Best rod for fishing big water

[Hunterwoz]

Looking for suggestions on fishing bigger warm water fish like musky and smallmouth. On larger rivers and creeks. And some lake fishing. Need to beable to cast large heavy streamers. I have a 5 weight fenwick now and it's difficult fishing the flys and places I would like to fish. Any suggestions?

 

[afishinado]

Hunterwoz wrote:
Looking for suggestions on fishing bigger warm water fish like musky and smallmouth. On larger rivers and creeks. And some lake fishing. Need to beable to cast large heavy streamers. I have a 5 weight fenwick now and it's difficult fishing the flys and places I would like to fish. Any suggestions?

I would suggest a 9' 8wt rod to fish bigger rivers and lakes for bigger flies and fish like bass and muskie. An 8wt would be on the light side for muskie flies, but I assume most of your fishing would be for bass.

For many years, when I started out FFing, I fish a 5wt for trout and panfish and an 8wt for bass and all other bigger WW fish.

 

[ryguyfi]

I have a good handful of friends who fish a ton for musky on the fly. They're using 10-11 weights due to throwing large articulated flies. If you're fishing rivers for smallmouth I would suggest anywhere between a 6-8wt. The bigger the flies the bigger the rod needed. Don't worry about fighting the fish, those rod sizes will do just fine. You need to worry more about casting flies because that's what the rod is doing 98% of the time.

 

[ryansheehan]

I would not use the same rod for Musky and bass. That's not to say you wont tie into some big smallies while fishing for musky. 6-7 weight for bass, 10 weight for musky imho.

 

[pete41]

afishinado wrote:

Hunterwoz wrote:
Looking for suggestions on fishing bigger warm water fish like musky and smallmouth. On larger rivers and creeks. And some lake fishing. Need to beable to cast large heavy streamers. I have a 5 weight fenwick now and it's difficult fishing the flys and places I would like to fish. Any suggestions?

I would suggest a 9' 8wt rod to fish bigger rivers and lakes for bigger flies and fish like bass and muskie. An 8wt would be on the light side for muskie flies, but I assume most of your fishing would be for bass.

For many years, when I started out FFing, I fish a 5wt for trout and panfish and an 8wt for bass and all other bigger WW fish.

nailed it-

 

[Hunterwoz]

Is there any suggestion for a setup for an 8-9 weight rod and reel combo?

 

[allan_s]

Whats your price range? TFO BVK is tough to beat for the price.

 

[Six-Gun]

afishinado wrote:

Hunterwoz wrote:
Looking for suggestions on fishing bigger warm water fish like musky and smallmouth. On larger rivers and creeks. And some lake fishing. Need to beable to cast large heavy streamers. I have a 5 weight fenwick now and it's difficult fishing the flys and places I would like to fish. Any suggestions?

I would suggest a 9' 8wt rod to fish bigger rivers and lakes for bigger flies and fish like bass and muskie. An 8wt would be on the light side for muskie flies, but I assume most of your fishing would be for bass.

For many years, when I started out FFing, I fish a 5wt for trout and panfish and an 8wt for bass and all other bigger WW fish.

^^This.

I use a 10' 8WT for the bigger flies/Clousers used for bass and such, but a 9' would do just fine. Yes, you will start seeing limitation with the really massive stuff, but you will still be able to send it reasonably well.