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3. WTT Cabelas Prestige Outfit

Hello. I am newer to fly fishing. And went to Cabelas and bought a Prestige Outfit 9ft 6wt. It is just way to heavy for my use. I would love to trade it for a 3 or 4 weight kit. Don’t want anything fancy just a kit that will get me going. I bought a Sage hard shell case that goes with it too. It is in great shape. I bought it from the bargain cave after someone scratched the reel. The reel also has a little bit of paint wearing from the side. It functions just like new. And has brand new line on it. The line hasn’t even touched water yet. Just a little practice casting in my back yard.

Springer,

I wish you had come to us for advice before you bought your first fly outfit. We would of offered you sound advice based on decades of experience. I doubt you are going to find anyone here to trade your outfit for a lighter one.

If you want my opinion unless you never plan on fishing bigger streams and rivers and don't ever plan on casting bushy dry flies or any streamer larger than a #6 you won't be happy with a #3 weight rod. I consider a #3 too light for any of the fishing I like to do. I sold both of my #3 rods because if it gets even slightly windy it is hard to cast well. I have about four #4 weight rods but they are used primarily for dry flies to maybe a #12, and slightly weighted nymphs. A #4 rod just does not have the design elements to allow it to throw almost all but the very smallest of streamers or weighted nymphs.

I would recommend a 8' 6" - 9' #5 2 or 4 piece rod. Four piece are great for air travel. When you become proficient with your casting you will be able to buy an extra spool for your reel and use a #4 weight line on the #5 rod, no problem.

If you are unsuccessful trading your outfit here or on other forums you could always try selling it on Craigslist.

6wt isn't so bad.

Watch some videos of Lefty Kreh casting. I see many people casting in a manner that's gonna blow out their rotator cuff. His videos are great for learning to keep that from happening and deliver some great power to the rod.

You'll find use for that weight set-up, it has its place. Streamer flies for trout, smallmouth, pike, etc.

It's not that you can't cast a 14 dry with it, you just need to have a little more finesse.

5wt is ideal as Wbranch said. I fish the tiniest of creeks and I still wouldn't drop to anything less. 5wt will still punch a heavier fly through the wind, but it's work.

It's not so bad as I led off, when you do go to a 5wt or less it will be nice.

A 9-foot 6-weight would make a good bass rod, or lake rod, or big western trout stream rod...I use a 3-weight on small waters like intimate brookie creeks and small ponds. It sure makes them all feel big but you lose casting distance and fly weight with that light outfit. If your waters are small ones, like many of mine, then a 3-4 weight in 7-7.5 feet is what you want.

Jonathon

Stringer,



What Strmanglr said is really good advice. Unless you have a passion for never fishing for anything but small streams and smallish trout you will start to broaden you horizons and be looking at other species to pursue with the fly rod. I have a couple 9' - 10' 6" fly rods for a #6 line. I use a #6 often for smallmouth and even pretty big steelhead when the waters are less than 50' feet wide. It is almost effortless to cast #2 - #6 un-weighted streamers with the six weight. Once I go to weighted streamers or Clouser minnows I prefer a #7 and even a #8 if the day is windy.

How would you change out lines? You would bring extra rods/ reels already setup w the different line weights? I always bring a few rods w me on my excursions and have different reels prapooled w different line weights and styles ( ie, floating, sink tip, etc)

Do you have reels with interchangeable spools? This is pretty much the lightest way to switch lines, but perhaps the most complex (pop out the spool, pop in the other one, and re-string your whole rod...). I'm sure a fair number of folks have one floating and one sinking - the hatch is on so you need the floater, but then there's no hatch and they're down near the bottom...never know what you will find, spare spool/reel gives you a little more versatility.

Having said that...I almost always fish a floater, but then again I don't do much nymphing. I do have a sinker I need to try out on some deeper waters, e.g. Reid Lake where there are some huge perch (and who knows what big rainbows) down deep. At least someone else goes out there and bottom fishes with a float tube, came up with perch so big I mistook them for walleye...so yeah, I need to try the sinker more often.

Jonathon

When I float, either in my Hyde or my pontoon boat, I always bring at least two rods fully rigged up with a #4 and a #5 line. The #4 always has at least a 12' leader and is rigged with a dry fly. The #5 may also have a dry fly but it will be a few sizes bigger. Or I might have a nymph and a BB on it. The occasional 3rd rod in the drift boat would likely be a WF#7 sink tip with a #2 or #4 Clouser on it to ply the deep runs and pools with the minnow fly.

Sounds like a full arsenal, Matt - you've got it covered!

