New outfit

[gonefishin]

I have been thinking about buying another fly fishing outfit. Right now I am using an old White River Classic 7 wt with an Orvis Battenkill reel. I primaraly fish at Bennett and Taney. I also want to use it to fish for bluegill. I have been thinking about a 4 wt but am not sure that is what I should use. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[jdavis]

I use a 5wt for Taney during the day. It seems to be just about right. A 4wt would probably be fine too if you spend the majority of your time at Bennett but is probably to light for Taney.

I am currently shopping for a new 7wt and will probably end up with a TFO rod. They seem to be about the best value and they have a lifetime warranty.

[SilverMallard]

I mostly fish a 4wt on Taney. The only time I step up to a 6wt is during heavy generation. My biggest Taney trout was 26" Brown that probably went about 6-7 lbs. 4wt. and 6x tippet and a size 16 dry fly.

[gonefishin]

I have used my fly rod for years but am by no means a pro. I plan to purchase a new outfit but because of some things I have read I am unsure as to what weight outfit to get. At first I was actually thinking about a 3 wt but I have read that a 3 is to light to use for trout fishing so I started thinking maybe a 4 or even 5. One of the things I dont understand is why a 3 or 4 is to light for Taney and or general trout fishing. I have read that using light weight rods is too hard on the fish because it takes to long to land them but it seems to me if a person is using for example a 7X tippet wouldn't be the determining factor of how long a fight lasts rather than the wt of the outfit. Am I incorrect in this thinking?

[Greg]

I think you are right in that the tippet is just as much of a limiting factor as rod weight. To me the weight of the fly rod has more to do with its ability to cast in the wind and to cast fly size as anything. I sometimes cast weighted streamers at Taney and to me a 5 wt casts them easier and farther than a 4 wt. Ditto for casting in really windy conditions. And a 6 wt is generally even better than the 5 wt in those 2 respects. But the 6 wt won't present a smaller fly as delicately and precisely as a 4 wt. I've played around with different length and wt rods - but I always seem to come back to an 8.5 ft 5 wt rod. It seems to do everything pretty well. At least where MO trout are concerned. Just my opinions. I know guys that prefer longer, shorter, and different wt rods for taneycomo.

Good luck - shopping for a new outfit is a lot of fun

Greg

[Gavin]

I'd take a look at a 5wt Sage XP...Great rods, and they are being replaced by the Z-axis rods. Lots of folks are discounting them up to 40%. Cheers.

[Micheal Kyle]

Since Sage Told us of the news I now only have one XP left. It is a 5 wt

9' 4pc. I have it 30% off, $415.00 great buy

Michael

[SilverMallard]

Rod weight is all about the size of flies it will handle best. The difference in fighting strength between a 4wt and 6wt is almost ZERO. You don't fight fish on a fly rod, you play them.

Tippet size is also supposed to relate to fly size most of all. The smaller the fly, the lighter the tippet. But tippet size does impact how much pressure you can put on a fish far more than rod weight does. I think that is intuitively obvious to the casual angler.

Can you grossly undersize? Sure. Using a 1wt for stripers would not be smart. And yes, this puts stress on those big fish due to the much longer landing process. But between a 4wt and 7wt, it doesn't make much difference if you know how to play fish. And you can easily land 95% of the trout in Taneycomo on a 2wt. Personally, for panfish and typical ozarks trout, I think a 4wt is ideal for everything but fishing during generation and streamer fishing. When doing either of those, I switch to a 6wt. I also use a 6wt for smallie fishing...because of the size of the flies.

[motroutbum]

The size of the rod is dependant on fish size. You arent gonna throw an 8wt on a small mountain stream for 8 in brookies. Hell even a 5wt is too big for that. IMO a 3wt is way too small for fishing taney. On one of the smaller streams however, a 3wt would be perfect or a 2 wt or a 1 wt or a 00 wt. Using a 1 wt for stripers would just snap your rod in half. with the average size of fish in taney i would suggest a 9ft 5 wt.

And you can easily land 95% of the trout in Taneycomo on a 2wt.

yeah maybe if you played the fish till it was dead