Fly rod/reel help

[tjm]

That's why I fish a floater, usually  it's a second or two from water contact to log jam or out of the "hole".   A weighted fly has worked a time or two. 3' of L13 works when I go to the trouble of using it. The 7' in 7ips might work but I'd like to know how heavy it is. RIO  doesn't seem to share that.

[fishinwrench]

Well they aren't that expensive, buy a few and try them.   I buy the 10 or 12 footers....and trim to suit me. They are density compensated, so trimming doesn't effect the angle/attitude that they fall.

[Flysmallie]

I like 8 weights and sinking lines. I hate those leaders that Wrench uses but I'm not as good of caster as he is. 

[BilletHead]

40 minutes ago, Flysmallie said:

I like 8 weights and sinking lines. I hate those leaders that Wrench uses but I'm not as good of caster as he is. 

                 Me too! 7s and 8s . I have a 250 grain SA wet tip express with a 25 foot sink tip I put on my TFO BVK. I love that line and yes I know that long of a tip is hard to lift. I just strip in a bit more and one false cast to get a bit out and I let her rip  .  

[Flysmallie]

57 minutes ago, BilletHead said:

 I just strip in a bit more and one false cast to get a bit out and I let her rip  .  

Bingo. Except I’ll probably get hung in the tree behind me a couple of times and smack myself in the back of the head. 

[BilletHead]

4 minutes ago, Flysmallie said:

Bingo. Except I’ll probably get hung in the tree behind me a couple of times and smack myself in the back of the head. 

              Ah that goes on with me too! 

[fishinwrench]

10 minutes ago, BilletHead said:

              Ah that goes on with me too! 

When I put together my current fly-fishing rig... I painted up the motor cowling and console real nice, and I vowed to take my time, pay more attention to wild casts with Clousers and big articulated streamers, and try not to destroy all the pretty work I had done.  

That lasted about a half of a day.  🙄 

😂

[Gavin]

You can pick the head out of the water if you are a good rollcaster. Once the head is on the surface, let it rip. Have a couple sinkers, Teeny 150-300, and their OK, New SA Lines are better I'm sure. I also have a 30' shooting head set up with a running line, pretty easy to cast 120' with that setup, but line management is a pain.

[Jthawks]

On 2/17/2021 at 1:28 PM, tjm said:

If  the trouble with using streamers is in casting them, I would be changing the line. What line are you using?

I make my own leaders and like  them to be different lengths for different water depths, but for streamers the tippet should probably be 3X or larger. On the bass creeks my standard tippet is 8# or 1X.

Should also ask what waters are you fishing and what target fish?

The line I have came with the rod, it was cheap, I know I should invest in good line, but until I can it's what I have. I'll get 3x and see how it goes. I thought maybe I need a 9' to cast streamers better. I like to fish creeks and current river and trout parks and stocked lakes. Most fish I catch are 1 pound b/c I dry fly fish in stocked areas more than anything.

[Jthawks]

On 2/17/2021 at 2:08 PM, fishinwrench said:

Unless you wanna huck giant streamers to big browns then a 9' 6wt. is perfect IMO. 

You can pull it off with a 5wt. but 5wt. sink tip lines are a joke.   Sinking or sink-tip lines don't become useful until you get to 6wt and above.

I have a 5/6 wt, never understood why my rod says 5/6...I guess it's inbetween both 5 and 6 lol...makes sense.