greg mitchell
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Zach you have an interesting take on fly reels. I agree with you on a lot of your points. But for me personally I do a lot of my fishing for tailwater trout in MO and Arkansas and I frequently use 7X tippet. For me in those instances I feel a smooth drag is imperative. The drag isn’t really that important in a sense but it has to be totally smooth and be able to be adjusted to what I consider the “sweet spot”. This sweet spot is not so loose that when you strip line out or the fish makes a hard run that the spool overruns and not tight enough to break the 7X when a 20″ plus fish makes a sudden hard run. A lot of reels are hard to adjust to this “sweet spot” I’ve found that on certain reels I just lose more fish (the bigger ones). Maybe a good smooth reel/drag compensates for some of my deficiencies as an angler? I don’t know. I do know that if I fished only with 5X tippet or above I wouldn’t be nearly as picky.
Greg
This topic takes me back. Over 20 years ago as a teenager I had one of these rods. I think it was the 7 footer. I loved it. I used it mainly for the bluegill in the local ponds. I don’t know what happened to the old rod. I might look on ebay and see if I can find one…..
Greg
Carter
As far as adjusting the drag range-been there and done that. You can tweak it somewhat but IMHO it is not ever as smooth or adjustable as my Teton. I’m not saying the Cimmaron is a bad reel. I actually like it. I’m just not wild about the drag.Kid I feel you made a great purchase with the CLA. A few weeks ago my wife purchased one of those limited edition “pink” CLA’s. She loves it and I feel the drag is a definite improvement over the Cimarron. Again just my opinion.
Greg
I have a couple of Ross Cimmarons and I like them. My only complaint is the drag range is pretty small. Meaning one click of the adjustment knob adjusts the drag a whole lot. This makes it kind of difficult to get the drag adjusted right. Overall I think they are good reels though. My favorite reel especially for the $$ is the Teton Tioga. It is slightly cheaper than the Cimarron and in my opinion has a smoother more adjustable drag and is better looking to boot. I’ve never owned an Orvis reel so can’t comment there. I do think the Orvis reels are now made overseas whereas the Ross and Tetons are not. I’m not 100% sure of that though. Good luck.
Greg
Interesting topic. Here in Missouri mine (in order) are:
Zebra midges in various colors #18 to #22
Mohair leeches various colors #10 and #12
Cracklebacks various sizes and colorsGreg
BD – my take on the Bass Pro waders is that they are very comfortable but they are not long lasting. I’ve had 2 pair. Both lasted about 18 months. And I’m not really hard on them and generally take care of my stuff. Maybe that’s all you can expect from cheaper waders.
My wife bought me some Simms lightweights for X-mas. They are not any more comfortable than the BPS ones but I’m hoping they last longer. They cost about twice what the BPS waders did. Only time will tell I guess. I don’t like that the Simms don’t have built in gravel guards but I’ve gotten used to the separate ones.Good luck!
Greg
This topic kind of took me by surprise. I’ve never had anything but good experiences and service in the fly shops in my town and surrounding areas. I’ve never felt pressured to buy anything. I’ve always just had friendly, courteous and generally knowledgeble service. They also all generally give good advice as to where to fish, fly selection, etc. The shop in my hometown of Springfield MO is especially good and I count the owner as one of my friends.
Greg
Hey dunfly I notice your avatar is a corgi pup. Do you have a corgi I assume? We have 2. One of them is 15 years and still going strong – stone deaf though. Wonderful dogs.
GregZach my story is kind of similar to yours. My father liked the outdoors but did not really care for fishing. But he would always take me / go with me anyway. He is a CPA and he used to have a client who owned property on a local river and also had 2 private lakes on the property. Some of my best memories are fishing those lakes and the river there. He was particularly proud when I took up the fly rod and fly tying. When I turned 21 he took me to a private fly in lake in Canada. We caught so many big pike and walleye that trip that by the end of the week I was actually tired of catching them. Great memories.
GregDidn’t mean to start a political discussion. I was just curious about outsourced asian wrappings.
GregThanks for all the info. Like I said I’m not advocating asian made rods over USA made.
I was just curious about the wrappings. And surprised at the quality of a “made in china” fly rod.
I’ve done my share to support American Fly fishing companies: 2 sage rods, 2 Ross reels, etc, etc.
GregZach I own a Sage FLI and the wraps are perfect. Like you though I do wonder about their quality control in light of the one you saw.
Zach I have removed all the guides and wraps from a rod and then rebuilt it. I have never tried to remove the reelseat though.
Just removing the guides including epoxy and wraps was a lot of work. But the rewrapped rod did turn out well. What I did was heat the epoxy on the wraps with a hairdryer to soften it. Then slowly removed the epoxy with my fingernails. When the epoxy was all off I used a razor blade to carefully cut a little of the thread wrappings – once cut the rest came off easily. Removing the epoxy was a slow labor intensive process.
You might also ask the question on this website:
http://www.rodbuilding.org/list.php?2I’ve built 3 or 4 rods and this site has a wealth of information.
GregDo any of you use airflo lines? That is one line manufacturer you never hear much about. I think that is too bad about Rio. I think Sage may be on the road to becoming the “walmart” of the fly fishing world. They do have some great products though.
GregI agree with what was said about returning the jacket and not returning the scissors.
I have to put in a good word for Bass Pro though. I hate to see them run down. I live in Springfield, MO the home of Bass pro and the fly shop there could not be better. Their products such as waders, rods, and reels are pretty good quality. I have returned a couple of things to them even without a receipt and they have taken my word for it. The guys that work in the fly shop section are very friendly and knowledgeble. They do free fly casting lessons. I also patronize my local fly shop but I feel bass pro is a quality place to shop despite being a retail giant.
GregZach a year ago I bought a kit from cabela’s. It includes the unfinished frame and net. You finish the frame and then lace on the net. It turned out great. Was very inexpensive. Plus you can pick the wood finish you want. Both cabela’s and netcraft sell these.
GregLooks like it was a great trip. I’d like to make it out that way someday. One comment though. I don’t think you’re ever to old to take time off from work on your b-day to do something you love. I’m 45 with a busy career and family and I take a “b-day fly fishing trip” every year.
Zach do you know when TFO is introducing this rod? I don’t see it on their website or in any of the online stores yet. It sounds like a great rod. I really like TFO’s series 1. I like the moderate action and feel of it a lot. But I prefer a trout rod to have a wood insert reelseat – it just looks “right” to me on a trout rod. I’ll bet they’ll have a winner here.
Greg
