one weight

[afishinado]

Wetnet,

The lightest rod I fish is a 3wt, and I very seldom use that for trout. I use it mostly for bluegills in the pond when thre's NO WIND. 90% of my trout fishing, including small streams is done with a 4wt. I like to be able to punch the line under the brush and trees and a moderately fast 4wt works best for that. My 9' 5 wt is my staple trout rod in bigger waters, and an 8.5' 4wt for medium sized streams. I will use a 6 wt on the "D" for slinging streamers once in a while.

 

[dryflyguy]

Wetnet:

Why a 1 weight?
It's similar to the difference in using a 12, 20, or even 28 gauge shotgun to hunt grouse. Using the lighter tool makes it more enjoyable.

Another factor that comes into play is where you use a light rod like that. For the most part, a 1 wght will likely be used on small streams, where you are catching small fish anyway.
I have a 7'9" 2 weight that I use on spring, fishing, and other small streams. The majority of the fish I catch on these streams are in the 8-12 inch range. And I honestly feel that I can land and release them just about as quickly as on a larger rod.

 

[wetnet]

Now I finally have my answer! It is the same reason that a 46 year old woman decided she needed to learn how to fly fish, why I love my husnband who drives me nuts with his snoring and cater to my boys with home cooking instead of opening a box.Why I love digging in the dirt, riding horses and LOVE Golden Retrievers. I just do! Plain and simple.

You could have just said that. That I would have understood!

 

[gzacckey]

Wetnet,

I'm glad to see you finally got it! The words hobby and need rarely appear in the same sentence.

If you "need" a couple of rationalizations.

Lighter lines land more delicately.

UL rods protect lighter tippets (5x or smaller) better. There is more cushion on strikes. This really helps when you’re fishing up close with little or no line on the water.

You can apply more consistent pressure on a fish with less fear of breaking light tippets. You just need to get used to seeing your rod bend all the way to the butt section when fighting fish. As long as you can readily break off the tippet before snapping your rod you have enough rod to fight the fish. If you hook a large carp on a 7x tippet with a #26 Trico it doesn’t matter whether you’re using a 1wt or 4wt. You can see if he will come in nicely, try to exhaust him or break him off.

If you mostly use heavier tippets and fish large streams then it may not be for you.

 

[wetnet]

Well now I NEED a one weight!. No not really but I really get where your coming from.My son has a 3 weight which might teach me a thing or two. I think really though that if I think about it and slow down allot I might make my 5 weight more effective pretending it is a one weight. There really isn't any good excuse for me losing the fish I have. This was a great post! Thanks to you all for making me think outside of the box!

 

[lestrout]

Skilto - You can save $40 or so if you look in the bargain bin at The Sporting Gentleman in Media: they have several Orvis 1wt lines on sale for 17 or 19. The Sage QT's are fine lines too though - I like the several I have.

BTW, with 1 and 2wts, you can use running lines or even the level back end of a burned out WF line. You just have to fiddle with the leader butt to get the layout and laydown right. If you mike the tapers on DT1 and WF1s, you will find very little gradient.

Best thing about a running line is when you chew up the first several yds, just snip it off and reattach your tuned leader. Voila! A new, albeit slightly shorter line. I tend to use 1-3wts at close range and it's those first several yards that get all the wear.

tl
les

 

[OhioOutdoorsman]

After building and really trying to like sevral 1 and 2wts, I decided that I like a 3wt minimum. Just to hard to feel the rod load or stick anything but the smallers flies underneath those branches/overhangs that trout hang out in. Nearly impossibly to roll cast, too, at least for me.

 

[Maurice]

Another inherant fault of a one weight rod is their innability to cast flies of any weight whatsoever. Add a split shot and forget it.

You need to consider the "right tool for the job" cliche when deciding to own a one weight. My one weight that I owned for about 10 years was put to use on streams that I felt I would likely not catch a trout over 14 inches. The rod made a small trout fight like a tiger. But I soon found that I was using it to throw wooly buggers and weight or with a strike indicator. It was a poor performer. Except for dry flies...it performed well then.

I have since replaced it with a Diamondback 3/4 weight that has roughly the very same action in the fight but handles a couple small shot or a bugger far better than the one weight.

A fly rod is designed to cast a particular line weight that is ideal for certain tasks. (ie, casting flies of certain sized, weights or wind resistance) The choice of a rod weight for the purpose of fighting a fish is important in the upper weights where the line weight overshadows the flies used. Like for steelhead or salmon. Sizing a rod for the fish on smaller quarry, one must consider what flies he will be using or you may be dissappointed with its performance.