Fly Blog

by Mark Waldin Flycatcher Custom Fly Rods  – When building a fly rod you want the guides to follow the contour of the rod.   You’ll want to place the stripping guide as close to the butt as possible so that you gain maximum effect of the rod energy on the line.

BUT, you want to be able to easily strip line with your opposite hand.  You’ll want as much line as possible unencumbered by the guides so you can strip the most in a single motion.  Also, you want the lowest possible angle from the reel to the stripping guide.  As a result, you want to place the guide very far away from the butt.

These two goals fight against each other and you have to find a comfortable solution.  For my money, I want to place the stripping guide for maximum stripping ability.  The only time I might violate this is when using a short progressive taper rod, where the rod bend extends far down the rod.  In most cases, the butt section of the rod is very stiff, bends little, and holds only a small amount of casting energy.

Retail rod manufacturers use an “average” person to set the distance, typically 30 inches.  A better way to do it is to place it at a point where the guide is at a comfortable hand reach distance and no more.  You find that by ‘feel’ with an existing rod you have.  The taller you are, the longer your arm reach and the further out you can place the guide.  I have built a table to convert height to stripper distance that is on my web site for people ordering custom rods to use.

by Mark Waldin Flycatcher Custom Fly Rods  I ran across this article today on the advantages of short fly rods.  It is really a great piece and I wanted to excerpt it so you could get the essence.  To read the entire piece go to Shallow Water Angler here.

“A shorter rod excels in small-water situations where short casts are the order of the day. If an 8- to 8 1/2-footer is stiff enough, I find that I can create tighter loops with less line outside the rodtip than with a 9-footer. I did cast a friend’s 8-foot custom rod a while back, but it was built from a moderate-action blank, and just did not create the line speed needed to shoot a tight loop. Tight loops greatly aid in general accuracy and tucking a fly under overhanging structure. Speaking of shoreline cover, you can keep an 8-foot rod out of harm’s way a bit better when time comes to move into tree branches to retrieve a snagged fly, or a hooked fish that has hung you up. ”

“The closer you get the rodtip to your hand, the more accurate you can be.” Holt says a short rod provides a lower trajectory, or casting plane, for your line in the air for easier line and fly placement beneath cover along a shoreline.”

“A short rod also helps you punch out a tight loop and deliver more accurately into a headwind to a fish close by.”

“Lastly, canoeing or kayaking fly fishers will find that short fly rods are not only easier to store in cramped quarters, but they are less fatiguing to cast. Seated, you do not have the luxury of shifting body weight from foot to foot. If you don’t think this could be an issue, the next time you are fly casting from a standing position on a skiff or ashore, force yourself to plant your feet firmly and not shift weight. In time, you’ll feel a bit more strain in your forearm and wrist.”

Rod manufacturer’s like G Loomis, Winston, Sage, and St Croix have tended toward standard 9′ rods, especially in heavier weights.  Remember that if you build a custom rod or have one built you can always have a longer rod blank cut down to make it shorter.

I think these are excellent comments and contribute greatly in rod length selection.  What do you think?

by Mark Waldin Flycatcher Custom Fly Rods  About the hardest thing to undo when done wrong on a fly rod is the reel seat.  Once it is epoxied in place and dried, chances are you aren’t going to remove it without damaging either the rod on the reel seat.  Uplocking reel seats like the Struble and Bellinger reel seats I use in building custom rods have a fixed pocket for the reel that sits in an inset into the cork grip.

It is important that the pocket line up with the spine of the butt section of the rod.  I Zero Balance all my rods to find the spine, but you can do it less accurately with manual methods.  Aligning the butt section spine may be more important than any of the other sections (depending on the rod) because it can hold a great deal of the power of the cast.

Make certain you don’t forget to align the pocket with the spine because once the epoxy dries you will be living with a misaligned rod without much recourse.  I always put a reel on the rod, align the spine to the reel and let the whole assembly dry that way.  In this way I am certain that the spine is aligned and the extra step of putting on the reel means I never forget to do the aligning.