Choosing a Premium Fly Rod

Gink & Gasoline

The waggle. We all do it.

When you walk into a fly shop looking for that new rod (and yes folks, don’t even think about buying a rod before you cast it), the first thing you do after picking a prospective candidate from the rack is the waggle. Shaking the rod to check the flex, or stiffness, or…whatever. Some check the rod by placing the tip on the floor and observing the deflection. Some even hold the rod tip about a foot off the floor and raise the rod upward quickly to see if the tip touches the ground to see if the wand in question is “a fast or slow action.” Really!?!

Bottom line is no matter what you do in the confines of your favorite fly shop, you’re not going to be capable of making an educated rod buying decision until you line it up and “sling some string” as the kids say. But, there is a lot more to it than just casting blindly in a parking lot or casting pond. Have a game plan; a succinct list of criteria you deem necessary based on the rod’s purpose, your casting style, the type of gamefish you’ll be pursuing, and a realistic scenario in which the rod will be put to use.

The Long Ball Does Not Always Win the Game

Having worked in a fly shop for years, I saw the same thing pretty much every time someone took a rod outside to cast. They would strip off all of the flyline at their feet and proceed to cast as much of it as possible. This would inevitably turn into the customer typically throwing tailing loops, snapping back casts, and throwing their arm out in an attempt to get the greatest distance they could muster. More accomplished casters would land the entire line straight, with graceful loops. This would be the extent of the test casting session.

“It threw the whole line.” “Wow, that rod has some power!” or “Feels like it doesn’t want to cast much past eighty feet.” 

Great. These customers, no matter what their casting prowess, just showed their ability in casting a rod in parking lot for distance. Know what this told them about how the rod would fish in an actual, real life scenario? Zero. Zip. Nada.

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