sink whenever you want, but try getting a sinking line to float.”:wink:

Now there’s something to be said for an evenly sinking line, but for any of the fishing I do, a floating line does the job best, 95% of the time.

12

well I thank you all I do see that i’m going to have to grab a regular fly reel wich i think I might beable to do. but i’m going to have to stick with this rob till I can afford another one maybe next year.

13

Enjoy yourself and make due with what you’ve got!

14

Yes, Berkley is not known for it’s fly rods (neither is Martin) but that does not rule it out, special since you already have it.

[ol]
[li]There are medium action fly rods, that are slow to cast, and are quite flexible in the cast. Originally these were meant for wet fly, and streamer use. Medium action, when the line is under load, will bend down to the hand grip, which is a good thing. Wherever the rod bland stops bending is where the rod blank will fracture, when overloaded.
[/li]
[li]Next, there are the quick action, mostly for dry fly fishing. The rod when under load, will bend to the half-way point on the fly rod. Less flex in the rod blank, the more vulnerable the the fly rod blank becomes.
[/li]
[li]Finally there is the quick-tip action, strictly fly fishing. The rod when under load, will bend to the top quarter portion of the rod blank. These are very fragile. These rods have the tight loops, and give the fly caster distance, but with a penalty. Tip have a habit of breaking from the strikes by beadhead fly patterns that fracture the fly rod tip.[/ol]
[/li][ul][li]Each fly rod has its own action, and you need to learn the pace of the cast that best suits the rod blank. The correct casting motion, at the right tempo, will get you out to about 30 or 40 feet, which in most cases will do the job, 90% of the time. As for casting, since you are a beginner…
[/li][li]Keep the slack out of the fly line when casting.
[/li]
[li]Keep the reel seat pressed against your wrist, and avoid doing the spin cast flick during the false casting. This destroys the level action of the fly cast.
[/li]
[li]The arm is is the delivery mechanism, for direction and control, for the power use your feet and body…left foot out front of the right foot (for right hand casting) and rock the whole body to supply the kinetic energy for the casting. (Works for tennis players, golfers, baseball player, and football quarterbacks).
[/li][li]Short arm movements for short casting distance, longer arm movement for longer casts. Remember as you release more line out for the cast, the you need to allow more time for the forward and reverse casting motins.
[/li][li]As for the spin cast flick, save that for when you are laying the fly on the water. As you are just about point the tip of the fly rod to the point on the water, where the fly is going to land. Go ahead and flix your wrist.[/ul]
[/li]
Last but the most important, is that the handle/grip on the fly rod is the correct diameter for your hand grip diameter! If the handle/grip is too small, for your hand size, this will cause your casting motion to be slow. Your casting arm tendon’s and mucsle’s will be tight, and you will not feel the weight of the fly line during the casting. This was my problem when I started to learn how to properly cast a fly rod. When I built my first fly rod I had to come up with a way to determine my hand grip size and shape… so I wrote an article for FAOL on my solution to my problem.

Custom Handle Grip Design

Some cast smaller diameter handles/grips with their index finger on the top of the fly rod. That is a great way to get sprained index finger. I have the same diameter and shape handle on all of my fly rods, The rod weights may change (I have twelve fly rods, over various actions, ranging from 3 weight to 9 weight. They all have the same handle/grip diameter and shape, the rods may change, but my hand doesn’t!

If your fingers are touching the palm of your hand, when casting, you either need to wear a glove on the casting hand (baseball players and golfers use them).  Otherwise you might have to wrap some 2mm foam strip around the handle/grip.

Then your arm action in the cast is fast, and free from restrictions, from tight tendons and muscles, in your casting arm!

~Parnelli