2wt v 3wt for Mountain Brookies

[724flyfishing]

I use one of three 4wt's for small brookie streams. Either a 6'6" $25 yellow Amazon special eagle claw glass, a 6'11 LLBean $50 eBay special, or a 7'6" wright McGill s curve eBay special. I prefer a 4wt for two main reasons...

The first reason,like mentioned, it's much more versatile than a 2w or 3w and really any fish under 9" in tiny water isn't going to pull on a rod regardless of rod line wt.

The second reason is I use a 8'6" or a 10' 4wt for bigger water, bigger trout fishing. So I only need one reel and one line. Just bring a short and a long 4wt rod, a couple different sized premade leaders and I'm good to go for probably 90% of any PA trout fishing scenarios.

 

[boychick]

I agree with Pcray and Swattie; use your 7' 3" 5 wt. It's the right tool for the job. You need the heavier line to load the rod. 5 wt line won't spook the brookies and small fish still feel small on a 3 wt.

 

[Jessed]

724 I found a cheap rod like that at Walmart for $16 it was a Shakespeare micro series fly rod. They're super rare to come by but hands down the best rod I've found for the price. I woulda thought it would atleast be $70-100 range not $16. It's super light

 

[Jessed]

https://youtu.be/Vj4YV-R_bog

The only review I've found on YouTube. Since I've bought the rod I replaced the plastic reel seat with a metal one of eBay. Works great! But if you can find this this would be a great rod for a stream like that for dirt cheap. Finding one is the hard part

 

[CRB]

Small brush covered stream my 6'6" Winston IM6 2wt is the ticket. Beautiful down lock rod for gems Nickel silver dose not look better than on a down lock Winston.
For bigger open waters Sage TXL 1wt.

 

[PocketWater]

I got a little 1wt. fiberglass and overlined it with 2wt. line to get a bit more distance. I really love that setup and it makes catching brookies a great time.

 

[JoeE]

I fish a 4'4" to a 7'9" for most of the Mt. streams that I fish but my favorite is a 6'3" 4wt. I got in a bad habit years ago and only fish dry on small Mt. stream.

 

[ryguyfi]

I'll throw my hat in this ring. I think when picking a rod for any situation you need to look at a few circumstances. 3 main ones IMO. Size of stream, amount of brush/cover to hinder casting, and size/style of flies using. Adjust accordingly.

So for small streams you can afford a longer rod for more open water, lighter weight if you are tossing smaller flies. You get the idea. It's not rocket science but using the right tool sure does help and make it more fun.

 

[WildTigerTrout]

Fished a smaller FFO stream yesterday. Used my Sage TXL 7' 4 weight. Glad I did. Had to throw some streamers with weight and the rod worked fine Good all-around small stream rod IMO would be a shorter(7.5' or less) 4 weight. I own two different 2 weights but never use them on these small streams. Not enough power to muscle streamers, nymphs and bigger bushy dry flies. They are my specialized midge/trico rods for use on bigger streams. I do have one 3 weight that I use from time to time on small water. It's an older G. Loomis GL3 6'6".

 

[Reeder]

8 1/2 5wt. No creek too small, no river too large.

 

[SteveG]

The industry standard of a 2wt is 80 grains vs a 3wt which is 100 grains, that is for the first 30' of line, excluding the level tip. In the real world, the only difference is in the marketing. You want some mass to turn over those big bushy dry flies anyway.

Even on large flat water with spooky fish, I'd still take the line that best suits the size fly I'm tossing. If they're really that spooky, I just lengthen my leader. Your casting ability has more to do with making a gentle delivery than some scribble on a rod blank.