In my last column, I ended with a discussion of fly rods and leaders (including tippets). I would like to expand a bit further on the subject of rods.
As I mentioned, rods come in weights designed to cast the equivalent weight of a fly line. This weight is usually printed above the handle. They also come in different lengths. A short rod 7 ½ feet to 8 ½ feet would best be suited to fish in smaller streams where manoeuvrability is paramount. Larger rod lengths up to 10 feet are what most fly fishers use when fishing from boats.
When I was using a float tube, then a pontoon boat, I preferred the longer rods as they were more forgiving and held the line higher above the water. Of course, this is a matter of preference as well as practicality. I currently use 10-foot rods in most of my fishing situations. But I do still use my 9-foot rods for fishing.
Most rods in use today are constructed of a graphite composite replacing the heavier fiberglass rods developed in the middle of the last century. They are lighter and more responsive but can also act like a lightening rod.
Fly rods also come with different sections. I have a couple of one-piece 5-weight rods I built over 50 years ago for smaller lakes and streams. I have two-piece rods, one three-piece rod and numerous 4-piece rods. The common norm back in the last century was for two pieces for the convenience of packing around in vehicles and storing.
Three and four piece rods naturally evolved as many travellers found them much easier to carry on as luggage or stowed in baggage. In addition to weights, rods are designed with different bend rates or stiffness, called actions. A fast action rod bends in approximately the first third of the rod, while a medium action bends to below the middle of the rod and a slow action bends to near the handle of the rod.
Each action is designed to present (cast) the fly line at different speeds. A fast action would be ideal for fishing rivers where winds often require more energy is needed in delivering the line to the target. Medium and slow action rods deliver the line more slowly in most circumstances.
Fly lines evolved over the years as well, since the middle of last century the American Fly Tackle Manufacturers Association (AFTMA) set out the standards for determining the weights of lines with a corresponding number equivalent to a specific range of weight. I have attached an older table from Cortland Line Specifications for review. All the current prominent line manufacturers follow this standard today.
Lines also come in different tapers to allow line presentations under varying conditions. For ease of discussion, I will focus on the three major types of tapers that are available.
There is a level line, which is the same diameter from end to end. This type of line is mostly used in trolling applications as it is more difficult to cast. There is the double taper line which has a larger middle section, tapering to smaller identical ends. It is used where presenting a dry fly requires a delicate delivery.
It has another advantage in that when the front portion of the line becomes worn, it can be reversed to fish the end that had been attached to the backing. The most common type of line is the weight forward, where most of the weight of the line is in the front 1/3 with a gentle taper to the forward section of the line, and a back portion of line of the same diameter to the reel. This allows for a rapid loading of the rod (creating a bend which helps cast the line), thus providing a quicker delivery of the fly to the target.
I will end this column with a very brief discussion of how lines are developed to fish different depths of the water column (a cross-section of a body of water from the bottom to the surface). Floating lines stay on the top of the water mainly for fishing dry flies, or those that float on the surface. In more recent years the dry line has been used successfully with various leader lengths to reach the depth where fish may be cruising. Sinking lines are commonly designed with various sink rates from type 1 to type 6 and occasionally type 7. Please refer to the Cortland Line Specification sheet attached showing sink rates.
The following chart gives the sink rate for each type of sinking line. Variations within each rate are due to the different line sizes themselves. E.g. A 10-weight type 6 will sink a bit faster than a 6-weight type 6. IPS means inches per second.
In my next column, I hope to explore the subject of reels; knots most often used by fly fishers as well as some fly patterns that are effective in some of our local lakes.
