Beginning Flyfisherman needs rod

T

TroutBuster

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Feb 4, 2009
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Hey guys,
I'm a veteran trout fisherman, but new to fly fishing... I wanna get setup and try it out this spring. What kind of rod, reel and line should I get? Can I get an outfit that would work for both trout and steelhead? I want to get something better than a Walmart special, but not spend an arm and a leg right away either. Thanks!
 
TroutBuster wrote:
Can I get an outfit that would work for both trout and steelhead?

I'd have to say "NO". Not that it isn't possible, but you did say you are new to fly fishing. Most of the trout waters I fish (NEPA) using a steelhead rod would flick the poor trout out of the water if I could find it sensitive enough to feel them hit and fishing steelhead using my trout rod would send me and my rod home with our tails between our legs. Pick a fish to target first, them ask the question again.
 
Hmm, well, welcome to our sport. I grew up a bait/lure guy. It'll take you a few years to get back to catching as many as you did before, but the ceiling is higher, and you end up learning a lot more about the streams and fish along the way.

Words of advice: First take a casting lesson, it'll speed the learning curve and give you a base to go on. Then buy. And while good deals on good equipment can be found at Cabelas, as a beginner I strongly recommend going to a good local shop. They'll help you out more with choosing whats best for you, help you get a balanced outfit, etc. Never buy a rod without test casting several first. Its not uncommon to end up liking the cheaper one, especially for a beginner, as slower rods are generally cheaper and more forgiving for a not so perfect casting stroke.

The standard fair for a PA trout fishermen is a 9 ft 5 wt, with a matching reel and a 5 wt WF line. Unless your planning on getting into big fish regularly (like steelhead), you can skimp on the reel a little, not Walmart special cheap but you certainly don't need anything too fancy. It's a place to store line, and all it has to do is balance the rod and not break. Reels with internal plastic parts tend to break, but once you get over the plastic price range, if it balances the rod its fine.

You have to adjust the rod a little to what you plan on doing. The main two factors are:

Distance vs. delicacy: Higher line weights give you more distance and power, lower line weights more delicacy.

Open vs. brushy: This ones about length. A longer rod allows you to keep the line off the water, thus cast farther. Thats a factor for anyone, but especially a beginner. A shorter rod allows casting in tighter places, and is easier to carry through brush.

The 9 ft 5 wt is a standard because its not totally out of place in all but the most severe situations you'll find in PA. Also, its perfect for a medium sized stream. If you think your experience will lean towards larger streams, a 6 wt might be nice. If you think it'll lean towards smaller than average streams, stick with the 5 wt but go down in length a little. As for steelhead, I've used a 9 ft 5 wt before and it works just fine, you do need a better reel with a good drag system, and a large arbor will help you reel in quick if the fish runs at you. If you're gonna get serious about steelhead, a 10-11 foot 7 wt is probably about perfect, and doubles as a good big river/bass rod, but it won't be at home on smaller trout streams.

Brands:

Cabelas, Bass Pro, etc.: Have good stuff and have junk, price is not indicative of which it is. As a beginner, I wouldn't buy there. Once you get to be a decent caster, you can test cast them in the store, and determine which ones are good.
Sage, Orvis, Loomis.: All their stuff is good, even the low end stuff which isn't god awful expensive.
TFO, Cortland, etc.: Good enough at a good price, but you'll probably end up splurging sometime down the road.

Lines:

You want a floating line. Weight forward (WF) is better at distance and the most popular. Double Taper (DT) mends better and can be turned around for double the life, if taken care of properly. The functional differences are only for long casts, at 20-30 foot range or less, there's no difference.
 
start here...

http://www.paflyfish.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=6084&forum=3

http://www.paflyfish.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5897&forum=3

http://www.paflyfish.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5736&forum=3
 
Thanks PCray, you've been a wealth of knowledge, both on this and my native question! My neighbor here in lower burrell runs a fly shop in his basement so I don't have far to go to get the casting lesson or some of the gear.... I just want to make sure I get as much advice as possible about this before I dive in...
 
buster, I've met you neighbors, and not only are they knowledgeable, they seem like real nice people too. Great resource to have so close being in your position. You also have a close by park pond to practice on when it thaws...you are well on your way...I guess we'll be seeing you around here more often...
 
I will definitely be seen around often! Nothing I like more than a trout stream in the spring time! Now its time to try to get more into the flyfishing end of the sport.

