What's your favorite stick and where do you wave it?

I have an Orvis 5 wt. I use it for fishing for bluegill and bass in N. MO and the occassional trip to my folks in E TN.

my favorite rod is my 8ft 6in cortland cl 5/6 wt.  it's served me well for over 4 years so far on small to larger streams

Sage, 9' 5 wt.

8' 6" 5 wt with a DT is probably the most relaxing set up I have. I like it over my 6 wt Sage for smallies even though I'm limited to how much weight I can throw. Thanks for responding Nick.

My favorite fly rod is a 9' 6 wt. Sage fiberglass rod that I made about '78 or so. Its been re-handled twice now since cork does wear out over time. Its caught a lot of fish over the years. Its the only two piece I still fish with.

My favorite is not a rod I own. A friend who collected split bamboo rods brought me a Paul Young 7 1/2' 4wt that was flamed on alternating facets. It was a pleasure to fish as well as to look at. He offered it to me for $700 30 years ago. As a starving student I couldn't do it.

Currently my favorite steelhead rod is my 9 1/2' Winston BIIx. It flat out rocks!

For trout it would be one of my Sage LL's or my Winston 2 wt.

My favorite rod met an early and unfortunate demise.  It was a very nice St Croix 5wt that I used a lot for any kind of fish around.  I loved using simple little poppers on bluegill, any number of bass lures, and although it was a little light for steelies, it made it fun.  

I've replaced it with another St Croix, a less expensive model, and it's just not the same.

Now the wheels are turning, have to start flipping through the catalogs.

im gonna own a nice bamboo rod one day soon hopefully and probably won't buy another modern rod

bit of a john gierach fan here

9' Lamiglas 9 wt.   Use it for sockeye salmon on the russian and kenai rivers
LOVE it!

My favorite rod is my 7'6" 4wt bamboo based off a modified thomas & thomas caenis taper I had built.

Try the 6 1/2' Winston 3wt bamboo! I have fished one and it was amaizing! It is bucks up$$$$ but you can still buy one.

Nice!

My favorite is an H L Leonard my Grandfather gave me.

But, the one I like fishing with the most is an Echo 13' 7wt spey rod.  It's a hell of a lot easier on the shoulders. Anywhere from the Salmon River in NY to Yellowstone.

Here is my line up.

Winstons: 13"  8 / 9wt BIIX spey.....Bogdan no. 2
                 11" 7 wt BIIX..............Bogdan no  00
                  8' 9" 5 wt LT  5 pc.........Able ported .5
                  8' 3" 3 wt  LT  5 pc.........Able ported  0
                  9'  8 wt LT  3 pc............Uses the above Bogdan 00

Loomis GLX 11' 6"  8 / 9 wt  3pc.....Bogdan no 150

Sage 9' 6 wt  SP 4 pc.....Able .5 with 3 spare spools

Right now I'm fishing a Cabelas Prestige 8'6" 5wt. Although I wanna pick up a 7' 3wt for the smaller streams I fish in central PA & western MD.

I also have the 8'9" 5wt Winston, what a great rod! I defenitely covet the 13' 8/9 biix. It is regarded as one of the finest rods in it's class. Last season I bought a 7'6" 2wt for our small streams. I can't wait to give it a work out!

Sage Z Axis 7136, rocks with a 525 grain Rio Flight.

Depends on what I am doing….. Overall my favorite rods are my Sage SPL and SLT both are the 080-3 model. I also have a Sage TXL 000710-3 TXL that is in my favorite category. I mostly use those rods on small streams, but I have been known to throw them elsewhere

Usually on larger waters I grab my Orvis 865-2 ZG.

My Sage 7'-4' four-weight. I like chasing native brookies and bluegill with it. It's a great little rod.

I was trying to pick one, but now I know why parents can't pick their favorite kid.

9' 6/7 wt Chris Carlin quad for the tailwaters.  Protects 7x with decent size fish.

http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy1/ffcol/P1000449.jpg

7' 4 wt Bob Nunley for the small streams.  This is the type of fishing where I will never use graphite again.

http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy1/ffcol/Picture005.jpg

9' 7 wt Sage XP for streamers.

http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy1/ffcol/P1000462.jpg

It's pretty cool that ARFCOM has a flyfishing section.  I don't post much on other boards and look forward to sharing some trip reports in the future.

Solid spool .5 or is that a no.1 ?

Nice fish!!!


How did they taste?

The reel on the Carlin quad is an Abel 1 solid spool non ported.  Even though the rod is hollowbuilt, the 9' length wouldn't be comfortable with a reel of lesser weight.  Also, I like the non porting to keep crap from getting on the cork.  The spool is an older one when they didn't have an outgoing click.  That is the only thing I don't care for about this reel.

Excellent with some fava beans and a nice chianti.........

I haven't eaten a trout in years.  I either fish catch and release sections or hike in to where I don't want to carry fish back.  I've seen some of your picks and must say you have fishing that place with the big browns down to a science.  I fished there once for a couple of hours when I was considering moving to Boise and caught a few, but none that size.  I love the color on the browns and the aqua color of the water.  It was a little intimidating knowing where to fish being there the first time.  I wanted to hit almost every spot I saw and would probably fish there a ton if I lived up that way.  Especially with Idaho's closed season

Story on the rainbow caught with the Sage XP.  I stopped at this really slow pool and saw some good fish sitting on the bottom.  I cast my nymph rig and spooked them.  I then rigged up the XP with a brown wooly bugger trailer to mimic a crayfish since the pool had a sandy bottom. I cast it at the very upstream end to avoid spooking them (some still did) and let it drift downstream to swing across  in front of a good fish I saw.  The fish slowly swam towards it and just looked at it for a while while I just let the fly sit there.  I gave it a twitch and saw the mouth open so I set the hook. As soon as the fish felt the hook it went straight under the shelf ice I was standing on.  The shelf ice went back about 5 feet and I know there is an undercut bank in this spot going even further back past the ice on top of that.  I had to go to the edge of the ice, kneel down and stick my rod under the water to keep the ice from breaking the line.  When I knelt down and put my weight forward on the edge of the ice, the ice broke and I started falling in head first.  I was able to utilize my ninja skills and quickly roll me and my line away from the huge chunk of shelf ice thaI broke off beneath me.  I grabbed the line and tugged and couldn’t believe the fish was still on.  The hole was too deep for me to jump in and play him from the water so I slowly put pressure on him while sliding downstream along the ice to a spot where I could hop in.  Once I got into the water I could only play him by pointing my rod tip right at him under the ice shelf each run he made since he would not come out.  I eventually get him into shallow water and landed him.  Glad I was using 3x on him since most of the nymhing here is with 6x.

No worries. I was just givin ya a little crap about the fish on the ground/snow pics. I should have put a  after the "How did they taste".


As far as that river that is close to my house. Yea it is pretty cool to have such a place so close to my house. The other river that is close to my house I have fished quite a bit this year as well. Normally I like to fish small creeks etc up in the mountains, however this time of year my options are limited due to the regs. So I tend to fish the local tailwaters, then when the ID winter season closes I fish the river with the browns often till the other waters open up.


If you ever make it up here and want to fish that river let me know. I can give ya a few tips on fly selection and locations on that river.