Matrix: What type of small stream rod do you fish?

I'm curious about what sort of rod type you fish so I'm making a pole...

If you fish an alternative, please place a "reply" and let us know.

I primarily fish a bamboo fly rod of my own making on small streams. Sometimes I fish a graphite Tenkara rod.

For warm water ponds, I fish a bamboo cane pole and for coldwater lakes I fish a bamboo fly rod.

In the salt, I primarily fish a spinning and bait casting graphite rod and a graphite fly rod when I can.

For rivers, I fish a bamboo fly rod.

I selected Bamboo, used my Schliske 3wt the bulk of last season and that'll be the story from now on but still own and use a 4wt TXL when I need to travel with a smaller tube or just when the fancy takes me. Used the TXL or similar up until last season.
Bigger rivers and the very occasional foray on stillwaters or when fishing for Pike I use Graphite.
Salt, I don't do, maybe this coming year I will. If and when it'll be graphite.

Don't own anything other than fly rods, not a judgement just a personal choice for fun reasons.

bamboo,usually one that I have made myself.I have a half dozen nice fiberglass rods that may get fished 1 or 2 times a year.I have only ever owned 1 graphite rod in my life.It was built on an H.L. Leonard blank.It may see the light of day once a year.In fact I could count on one hand the number of different brands of graphite that I have so much as cast,on one hand.I just never got caught up in the craze and never found one that "did" it for me.
It's been bamboo almost exclusively since I was 16.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by palewatery

Don't own anything other than fly rods, not a judgement just a personal choice for fun reasons.

---

All good the way I see it.

I started out with a cane pole, moved to spin casting then spin fishing and fly fishing.

In the old days of smallstreams.com, we had a few of us who were spin fishers. They mostly lurked as they do now but some were active. They talked of using de-barbed single hooks. In some cases, a spin rod will out perform a fly rod, it's rare but there are situations. Without going off track...

I use a spin and cast in the salt when the fish are few and far between. I can cast 90 yards with my Calcutta and Terramar set up, that's about 270' of water covered in one cast. In that one cast, I can cover much efficient and stealthy than I can with a fly rod. When the fish are in, I'm fly rodding. That's the only situation where I fish other than fly and tenkara.

Bamboo and wood came before plastics. You can make a bamboo rod that will perform all as well as a plastic rod. Bamboo is beautiful, that's my choice, a bamboo fly rod that I've made or a friend has made...

Tenkara gets a telescoping graphite construction because you will be hard pressed to top the attributes of a carbon graphite telescoping tenkara rod, it is near perfection as is a bamboo rod but in a different way.

People who are passionate about fishing will find there way, quietly, to bamboo at some point.


I've seen this many many times.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by adam

In some cases, a spin rod will out perform a fly rod, it's rare but there are situations.

---

Same here, especially for Salmon. Winter Grayling fishing around here is very much like that too... not spinning as such but centrepin & float... same sort of thing deep down though, fly fishing being out performed. Someone with a long trotting rod, centrepin, a tub of maggots and a semi decent level of skill will outcatch me and a fly rod 10-1.
I just can't find the same level of enjoyment nowadays without a fly rod in my hand, I catch less in the winter because of that but I can live with it. Maybe if I broadened the species I fished for I'd find fun again in methods I've given up, I've no set boundaries so we'll see what the future brings.

Nice. I agree with your take and completely understand it.

graphite


I have one use where i prefer boo over graphit and that is fishing 7x or lighter with midges/scuds to bigger trout and sightfishing

Graphite. I just can't justify the extra cost of bamboo.

A graphite rod is the most overpriced rod by far.

Why is a top end graphite spinning rod about $300 and a top end Sage nearly $700?

There is less than $100 in that rod.

A bamboo rod takes 30-50 hours to make, do the math on what ever price point you want to pay for a rod.

The bamboo rod can be made to be just as performance minded as any graphite and it is very beautiful in hand.

Just my opinion, I had yours at one point until I found a bamboo rod that I loved like my Sage zero weight.


Now I love them all.