Favorite trout rod.

[pete41]

Sage-9' 8wt.

 

[wbranch]

I have too many fly rods to have any one favorite. There are many "favorites" based on where I am, what is hatching, and what flies I'm using. I have a couple #3's but I particularly like a 8' 9" Sage LL I built back in the early 1990's. I have maybe six #4 rods but am partial to a 9' #4 3 piece Gatti that is an awesome dry fly rod and allows me to create tight loops and crisp casts.

I guess my most favorite rod was a Leonard pre-fire 38H 7' #4 that I used for hundreds, maybe thousands, of 14" - 19" browns and rainbows on Armstrong Spring Creek back in the day when it was free and I would spend June, July, and August fishing there and Nelson's.

 

[pcray1231]

I like all my rods. But what it boils down to is that I have a workhorse rod and then a bunch of specialty rods. Obviously, for specialty situations, I like the specialty rods, or else I wouldn't use them! But overall, I gotta go with the workhorse.

It is the very same one that JayL called out. 9 ft, 5 wt, Loomis GL3. Great rod. It does everything well.

FWIW, in addition to the GL3, here's what else I have:

8 ft 5 wt Dreamcatcher bamboo, "Paradise" model - this is a dry fly rod mostly, though it's not a terrible nympher. My favorite from a sentimental standpoint and it fishes real well too.

7'6" 4/5 wt Cortland GRX, usually loaded with 6 wt line - this is my mountain stream, brookie rod, and I love it.

8' 5 wt 4 pc St. Croix Imperial - picked this up this fall, the only 4 pc I have. Fits a nice gap between small stream brookie rod and full fledged 9 footer, for the medium sized streams I find myself fishing more often as of late.

10' 7 wt Gary Loomis something or other - Replaced my old steelhead/bass rod with this one. Love the way it casts, it's the only rod I can throw a whole line with.

That's it, that's all I got. I recently got rid of a Sage FLI 9 ft, 7 wt, and an Orvis TLS Power Matrix which I think was an 8'6" 5 wt.

 

[csoult]

Orvis 8'-6" T3 4wt

 

[gfen]

the most useful is a graphite 8' 4wt.
the most fun is a fiberglass 7'9" 3/4wt.
i often prefer fun to the detriment of useful. however the useful is the amount of enjoyment it brings to me. this changes useful around. suddenly the most useful is the most fun. the paradigm has shifted. just there. did you catch it?

 

[Wetfly01]

Well I've had lots of favorite rods over the years Sage RPL+, Orvis HLS, Powell Hexograph and a few others. But the one that I am having built right now is going to be the new favorite for at least next year. Its an 8 1/2 4wt bamboo built specifically to fish wet flies. I've owned many graphite rods over the years so now its time for me to step back into the past a little bit and raise some cane. Had the good fortune to fish the rod for a month and fell in love with it. So it'll be the favorite at least for a little while. Hope the bamboo bug doesn't bite me to hard!!!!!!

 

[Shock]

A 7 1/2 foot Orvis Superfine bamboo rod. This rod is the same taper as the Battenkill someone mentioned earlier but with the all cork reel seat. Mine likes a WF-5.

I have been fishing mostly small to medium spring creeks the last few years and, after much reading, I decided to take the plunge and try a bamboo rod.

For me, it is just a pleasant rod to fish. A great all around rod that allows me to make different casts when needed. It even does a nice job nymphing, in spite of being "a foot and a half short."


Shock

 

[ryguyfi]

I bought a 8'6" 4wt Greys X-Flite this year and love it for my dries. The bad thing is I haven't caught a darn thing on it yet!

Hey Pat! He said favorite, not your whole arsenal! You win the "I never make a post shorter than 5 paragraphs" award on PAFF!

:-D

 

[pcray1231]

Hey Pat! He said favorite, not your whole arsenal! You win the "I never make a post shorter than 5 paragraphs" award on PAFF!

And I count 9 paragraphs. I use a lot of space!

To be fair, ConMan's post may have only had 5 paragraphs, but it was more words than mine....

What can I say? I type fast. 80-90ish wpm.

 

[jdaddy]

pcray1231 wrote:

Hey Pat! He said favorite, not your whole arsenal! You win the "I never make a post shorter than 5 paragraphs" award on PAFF!

And I count 9 paragraphs. I use a lot of space!

To be fair, ConMan's post may have only had 5 paragraphs, but it was more words than mine....

What can I say? I type fast. 80-90ish wpm.

slow rods, fast words

 

[JoeE]

One of my favorite Bamboo rods is a 7'9" 4 wt.

v/r

Joe E

 

[Tups]

I often fish three wet flies on my leader, so I like a long, medium action rod. I have found the Cortland "Brook" rod works well in 10ft, 4wt. My casts are usually short so I overload it with a 5wt DT line. Nice rod, very reasonably priced at $200.00. I have maybe 20 other flyrods sitting at home, but this is the one I use 90% of the time for trout.

For WW/panfish I use a 7'9" 7wt Orvis Superfine vintage 1980's.

 

[JZEE]

A Weiler 209e is my favorite rod. This rod cast gently a 5wt DT silk line and has the power to tame larger fish.

 

[gfen]

If you're having problems, he'll feel bad for you son, but JZEE's got 99 problems and a rod ain't one.

 

[RowJimmy]

gfen wrote:

If you're having problems, he'll feel bad for you son, but JZEE's got 99 problems and a rod ain't one.

Dumb!

Having a favorite a fly rod is like having a wife or a gf you'll get sick of it sooner or later!

 

[gfen]

Someday when you're married, I'm going to print that out and hand it to your wife. Then I'm going to laugh.

Did I say I've been chasing a replacement for my favourite for like two years now and have yet to do it?

 

[tomitrout]

Favorite rod for me is a 6'6"/3wt Payne 95 replica built by J. Downes. Don't fish it as much as some of the others in the rack, but still my favorite.