Rod length in small creek fishing

From: rw

Peter A. Collin wrote:
Roger Ohlund wrote:

"Jarmo Hurri" wrote in message
...

What's the equivalent of "tight lines" in hunting? Bloody bullets?



Straight aiming?

Tight Groups


Clean kills.

For bowhunters it's "Pick a spot"


George Adams

"All good fishermen stay young until they die, for fishing is the only dream of
youth that doth not grow stale with age."
---- J.W Muller

What's the equivalent of "tight lines" in hunting? Bloody bullets?

Peter Tight Groups

This one is my personal favorite. :-)

--
Jarmo Hurri

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Hi Mike,

Mike Generally speaking, I prefer the longest rod I can comfortably
Mike use. This is also because I like to use longish leaders.

(I've never owned a short rod, so) what's exactly the connection
between leader and rod length? Do you mean that if you have a 9'
leader with a 6' rod and you're fishing closeby occasionally, then
it's a nuisance because you have no fly line outside the rod tip? Or
are there some other aspects to this?

Mike However, on small overgrown streams, especially if wading is
Mike either difficult or restricted, or one simply does not want to
Mike wade, I prefer to use a very short rod. I have a six foot #3 wt
Mike for this. Much longer, and the rod is a liability.

Mike For slightly larger streams, I have a 7'6" #4 wt.

So, weights aside, one reasonable strategy for us economically
challenged would be to have three trout/grayling/charr rods: 6', 7'6"
and 9'. The 9' is the general-purpose rod, the 7'6" the all-around
lightweight rod, and the 6' the tight spot rod.

Mike If you dont have a short rod, and find yourself in such a
Mike situation, then just use the top section ( or sections), of a
Mike longer rod. For a while I carried a special butt around with me
Mike for the top two sections of my nine footer.

This approach makes a lot of sense in your case since I know that
building rods is very easy for you. I've seen pictures of such rod
butts in an article about creek fishing. There were even some
specialized reel seats that you could attach to your vest.

--
Jarmo Hurri

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On 16 Feb 2004 14:23:50 GMT, ospam (Big Dale) said:

BigDale I am one of those guys who has bought far too many short rods
BigDale for this situation, but for me, I have never been able to
BigDale enjoy using a rod shorter than 7.5 feet in length. I have
BigDale several between 6 feet and 7.5 feet long and I prefer the 7.5
BigDale foot 3 weight rods over all the others.

If you have several rods between 6' and 7'6" you must have had
considerable motivation for buying all of those rods. I guess the
motivation was small-stream fishing, but why did you eventually notice
that you could not "enjoy" the shorter rods? Too little control over
the line? Casting too difficult?

--
Jarmo Hurri

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"Jarmo Hurri" wrote in
message ...
The discussion about small-stream rods in a thread above
brought to my
mind a closely related question I've been thinking about
recently.
Jarmo Hurri

I have mixed emotions about this one. A long rod is hard to go
through the brush with, but great for dapping. A short rod is
easier to go through the brush with, but not as good for dapping.
Ernie

Jarmo Hurri wrote in message . ..
Hi Roger,

Roger Now then, a small stream for me is one no wider than 5 meters
Roger so my perception of a small stream might differ from yours.

In my book a creek with a width of 5 meters is already quite a river.

Roger I'd say (personal point of view) that the length which gives
Roger you control in a big stream will get you into a whole lot of
Roger trouble in a smaller stream, whether you are casting your line
Roger or fighting a fish.

Another reason to buy a new rod.

Do you often bump into situations where your 7' rod is too long?

Roger Off for a couple of days to do some more hunting, this time
Roger ptarmigan.

What's the equivalent of "tight lines" in hunting? Bloody bullets?


My two small creek rods are a Winston 7'6" 5 wt. and a Hardy
Perfection E 6'6" - 3 wt. The Winston is perfect for big flies and
windy days while I like the Hardy for the really itty-bitty streams.
The Hardy can virtually cast just the leader so it's the ultimate for
small stream work.

Peter

Jarmo Hurri wrote in message
. ..
What's the equivalent of "tight lines" in hunting? Bloody bullets?

Stones into your backpack!

These sayings are puposed to mislead the game or fish to think
thet these guys are not going to catch them.

In Russia hunters say: "I wish you no feather no fur".

OsmoJ

Peter My two small creek rods are a Winston 7'6" 5 wt. and a Hardy
Peter Perfection E 6'6" - 3 wt. The Winston is perfect for big flies
Peter and windy days while I like the Hardy for the really itty-bitty
Peter streams. The Hardy can virtually cast just the leader so it's
Peter the ultimate for small stream work.

Peter,

While thinking of the subject this evening I actually remembered how
you praised this rod in another thread last year, and I even took a
look at Uncle Wally's pages for the price. :-)

BTW, while doing a search on groups.google.com to see past discussions
about this, I also bumped into this specialty rod series:

http://www.flyrods.com/enso_info.html

Has anyone tried any of these? (I am quite sure you all know I can
have no relationship whatsover with this company. :-))

--
Jarmo Hurri

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On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 11:23:46 +0200, Jarmo Hurri
wrote:

What type of rods do you use in small creeks? In
particular, how long are the rods? How does the length of the rod
limit / affect the techniques you use?

I have a 5'6" Scott 2wt that is a lot of fun on small creeks, but I
probably use an 8' 4wt the most. I find I can cover more 'situations',
like dapping, mending, etc., with the longer rod.
--
Charlie...

Jarmo Hurri wrote in
:

It's impossible to determine an optimal small creek rod for all types
of terrain, vegetation etc., but I'd still like to hear your
experiences.

First of all, Jarmo this is very different fishing: if you haven't done
it before you will be frustrated by the snaggy trees and shrubs no
matter how long your rod is. Go with someone experienced in this style
of fishing on your first outings if you can: it will shorten the learning
curve (and two pairs of eyes are always better than one 8-). As you
'adjust' to the confines, the fish and their habits you will become aware
of what you need in the way of a rod. It may take a trip or two.

I fished with 3 or 4 different rods before settling on a favourite
for the scrubby streams I get into. One 7'6" 4wt was too sloppy - a
bow and arrow cast bent the thing double and threw a wide arc
not good when trying to put a fly in and under some distance,
a second 7'6" rod was just horrible as a normal casting rod but was
great at the bow and arrow, terrible on the roll ...
8'6" 6wt ...too long and too sloppy for bow and arrow - big arc, 8' 5wt
....is just about right.

5wt is too heavy? Not for the biggest fish encountered.
8' is too long? occasionally yes, about as often as my mates 6'6"
fibreglass is too short. We do swap on occasion not a bad option.

The streams are freestone, 2-3 metres wide and largely overgrown: depth
can be anything up to 4 and 5 feet. Movement is upstream wading through
the overgrown bushes, fallen trees etc. Walking through the scrub is
left for getting around insurmountable instream obstacles. Casting is
roll, flick, and bow and arrow. Sidearm and overhead casts, when on
offer, require a degree of control - I like the length then.


Steve