zsmith62

Okay, that makes a lot more sense now, this has actually bothered me for quite some time... I'm wondering if maybe this is a way to compensate for the shorter rod?

The only reason the Sage rods are so short is so that they meet some tournament regulations on rod length...

You're better off going with the going with the smallest of the Sage BASS rods, the "Bluegill" model. They don't tell you the actual line weight like most makers do, for some reason, they use grain measurements just for this series of rods. The Largemouth model, the biggest is a 330 grain line, which when you look at a comparison chart, that comes out to be an 11-weight. The Smallmouth is a 290, which depending on which chart you look at, is either a 9 or 10-weight. The Bluegill model is "only" a 230 grain line, which comes out to an 8 or 9-weight...kind of a misnomer, considering no bluegill I've ever seen would justify such a heavy rod.

I had gotten a lot of tyin in there not too long ago, and have fished a bit...just been busy on all fronts, lol... I have a picture of this one right now, I recently did it in one of the swaps here, its a spinnerbait fly...

I've been really looking into warm water opportunities a lot here recently as well, mostly cuz I think that it will be easier for me to access quality warm water locations, as I can no longer get into many of the good trout waters. I have looked at getting a separate rod as well, but haven't made up my mind on anything I would like to get. However, one thing that I would surely stray away from is the Bass Series by Sage. Don't get me wrong, they look like quite a good quality setup, but the rod weights seem to definetly be overkill. They measure the lines by grains not by rod weight. There are 230, 290 and 330 grain rods to choose from. If you look at the grain weights of other fly lines, a 5 weight usually runs at aproximately 140 grains, an eight at 210, give or take. That would mean using those outfits for bass could be like throwing as heavy as a 12 or even a 13 weight. I think Sage was on the right idea when they came up with this concept, however I believe it would be wise to lighten things up a bit. But yeah, I have really gotten into the trout alternatives, and I think I actually like tying bass flies a bit more, I see a lot more room for innovation and expansion, things seem a bit less explored, it has a new territory feeling.

Oh, don't worry about me gettin' them done too fast, I'm just setting goals here... I had actually thought about a "bonus" fly too, we'll see what kind of time I end up having to do another one.

Okay, I've been real busy, but it looks like I will finally have some time to get these things done here pretty quick. Originally, I had thought about submitting my own version of a flesh fly for use up at bennett, but have since decided against that in favor of a more universal and less experimental pattern. I think I'll just do up a couple cracklebacks instead...

Yeah, from what I can tell, a lot of the muskie patterns are pretty similar to some of the big saltwater style streamers... If I were you, I'd look at some of the fly supplier websites and see what they offer for muskie. Looks like your headed in the right direction, though if you're anything like me, you'll probably go through about 6 different prototypes of a new pattern before your finally satisfied... Keep up the good work though!

I don't remember you, but I have to say I'm amazed you got through with a name like that...I'm rolling with laughter right now, I know some may not approve of it, but way to go man, thats hysterical...

I've tried my best to stay out of this discussion, I really have no business crossing lines with anyone involved in any kind of debate going on here... However, after not reading this topic for a while and looking back on it, there was something that caught my eye, and gave me an idea on something fly shops could possibly do to bring in some outside profit... Flysmallie said: That got me thinking, you see, I work for a company here in town that takes some high-dollar/quality used merchandise in on trades, and then turns around to sell it either in the store, or on ebay. Now, one way that the local guys could offset any lost sales to ebay would be to set up their own account and do some business through it. Maybe experimenting with taking trades on undamaged rods, reels and even some of your higher quality waders. You wouldn't have to buy the products outright, or even have to sell them to the general public in the store, but you can get a lot of outside exposure by doing sales on ebay. The company I'm with also does a pretty fair amount of regular online business, but by putting product on ebay, we have found ways to reach an entirely different market, and have now reached customers in all different parts of the country, even different parts of the world for that matter... Just something to consider...

I'll second this, I've become a little obbessive with my fishing podcasts, I've got over 200 episodes from different shows downloaded to my ipod. One of my favorite shows is the Itinerant Angler podcast, they've got a good program going. One of the best things about the podcasts is almost all of them are free to download.

Not sure I will be able to make it this next week, but I'm assuming that this will be an ongoing thing? If so, I'll probably make it around there in the weeks following. These days I've been doing far more tying than fishing, and can always use a little more input/instruction/critism... Sounds fun.

Sorry didn't read that right the first time... I get what your saying now. I still think that for around here, that'll probably do okay.

Don't know what your fly fishing background is, but I don't think that the 30 pound backing is really gonna make much a difference... Odds are, if he hooks onto a fish that will break the 30 pound backing (which is just a back-up measure), I imagine that the leader would break much sooner. I'm not real familiar with musky fishing in these parts, but I'm not too sure he would hook onto anything that would threaten that anyways... Just my 2 cents, not trying to question anyones knowledge or anything...

I don't know how valid this is, but maybe it is just the fact that they are no longer making them, and are becoming rarer. I can remember when they first stopped being made, one of the guys who lived up the street who was big into fishing as well was telling us how he was going up to bass pro to buy up as many as he could. Don't know if he thought they may become collectables, or if he even knew that rapala would take over production, but that may have something to do with it. My best guess is that they have just become rarer, partly because of things like I just mentioned, but also because of rumors that they run truer. I don't know what it may be, or just a combination of both, but thats my theory.