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i just got a 4 piece rod that is 2wt and 6-6 long. I wanted it for getting back to native brookies,here in pennsylvania, where i go you have to walk the old logging roads aways back in. My question is what would be the ideal leader for a rod like this

Bowmandjk-

My small stream rod is a 6'10.5" 4 wt. Assuming your question relates more to length of leader than to brand of leader, I use a 7.5' tapered leader plus a 2-2.5' of tippet, which works well. Suspect you wouldn't want to use a longer leader than that unless absolutely necessary.

I fish a 7 foot 00 weight cane rod with a 7 and 1/2 foot tapered leader for all my brookie fishing. Rio makes a nice one called "light trout" that is built on a smaller diameter butt for lighter lines. I fish this leader up to 3 weights with good turnover. If you want a stiffer leader, go with Orvis's "superstrong." Same length, just stiffer mono used.

thanks for the reply think ill try the rio "light trout"

I don't mean to hijack the thread but I have a question for slate drake. I've been thinking about picking up a rod for some brookie streams, right now I don't fish lighter than a 4wt. I was planning on picking up something in the 7' 3wt range, but have been thinking about the lighter lines. No shops around here stock anything lighter than a 3 so I doubt I will be able to see anything before I order it. My question to you is, what made you decide to go to a 00, and how does it perform.
thanks
jeff

the big mail-order firms like Orvis, Cabela's and LLBean will usually let you return a rod bought mail-order for exactly that reason. some good fly shops will order a rod and let you try it out before you seal the deal in order to keep a good customer. be sure to let us know how you make out!

Little J,

This will be long...sorry.

Up until about 15 years ago my lightest rod was a 4/5 weight rod that performed better with a 5 than a 4. I got a hairbrained idea one day to go to a local shop and cast a 7' 2 weight and fell in love. I fell further in love when I hooked my first trout on it, a whopper of about a foot. Best fight I had on a "regular" sized trout ever. I fished with this rod for about 2 years and decided that I wanted to try even lighter, but nobody I knew had anything lighter for me to try. I eventually found an Orvis Silver Label 8' 1 weight (medium action). I casted it and fell in love again and had the same deeper fall when I landed my first trout on it. About a year later I had the opportunity to cast an Orvis Superfine 1 weight and it was awsome. 7'6" and slower action. Great casting and unbelievable when catching trout, even the monster 6 inch brookies gave up a good fight with it. From that point the Superfine was my go to rod almost year around. I've landed countless 5 pound plus trout on it without much problem. Some years later I became friends with a guy that only fished Hexagraph fly rods and I played with a few of his. I liked them because they were an okay mix of cane and graphite. What I really liked about them was that they would build a rod to any specs you wanted. Around the same time Sage came out with thier 00 weight rods. I had casted their 0 weights and wasn't impressed with them, I felt they were just too fast of an action for such a light line. They didn't seem like they would offer me the same jaw dropping experience that I had with all of my other drops in line weights. I was really excited about the 00 because I thought it would. It took almost a year of asking around to get one in my hands to cast. I was absolutely disappointed in it. Way too fast/stiff for such a light line. I didn't think it would make me happy. I then contacted the builder of the Hexagraphs and asked him to build me a Hexagraph 00 weight in a slow action and he said he could and would come the following spring when he got the new shipment of blanks in his shop. Well, he couldn't do it. He said that the folks that made the blanks screwed them up and he couldn't do what I wanted in a rod under 7'6". I wanted a 7 footer for the smaller streams. To make good on a promise he made me he offered to build me a bamboo rod to my specifications (7 foot long and will load with 8-10 feet of 00 line out and will make a 6 inch brookie feel like a salmon) for the price of the Hexagraph he was going to build me (a substantial discount). So that said.

I can put out 35-40 foot casts fairly easily with it, but the streams I typically fish it on don't allow that much room to do so. It is sloooowwww. Really slow. Which is great! I landed a 17 inch brown on it, but I usually don't use it on waters where that is a common thing to encounter. 6 inch brookies feel like foot long trout do on my Superfine 1 weight. No more setting a hook and flinging minnow sized trout over my shoulder. I can effectively cast any fly that is needed on a brookie stream (bushy dries, beadhead nymphs, muddler minnows, etc.). It will load with practically no line out, which is needed on the little brookie streams I often fish. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

When I am not fishing a bamboo rod (which I do more and more), the Superfine 1 weight is my go to graphite rod.

thanks slate drake,

I think I may go that route. On most of the streams I will be fishing this rod, a 12"er may never happen. My biggest this year was about 8". I like the fact that I wouldn't be launching the tinys into the trees. Something that happens to often and I kinda feel bad about afterward. My biggest hold up was the, what if I get into a bigger fish, I didn't want it to completley bog down( or kill) a decent fish. If you've landed 5 lb browns on one, I feel confident I can manage a 12-14" whopper. I was originally leaning towards a Sage txl,but price and your displeasure have me thinking again, do you have any other production recomendations.
Thanks
Jeff

didnt read all of this thread but one draw back of these 1-3 weight rods is breakage, most of the time we buy them for tight fishing, but ya still get snags both in trees and using weighted nymphs on the bottom, you cant just tug to break a fly free or tug to snap the line, they seem pretty fragile.

oh so what i meant to say, use low lb test line.

Little J,

I don't think you can go wrong with an original (first generation unsanded blank) Orvis Superfine 1 weight. The second generation ones with the "pretty" painted blanks just aren't the same.

Scott also makes an awsome 1 weight in fiberglass. The 2 and 3 weights are really nice too. I've cast all 3 and really liked them. May be easier to find than an first generation superfine.

McFarland in central Pennsylvania makes a wonderful fiberglass small stream rod too. I don't think he advertises the lighter line weights we are talking about, but I remember him telling me that he can make them. He also makes a soft action graphite rod in lighter line weights that I'm told is a great rod.

Hexagraph will custom make you one of their rods. You have to talk to thier builder, not owner, to get what you really want. I can get you contact info for him.

That's all I can remember for now, if I think of more, I'll add them.


Also, I see you live not terribly far from the State College area and the wonderful trout streams there. I frequent them and would be willing to meet up with you sometime and let you play with my ultra light collection.

Oh, yea, I forgot. Orvis use to make an awsome 6'6" 2 weight Superfine that is the cat's a$$. My wife fishes one regularly (was mine, but she took it). It is probably second place to the 1 weight. Again, you have to find a first generation one with the unsanded blank. The newer models and current models don't even come close.

UPTroutBum,

Breakage is not a problem if you don't do foolish things with your rods, like try to pull free snags with the rod and not the line in your hand. If 5 pound plus wild browns couldn't stress the rod to breakage (and I really put the "wood" to 'em) a tree branch or bottom snag won't.