Oz wrote:


In your opinion, how do Temple Fork rods compare with St. Croix? I have a
St. Croix rod for my spinning reel and I absolutely love it.

Oz
I have rods both by St. Croix and Temple Fork and think you will be
happy with either. Most of the rods that I have bought for the past
several years have been Temple Forks, but that is mainly because they
are on the other side of town and I have known the guy that runs the
company and I like the way he runs it. I don't remember how the
warrenty works with St. Croix, but with Temple Fork basicly if you
figure out a way to screw it up, they sill send you another one for 25
bucks. Most of us that have been in this hobby for a while have found
some way to break a rod. The last time I broke one it was a Temple
Fork, I took it down and said "I got stupid and broke it." Then they
fitted a new tip section to the rod while I threw a ball for one of the
dogs that came to work that day.

You wil enjoy doing business with Walt Winter of EZflyfish. He is one
of the good guys. I do not have a six weight nine foot Temple Fork
Professional Series rod, but I do have rods in that series in
2,3,7,8,and 10 weight rods as well as one of their 12.5 foot 6 weight
spey rods.

I think the six weight rod would be a good one to start with, since you
will use it for largemouth as well as smallmouth and panfish. You will
probably want to stay away from some of the bulkier deer hair bugs that
are better handled with an 8 weight rod. If you are like most of us,
you will learn a lot with the six weight and eventualy you will get
both lighter and heavier rods if you stay with the sport. The six
weight will also be very useful when casting many streamers for trout
as well as being close to perfect for smallmouth in rivers.

I am not familiar with the Ann Arbor area, although I have always
wanted to see a football game in The Big House. For this winter you
might consider using google to find the closest chapters of both FFF
clubs and the local chapter of Trout Unlimited. Try visiting one of
their club meetings and meet some folks and I am sure that someone will
take you under their wing to get you started in learning more about
this sport. Most of these clubs have beginning classes on how to fly
fish or tie flies and it is a good place to start. Our local Bass Pro
here in the Dallas area has free beginning fly fishing lessons each
Saturday and Sunday to ease one onto the sport. Something like may be
available in your area.

Resist the temptation to buy an entire shelf of books about fly fishing
from your local Half Price Books store like I have done. When you have
Walt Winter on the phone ask that he reccomend one book to get you
started. I think his wife stll does the rare book deal from her Blue
Ridge Book Gallery and may have something very cool available at a nice
price.

This is a great time to enter the sport with all the information
available on the net. Most of us have some favored web sites to help
you feed your new addiction. One f my favorites is
Http://www.eflytyer.com You can learn a lot from Mike's web site.

Ken is also correct about getting a good fly fine. The only way I know
how to save any money on one is that Scientific Anglers has a series
that I think is called Headstart which is a few bucks cheaper and when
you study the tapers of the line it is very similar to a bass bug line,
so you might save a little.

Hope you enjoy your new hobby as much as we do.

Big Dale