Im new to the area (New Kensington/Burrell), never fished out this way. Are there any decent streams close by that would be worth hitting if I have an hour after work?? The only trout steams I know that is real handy is Bull Creek and it seems to be pretty heavily fished. Oh, and deer lakes park and northmoreland park.
 
Troutbuster,

I'm originally from Leechburg, just down the road from you.
 
Yep, I'm not too familiar with the leechburg area but I know where its at. Bet theres some decent trout fishing out that way on the stocked streams!
 
Actually, there's not much. There's the Allegheny and Kiski, both of them decent fishing for river fish but not trout. Within a half hour there's 1 or 2 stocked streams, neither of them anything special. Hence the permanent camp in Forest County, thats where I did my trout fishing of my youth.

I've been a bit of a wonderer since. I have lived in Indiana PA for my undergrad work, Idaho Falls ID for an internship, Coudersport PA for a job, State College PA for grad school, and now Reading PA for a better job. And I'm only 29. My switch to the fly rod started while at Indiana, but really took off in Idaho.
 
pcray gave good advice so no use repeating but just need to stress his point of taking casting lessons. Learning the basic fundamentals will make your introduction to fly fishing so much more enjoyable. While you can watch videos, read books, etc., having someone who knows what they are doing watch you will pick up on flaws you don't know you're doing. You may "think" you're doing what the book or video say but in reality you're not.

As for a rod, you cannot go wrong with Temple Fork. For the money they make a nice rod. I'd look at the Finesse (about $170)or Professional series rods ($140) (price doesn't include case). In my opinion the TiCr, TiCrX and Axion series rods are all too stiff and don't load well especially in the lighter line weights (7 weight and under). Their low-end rod (Signature) is not a bad rod either for under $100 (plus case).
 
Haha, I too went to IUP.... I used to fish that creek that crosses 422 just outside of elderton. It sure wasn't anything fancy, but it was the only one I knew in the area and couldn't stand to be couped up at school the whole time. Oh... I almost forgot, we used to drive out to yellow creek once in a while.
 
Yes, the TFO rods.... my neighbor sells those in his shop. They seem like a good value...
 
Ah, you're a fellow Indian, err um squirrel, bear, or hawk, or whatever the heck we are now.

Crosses 422 near Elderton? Crooked Creek, Plum Creek, or Cherry Run?

Never fished Plum. I hated Cherry Run, but I liked fishing Crooked Creek for smallmouths and largemouths above the lake, in the spillway farther west you added all the river fish to that like muskie and walleye.

Yellow Creek, down below the Homer City Reservoir was always good to me. The trout time is pretty short there, but smallmouth and largemouth bass, crappie, walleye, and pike made up for it, you could literally catch 8-10 different species in a day. It was also pretty good at times for trout above the Yellow Creek Reservoir, and there was a brookie stream or three down that way that I loved. Two Lick had some good fishing at times, both the lake and the stream. And Little Mahoning was the best of the bunch for trout, not too far of a drive at all. Keystone Lake was worth the trip too.

Not a great trout fishing area by any means, with the exception of the brookie streams it was mostly stockies. But the warm/coolwater species and some limited trout fishing were enough to get me by.
 
I think it may have been plum creek, but I'm not exactly sure. Its a very small creek between Elderton and Shelocta. If you blinked you'd miss it.

And crooked creek... I pretty much grew up fishing that spillway. Thats definitely one place where you can catch any species that you find in PA (except trout, haha...). We've caught every thing from walleye to muskie to carp there.. Used to take my boat out on the lake alot too... Contrary to popular belief, there really are some big bass in there if you know where to look!
 
Yeah. What always amazed me was how good of a bass stream it was, above the lake that is, up around Brick Church. That was always a lot of fun, absolutely tons of crayfish in the stream up there. We used to boat the lake too, both fishing and tubing, etc.

As for your stream, you gotta be talking about Plum, which is, at least in part, the outflow of Keystone dam, and it merges with Crooked Creek just west of Shelocta, where they meet has to be close to the power plant. I know its stocked, but I never fished it, I have walked along it hunting, and once for a geology class we dug around in a rock outcropping near its banks, of course I snuck off to look at the stream. While its certainly not a large stream, I wouldn't categorize it as "very small" either. Apparantly you've never fished with me!!!
 
Haha, you're right... its not the smallest stream out there. I love fishing those little native streams that you can hop over!
 
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