Jonathon

I'll agree with Strmanglr on Lefty's style of casting, and disagree with Matt on 3 weights, as much as I respect his opinion on all matters related to trout fishing. I fish a 3 weight on smaller streams often and have landed fish up to 18.5" with it. It's a fast action Cabela's LSi 9' rod, and it has some backbone. I love it. I also use a 3 weight Echo Shadow 10' rod for nymphing, and know plenty of skilled anglers who like the long 3 and 4 weights. The Cabela's CZN 10' 4 weight is a fine nymphing rod too. I'd go to a fly shop and try various rods to see what feels good. If you're new to fly fishing, take some casting lessons from somebody who knows his or her stuff (preferably someone who uses the Lefty Kreh style) and talk with that person about different rods and how they perform. After 30 years of fly fishing I still go back to Bob Clouser from time to time for casting tips, and he always shows me something new or corrects some mistake I've developed. Ultimately you'll just have to fish as much as you can, and pay attention, to find out what works for you. It will probably take a while. Everyone is different, and what works for one person may not work for someone else. In the meantime, you can make that 6 weight work just fine. Ultimately it's not the rod, but the skill of the person using it that makes the difference.

Louis wrote,



Did I say #3 weight rod/lines suck anywhere in my comment? Nope. I just don't think a #3 setup is a good outfit for a novice fly fisher. Too easy to get frustrated with the line not going where a new caster wants to put it if the wind is blowing cross ways.

Most people here know I am a big water fisher. I don't like any moving water where the predominant casts are either roll casts or overhead casts of no more than 20'. I like rivers that are too wide for me to cast across. Too wide to safely wade across.

I can fish a #3 weight setup but am much more comfortable with a 9' fast action rod #4 for smaller dry fly work and a #5 9' rod for larger dries or some nymphing. 9' #6 for smaller streamers and a 9' #7 for larger #4 - #1 heavily weighted streamers.

Louis further wrote;



Skilled is the most important word in this sentence.

Note what the OP is stating;




Since he admits to being a new fly fisher why not suggest a tool that will do the job better for a beginner than a tool better used by a more skillful practitioner?

Louis,



Just curious to know why you would say that? I didn't even know there was a "Lefty Kreh" style until I saw him at the Lancaster show a few years ago and he told me "you could be a better caster if you drop your arm to the horizontal on the back cast".

I'm not trying to be facetious but is that style of casting better for all overhead fly casting no matter close or far distances? I learned the old school way from books written by Hewitt, LaBranche, Bergman where you put a hard cover book between your body and the casting arm and if the book fell you were doing it wrong. Also some old timers might remember the "10 - 2" clock hands to learn how far the back cast should travel before initiating the forward cast.

When I really want to throw I do put my whole arm into the casting motion but was doing that decades before someone told me to do it. It kind of comes naturally like when you are trying to teach yourself how to double haul. At first I said to myself "I just can't figure this out". Then all a sudden Boom! you figure out when to pull on the line and when to shoot.

Hey Johnathon;

Yes that’s what I do, bring 2 reels ( or more ) w me ,1 spooled with floating and 1 with sink tip; i almost start and use full floating though , even when nymphing cuz it’s easier in many cases to just add a little shot if you need to get down more.

Matt,

You cast old school straight back and forward right ala Joan Wulff. I tried that way yrs ago and is great for shorter distances but for further i think you can tend to lose control. Let me rephrase that: for ME i tended to lose control and my loops opened up more and result in less accuracy and distance. Consequently , I kind of adopted of a fusion between straight back and true side arm which I see a lot of guys doing river side. Works pretty good although I’m sure I can improve

Matt, you are always thoughtful and make good points. That's why it's so much fun to get you going. Yes, a 3 weight can be a challenge for someone just learning to cast. That's why I recommended working with a teacher. As for different styles, I took a class from Joe Humphreys years ago and he vigorously taught casting with just the wrist. I've since learned that one can cast well that way--if it suits your physique and psychology--but that's it's much harder than Lefty's approach, which allows one to develop the line speed sometimes needed without quite as much effort. I'm in agreement with Adirman that for some of us, myself included, casting at a distance often works better using Lefty's method. Bob Clouser has thoroughly convinced me of this, and I trust him entirely. I don't doubt, however, that you have mastered casting at all distances using what may be called the Wulff approach. And I think that approach can be more accurate at times, as one comes more straight back and forward generally. I sometimes hook my casts using the Kreh style. And I sometimes use the Wulff style. I read somewhere that everyone ends up developing her or his own casting style to some degree, and that it works uniquely for them. I'm sure Lefty's remark to you was well-intentioned, but that had he seen you actually fish, he might have not made it.

I got my first 3-weight, a little Cortland 7-foot two-piece, in '96 at the Bass Pro World headquarters in Springfield, MO (about 1 square mile of indoor shopping space). I had been fly-casting for 11 years by that time, always using a 5 or 5-6 weight for pretty much all my fly fishing (got a 9-10 weight back in '90 but only used that on occasion for pike, steelhead, etc.). A 3-weight is a little willow twig when compared with a 5 - you can't throw larger flies on it or throw anything as far (though with a 9-10 foot rod you certainly could cast farther than with a 7-footer).

I always think of a 3-weight as being appropriate for smaller, more intimate waters where stealth and delicacy are more important than distance or power. Ponds and streams with a lot of brush on the banks, where you need to make tight little side-arm casts under the alders with nothing larger than a #10 dry fly or WB. And when you hook a good-sized fish you have one hell of a fight on your hands!

Jonathon