6 Weight Rods and PA Streams

[fadeaway263]

On the verge of pulling the trigger and buy a 6wt Winston to compliment my 5wt Sage. A friend whose opinion I respect advises a 6wt is overkill on "99%" of Pennsylvania streams and is more suited to Western waters. Love to get the thoughts of others as I have come to respect the opinions of members of this community.

 

[wjkosmer]

Depends on the situation and the creek. My Sage One 6 gets a good workout every year. If you are chucking a bunch of weight, big streamers, etc, especially on bigger water, Penns, Lehigh, Big Pine....not overkill.

 

[pete41]

I would say that's a little more rod then needed for the majority of the fish you will catch unless you are going to fish spawning run from Erie[if there is one].

 

[streamerguy]

I use my 6wt a good bit in PA. As mentioned, it has its place when throwing larger streamers, and heavier nymph rigs on bigger water.

I used my 6wt a lot for steelhead over the winter......since I broke my 7wt :-(

 

[birdog]

It's always fun to get a new fly rod....even if you don't really really need it!

...with that being said......make to sure to tell the wife that you do REALLY need it.

 

[foxfire]

6 is a useless weight in my opinion. 5 or under covers 95% of any Pa trout conditions. For the other 5% go with 7wt. that way you can use for steelheads and warm water fish if you choose.

 

[fadeaway263]

HAH. Our rule is I don't ask her about her shoe collection and quilting hobby and she doesn't ask me about fishing gear. Since she bought a $5000 sewing machine for quilting I have a lot of catch up room.

 

[ryguyfi]

I think, as said above, that a fly rod should be matched more towards the flies you are casting than the fish you are catching. It may be a medium sized stream but you wouldn't chuck a heavy weighted sculpin on a 3-4 weight would you? No you want a rod to handle the flies because that's most of the work it will do. Catching a few fish here and there are only a small percentage of the work a rod does. I would use a 6 weight if I was tossing heavier flies, or poppers for bass, lake fishing, etc.

 

[sandfly]

I use a 6 on pine and the local rivers all the time, but I fish different than most. I do use it for big drys, streamers, poppers, etc. good carp rod for those under 10 lb. smallies, steel in pa tribs

 

[SBecker]

wjkosmer wrote:
Depends on the situation and the creek. My Sage One 6 gets a good workout every year. If you are chucking a bunch of weight, big streamers, etc, especially on bigger water, Penns, Lehigh, Big Pine....not overkill.

And D, but yeah I use my 10ft 6wt for throwing dries and tossing bobbers down the river.

 

[SteveG]

Ignore the weight designations on the two rods. Look at the characteristics they each have, and how you would fish them. Does it warrant getting the 6wt? Depending on the action of the 6wt, it could be better at casting various sized streamers, large dries, heavy nymphs, or battling windy conditions than your 5wt.

 

[redietz]

foxfire wrote:
6 is a useless weight in my opinion.

That's the way I feel about 7 weights. I use a 6 for all my streamer fishing for trout, and for most of my small mouth fishing. If I need bigger, I go to an 8 weight. I own a couple of 7 weights, but they don't get used much.

I haven't seen it argued in a couple of years, but there's definitely an "odd numbered rods are useless" school of thought and an "even numbered rods are useless" school of thought. I don't think that either is more right than the other, but you could certainly get with just one or the other. It may be more a matter of what you started out with than any other factor.

FWIW, for most of the 20th century, "HDH" (equivalent to a DT 6 weight in the modern system) was pretty much the standard for all trout rods/lines (by far the most common).

 

[Cold]

To add to the general collection of thoughts here, while the typical weight of the catch may set a sensible minimum on rod weight due to the correlation between the weight of line it's designed to cast translating into lifting power...but other than that very general quideline, the primary determining factor on what weight(s) are appropriate is simply what you plan on casting.

I switched from 5wt to a combination of a 4wt and a 6wt for most of my trout fishing...6wt sees water any time there's even a chance I might want to throw bigger streamers (3"+) or run any kind of a "rig" (indicator, tandem nymphs, dry-dropper, etc.). It handles the dries just fine too, don't get me wrong, but if I know it'll be a day of dry fly fishing, and no streamer bigger than a #8, I'll go with the 4wt.

It's also worth noting that a good fast 9' 6wt is ideal for not only streamers & nymphs for trout, but also smallmouth and Erie steel. So if you target smallmouth or hit the PA tribs at all, this rod sees even more use.

Personally, it's what I use for 80% of my summer fishing, as I fish a lot of water where there are just as many smallmouth as trout, so it's no big deal for me to be fishing a #14 caddis dry only to find a deep hole and re-rig to work the bottom with a #4 crawfish pattern or a #2 clouser...then go right back to the #14 dries for the next riffle.

I've never met a configuration that can handle that better than a fast 9' 6wt.

 

[jkilroy]

I sold my 6wt outfit and use either the 7wt or 5wt rig

 

[DavidFin]

That Winston 6 may equal the Sage 5, be careful....

 

[fadeaway263]

DavidFin wrote:
That Winston 6 may equal the Sage 5, be careful....

Can you expand on this?

 

[WildTigerTrout]

I own several 6 weights that I use for trout on bigger water (Penns, Big Pine etc.) When the wind picks up or you are throwing bigger, heavier weighted fly rigs you cannot beat a 6 weight. My two favorites are my GL Loomis GL3 and Sage VT2, both 9 footers.

 

[DavidFin]

Sage Rods are very fast, whereas Winstons are much slower compared to many modern graphite rods out there. If you've ever heard someone talk about that "Winston Feel" that's what they're referring to.

Now model to model, of course some Winstons are faster than others, but they still pale in comparison to the speeds of most rods out there.

I have a 905 BIIIX. Very fun rod, but you're not casting heavy flies with it, and you're definitely not casting them much past 50 feet, you know, if you're into the long cast glory. However, I also have a Radian 4wt that can cast heavier flies than the BIIIX and much further.

Are you by any chance thinking about the BIII Plus? If so, it's HEAVY. Definitely should cast that one before pulling the trigger.

 

[Cold]

I haven't seen it argued in a couple of years, but there's definitely an "odd numbered rods are useless" school of thought and an "even numbered rods are useless" school of thought. I don't think that either is more right than the other, but you could certainly get with just one or the other. It may be more a matter of what you started out with than any other factor.

Good stuff here.

In very broad terms, the various "rod weights" (that is, groupings of rods, recommended by their manufacturers as pairing best with a given weight range of line) have enough overlap with one another that two similar rods (length, rating, action, etc.) in consecutive weights have more in common than they do to differentiate them.

So if you have a 5wt, your money is very likely better spent on a 7wt than a 6wt, as you're filling mostly similar duties with the 6, whereas the 7 opens up more options as a whole. That being said, if you usually fish a 4, a 6 might be the ideal complement, where bumping up to the 7 may leave a bit of a gap between the two where neither is ideal.

Of course action plays heavily as well, and a fast 9' 6wt may be the perfect complement to a slower, shorter 5wt.

 

[NJTroutbum]

Focus on the line designation more than the rod. A fast action 9ft 6wt graghite rod is not the same as a 7 1/2' 6wt glass rod. If you are tossing big streamers or rigs that call for a 6wt line use a rod built to throw a 6wt line. I see a lot of folks out there slapping big indicator rigs all around them because they have a 6wt rig on a 4wt line. Why make casting suck? Balance your setup. I love fishing 3 and 4wts as much as the next guy. But if my day is going to be tossing a #6-8 weighted wooly bugger all day with the addition of splitshot, or a larger 2 nymph rig with split-shot and indicator....I'm grabbing my 6wt.