Wildfish
Member
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2009
- Messages
- 427
[I can't figure out how to embed images, so they're all attached at the bottom]
After an interesting discussion about weighted brookie flies (where I only got a few fly suggestions but a lot of opinions on 3wt rods) I thought I'd share my experience using a 3wt for a couple days (mostly for JayL). For anyone interested in doing the 3wt thing, or interested in the A3, or just bored, here's a long post about fishing.
First, the gear: Scott A3 7' wt with an Orvis BBSII and superfine wonderline. The balance is perfect, and for anyone in the same boat it was definitely worth spending more on the BBS over the regular battenkill to keep the weight down. Now if I could just get that damn clicker out of the reel...
The rod is rated "med-fast," and that is definitely accurate. It is not at all a fast rod, though it has a ton of backbone, which really surprised me when I hooked into bigger fish.
Spent most of the day on streams like this:
Looking for fish like this:
Landed a bunch (took a picture of the first fish on the new rod):
I will say that throwing weighted nymphs and woolly worms was not as pleasant as throwing dries. My 5wt is indeed a better tool for nymphing. This is not to say its impossible or even difficult to throw weighted nymphs with the 3. I tied on a sz 10 bugger for a while. But pinpoint accuracy decreased esp at any real distance. That being said, fly presentation was still better with the smaller line, though only marginally so. Landing fish was another story. I could feel even the tiniest strike on a woolly worm, and land small fish very delicately. Nevertheless, I did more dry fishing than I might have otherwise--but is that a bad thing?
The next day I spent the morning on bigger water mostly throwing streamers with my 5wt. However, buy 8am the fish were exclusively sipping these:
After landing a few on the 5wt I realized I had the perfect midge rod with me, and used the 3wt for the rest of the day. It was the ideal tool for this job. I could land tandem midges on a dime and with 6x and 7x tippet make super delicate presentations. I landed plenty of wild browns up to 14" and never felt the need for a bigger rod. Tippet was well protected, fish came in quickly, and the scott has plenty of backbone, so I wasn't worried about that 20 incher coming out to play (he didn't).
All in all, I'd say I'm 3wt a convert. This will definitely be my go-to dry rod, and my all around small stream setup. In the immortal words of Ferris Bueller, "It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up."
After an interesting discussion about weighted brookie flies (where I only got a few fly suggestions but a lot of opinions on 3wt rods) I thought I'd share my experience using a 3wt for a couple days (mostly for JayL). For anyone interested in doing the 3wt thing, or interested in the A3, or just bored, here's a long post about fishing.
First, the gear: Scott A3 7' wt with an Orvis BBSII and superfine wonderline. The balance is perfect, and for anyone in the same boat it was definitely worth spending more on the BBS over the regular battenkill to keep the weight down. Now if I could just get that damn clicker out of the reel...
The rod is rated "med-fast," and that is definitely accurate. It is not at all a fast rod, though it has a ton of backbone, which really surprised me when I hooked into bigger fish.
Spent most of the day on streams like this:
Looking for fish like this:
Landed a bunch (took a picture of the first fish on the new rod):
I will say that throwing weighted nymphs and woolly worms was not as pleasant as throwing dries. My 5wt is indeed a better tool for nymphing. This is not to say its impossible or even difficult to throw weighted nymphs with the 3. I tied on a sz 10 bugger for a while. But pinpoint accuracy decreased esp at any real distance. That being said, fly presentation was still better with the smaller line, though only marginally so. Landing fish was another story. I could feel even the tiniest strike on a woolly worm, and land small fish very delicately. Nevertheless, I did more dry fishing than I might have otherwise--but is that a bad thing?
The next day I spent the morning on bigger water mostly throwing streamers with my 5wt. However, buy 8am the fish were exclusively sipping these:
After landing a few on the 5wt I realized I had the perfect midge rod with me, and used the 3wt for the rest of the day. It was the ideal tool for this job. I could land tandem midges on a dime and with 6x and 7x tippet make super delicate presentations. I landed plenty of wild browns up to 14" and never felt the need for a bigger rod. Tippet was well protected, fish came in quickly, and the scott has plenty of backbone, so I wasn't worried about that 20 incher coming out to play (he didn't).
All in all, I'd say I'm 3wt a convert. This will definitely be my go-to dry rod, and my all around small stream setup. In the immortal words of Ferris Bueller, "It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up."
