Can a fly fishing rod and reel be used for..?
Posted by admin on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010
Can a fly fishing rod be used for top-water jigs for freshwater? For small-mouth bass and other small-medium sized freshwater fish. Also for worms? Thanks a lot! And if you don’t get what I am trying to ask (rephrase it) I will add more details.
-Fishingidiot-
@ stop_makin_cents, (lol) sorry for it kind of being confusing. I didn’t mean putting the worm on the with the fly. What I meant was just getting a regular hook with a worm on it. And I have a fly and spinning combos. I was just wondering if I could do what I just said with a fly cast combo (but not use much weight, if not none). Because I love fly fishing. Thanks for your answer and thanks everyone else who has answered too! Have a great holiday season!
-Fishingidiot-
Filed in Fly Fishing Rods | 8 responses so far
Roger Won 23 Jan 2010 at 5:55 am 1they can be used that way, but you would be better served, if you would use a spinning rod & reel
Soloon 23 Jan 2010 at 6:17 am 2Get a crappie pole. They are as limber as a fly rod and have room for an ultralight reel.
Johnon 23 Jan 2010 at 6:52 am 3Yes a fly rod would work. Top water can be explosive, weightless worms and lite jigs would be my choice. When a bass hits your lure instead of reeling in with the real just hold your line between your fingers with one hand and strip your line with the other. Fly rods can present your lures exactly where you want your lure to land and very softly without loud splashes. Tight lines.
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lymanspondon 23 Jan 2010 at 7:12 am 4About the heaviest I would go is 1/32nd of an once, I think Trout Magnet has jigs that size, but that would be more for pan-fish…..(almost looks like the size of a san juan worm fly ) for worms look up patterns for the san juan worm(a caddis fly hook, some lead wire for weight, some pink chennile), and don’t forget youtube for flytying videos….
stop_makin_centson 23 Jan 2010 at 8:09 am 5Flyfishing began in freshwater!
Only in the last 25 years has saltwater-fly-fishing caught on.
Worms? Live worms?? I suppose you COULD cut a section of earthworm up and stick it on a freshwater fly but it will cause the fly to act “funny” and sink “weird”.
Besides the whole point of flyfishing is “stealth”, “presentation”, & “foolin’ the fish with a feather”. If you decide to “bait-up” your fly your defeating the purpose of flyfishing!
BTW- There ARE different types of “hair-worms” designed for Bass, Crappie, Etc. There are also many different types of topwater flys designed for Bass, Brim, Reds, Trout, Etc.
You sound like you are trying to figure out a way to get 1 rod that can “do it all”?
The only rod I know that can cast flys moderatley well (with the aid of a fly-casting bubble/cork), cast Bass/inshore saltwater lures, & perhaps be a lite-action surf-rod/boatrod would be a Med action 7-8′ spinning outfit.
(confused)
At this point I will stop writing and hit the “please rephrase the question” button. (lol)
Looking forward to your update.
UPDATE: Pheasant Tail/ Bird-Dog covered the question well already. Good luck, Bro! And Happy Holidays!
pheasant.tailon 23 Jan 2010 at 8:39 am 6“Can a fly fishing rod be used for top-water jigs for freshwater? ”
Yes, it can. What you need to figure out is how much the lure weighs. if you have a 5 wt rod, chances are you won’t be able to punch it out where it needs to go. I’d choose an 8 or 9 wt rod with a 71/2′ leader tapered to 1x so you’ll have enough “oomph” to toss the rig and enough backbone in the
rod to set the hook. If you break a 1x leader setting the hook, please let me know, that will be one helluva big fish.
Also for worms?
Yes and no…..
If you try flycasting a traditional setup with a worm on a hook,
it’s going to fly off the hook every time (just simple physics)
but….. if you’re fishing a small stream and just using the flyrod to place the worm into likely holding areas by a simple “flick”
that will work fine (I know some folks who do this and it is a deadly technique).
brddg1974on 23 Jan 2010 at 9:12 am 7I have used night crawlers on a fly rod with this set-up: I put a 5 to 6 ft monofilament leader (8lb) on the end of the fly line. I tie a #8 short shank hook to the end of the mono, with a second hook approx 12 inches above on the leader. Hook the top hook into the nose of a crawler, and the bottom hook into it’s tail. You can only cast this set up the same as you would a spinning/baitcasting rig. You cannot use the traditional (back and forth) fly casting method as that will throw the crawler off the hooks. The weight of the crawler will give you fair distance but will not allow for “across the lake” shots. Dragging the crawler SLOOOWWWWWLY back to you across the bottom is deadly for bass. I’ve caught largemouths up to 5 pounds on this set-up. Good luck if you try it.
AIRFLOWon 23 Jan 2010 at 9:51 am 8I will just put this simply as there are already some brilliant answers already, you can , but i wouldn’t as it would mean getting the line weight rating roughly equal to that of the jig. So i would stick to your fly rod for saltwater and if you intend to jig for bass buy a different rod.