What's your favorite Penns Creek rod?

[kbobb]

Specifically thinking about the month of May when flies can range from 16/18 up to the big drakes and coffin flies? Also dry/droppers are in play. There is usually some higher water so I find my back to the bank a lot with not much room for back casts and the fish are invariably rising on the far bank.

One rod only please - length and line weight too.

Thanks for playing!

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear kbobb,

Though my successful Penns trips are few in number they all have been accomplished with a 9-foot rod in either 4wt or 5wt. I've tossed streamer and buggers on a 6wt but have never bothered with anything lighter than a 4wt.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[afishinado]

How to Fish One Fly Rod for Everything -- Dries, Streamers, Nymphs and Wets (VIDEO)

I use one fly rod for everything. It doesn’t matter if I’m fishing dry flies, nymphs, wet flies or streamers, the rod I leave the truck with is the rod I’m using all day.

troutbitten.com

 

[jifigz]

I use my 10' TFO Blue Ribbon more than any other rod on Penns. But I'll use why rod on that stream, preferably at least 9' in length.

 

[dryflyguy]

9' 5weight

 

[JimNovo]

9' 5wt. WF6 line (rod just performs better when overloaded)

 

[dudemanspecial]

WM Granger 8642 with a DT5 Cortland Peach 444 or a Sage VPS 8.5 5w are the only 2 rods I fish on Penns. For what it's worth I probably only fish Penns 3 or 4 days a year, but it's always in May / June.

 

[tjsingle]

9' 5wt is all you need. I like my Orvis Recon (1st gen) as its a good all around rod. Usually when I fish Penns I am switching between dries, streamers, and indicator nymphing.

 

[Swattie87]

8’6 5wt. I don’t own a 9’0 5wt but that’s probably the most common middle of the road answer you’re gonna see, and if I owned one, I’d likely fish it on Penns some.

For Drakes specifically, I fish a 9’0 6wt. Can get away with heavier tippet, and less line twist when casting those monsters. And if I know I’m likely gonna be nymphing all day (I’m probably not going to Penns at all in those conditions usually) I’d use a 10’0 5wt. All of those rods are versatile enough that they could switch gears if they needed to, but yeah, if you made me fish Penns all year with just one of my rods, I’d pick the 8’6 5wt.

Edit: No right or wrong, but I only want to carry one rod at a time, and as such, I tend to prioritize versatility in my rods, over super specialized ones. Realistically, I could fish Penns happily for a day using any variety of tactics on all 3 of the above, though some are marginally better at particular things than others, which usually guides my choice for the day.

 

[Bamboozle]

9'0" 5wt

 

[JG63]

This:

It does what ANY 5 weight can do and weighs in at three ounces - it can handle the metal head streamer in the photo - but can punch a size 16 Suphur on a 5X tippet 50 feet with a mere flick of the wrist - I love this design and have two of them - one thing that is important to remember on Penns is that you are fighting the current at all times - especially when in “fish on” mode - not all 4 or 5 weights have the lifting power needed to fight a broadside Brown in typical spring flow -