Zach Matthews
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I am pretty sold on these:
That’s what I have wound up using for 90% of my river fishing for striped bass this summer, and I am planning on continuing with the 8 weight this fall/winter for upper Hooch brown trout. Tactics are identical; you just use different flies.
In fairness, the taper on the Streamer Express series is pretty choppy, because it’s an integrated shooting head, but it does make for nice easy long casts. For prettier casting I might choose a more tapered full intermediate but I don’t think anyone beats SA’s chemistry on these clear lines. Every other kind of clear line I have ever used has delaminated or stretched off its core within a few outings; these lines have been if anything MORE durable than the average shooting line. SA’s running line is a kind of supple but very heavy solidcore mono that can’t kink or get wonky because it doesn’t appear to have a jacket to twist around the core. I think it’s just all one piece back there.
Zach
Hey Tim –
You helped me load my boat, right? A 4 weight is just not a striper class rod. You *could* theoretically land a striper up to maybe 6 or 7 pounds on it but it would be an epic battle. Problem is there are a lot bigger stripers than that in there. You did very good to hook one! That isn’t easy wade fishing.
Let’s say a 4 weight is all you’ve got. My advice is to get a 15 lb. tapered leader and crank your drag all the way down. If you hook another, don’t try to fight it off the rod much; just point your stick at the fish and reel. If you can move him a bit, lift with the butt of the rod and don’t lift it beyond 45 degrees. Otherwise your rod is probably toast.
If you want to target stripers more efficiently look into an 8 weight rod, which will also do double duty for largemouth bass and redfish if you can get to the coast. A 10 weight is probably the true striper class rod but it’s less versatile and you don’t really need it unless you hook a 20+ lber. I would look at the TFO Lefty Kreh Professional series for a nice good quality but budget friendly 8wt. You’ll also need a reel with a drag and a line, obviously. I’d recommend an intermediate or a sink tip if you want to focus on stripers.
Zach
Yeah that box was seriously my favorite thing at the show. $50! That is a great deal. I am pretty sure the panel will have to be purchased separately. I’m going to split my big trout flies out from my striper patterns (which are in a Bugger Beast).
Zach
Edit:
Thanks for the input on the new Hardy reel. I am getting a #5 wgt. Zenith rod (I love it’s action) and I was thinking of getting the new Hardy Reel. I didn’t see anything during Zach’s blogging so I was wondering if it was worth buying or not. I have several older, made in England Hardy reels, so I will probably just stick with them.
M Wood –
Probably the Sage ONE 5 weight within 80′ and the Ross RX 8 weight were the best new rods I threw.
Diablo Paddlesports had a pretty sweet standup paddle board, but like many companies’ offerings it was halfway to being a skiff.
Zach, did you have a chance to checkout the Hardy “Ultralite” Fly Reel? I see it won best of the show for freshwater reels.
Forget paper this is the smart phone age. However, none of the apps I’ve seen so far look worth the price to get them. Should be stupid easy to make a good app that captures date, gps, fish pics , text entry, and detailed weather conditions in the area. Might look into building my own app if I ever get some free time.
IMHO, a smartphone app would be ideal. I too started writing code for a web-based, database-driven ASP.NET app that could managed from smartphone, but I never have enough time. I would love to see one too.
Morsie –
I threw the One in 5 and 8 weight and they were both really nice. There is an additional accuracy factor; I am not a particularly accurate caster and I definitely noticed an improvement. The 5 and 8 both strike me as standout fishing rods; they didn’t have the mega-distance backbone that some recent Sages have had (the casting competition was won by Brian O’Keefe with a 108′ cast on an eight weight One, which is on the short side for him), but they are exceptional rods from 20-60 feet and can certainly get it done on the long side.
Zach