{Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Re: New to fly fishing - advice on gearing up a 5/6 wt?

Patrick,

Good post and good replies.  I moved to the SOBX 14 years ago.  I was an avid light spin tackle fisherman for several years.  One beautiful January day, about 10 years ago, I took an old fiberglass 8wt rod with a Phulger Medalist reel and a shad shaped fly, that my brother had sent to me, over to Cape Lookout.  I stood in gin clear water and caught 36" stripers for about half the day.  Since that time, I have accumulated a number of different rods and reels from 5 to 13 weights and reels to match.  I've even fallen prey to a spey rod.  It's real easy to go and spend $1,500 or more on a rod and reel or $1,500 on just a rod or a reel and unless you're one of those people that just have to have the very best or you're going to fish ALL of the time, you just wasted a lot of money.  I've fish 200+ days a year some years.  Mind you, not all of those days but a few hoursat a time.  Thus far, I have not paid more than $200.00 for a rod nor $100.00 for a reel.  My favorite rods are my TFOs and my favorite reels are Okuma Airframe.  The rods I've paid no more than $200 for and the reels cost about 30 dollars each. Mind you, these are my 5,6,7 and 8 weight rods and the rods I fish the most.  TFO has a no fault warranty.  Even if you buy it second hand, as I have most of mine, you break it, you send it to TFO with $25.00 and they'll fix or replace it, no questions asked.   I shop ebay for a lot of my equipment, especially lines.  Fishing the salt, I found very little need nor use for floating line till I moved to the Lowcountry of SC.  Here, I stalk tailing reds in the marshes on flood tides.  Sinking lines don't work too well.  Today, I fished a hole that rendered floating lines worthless to catch the trout, flounder and reds that I found.  Today a 300 grain sinking line worked well on the low end of the tide.  Yesterday, a 500 grain sinker was needed to find bottom with 7 more foot of water and and outging tide in the same hole.  In June, floating lines worked great for the feeding lady in the same hole and sinking lines yielded little results.  Point being, fly fishing is not one thing unless you fish pretty much one fish at one time of the year.  If I were you, I'd buy a 9', 5wt TFO Lefty Pro rod, two Okuma Airframe reels or something similar.  Fit one reel with backing and WF 6wt floating line and the other with backing and a 6wt intermediate sinking line or at the very least a floating line with a 15' sinking tip.  Your total cost for all of that can be 200 to 300 dollars on ebay.  Just be sure to get a line with little memory in cold conditions.  That set up would cover just about every thing you'll find from DC to the SNL and a lot of coastal fishing too.  

Save yourself some more money and build you own leaders, a surgeons knot is all you need and three different pound test leader materials.

Hope this has helped,

John M.

On Wednesday, November 12, 2014 12:28:06 PM UTC-5, Patrick Kearns wrote:

Hey all,

Having stalked this group as a spin fisherman for general DC fishing advice for a while, I've officially been bitten by the fly fishing bug.  Something like 10 years ago, my dad bought us both Cabela's fly fishing starter kits, which were casted a few times on the lawn, and then allowed to gather dust.  My dad was kind enough to dig my rod back out and get it down here to me, so I plan on using that rod until it breaks, or I get into the sport more and want to replace it.

The plan is to get fully outfitted for Christmas, so now the question is:  What on earth do I need?

At the moment, I have:

 - One cheap three-piece rod (the stamp says 5/6 weight, and I believe it's 8'6")

 - One reel

 - 10-year old fly line of unknown weight and dubious quality

From what I gather, I need:

 - Line (5 weight? Floating vs. sink-tip? Taper?  So much to know here!)

 - Leaders 

 - Tippet (3X?)

 - Some flies (looks like there's some good advice in other posts - clousers, wooly buggers & a popper or two?) 

 - Vest/storage, clippers, other accessories.

I gather that this size setup is mostly going to be good for panfish & small bass, so that's what I plan on targeting.  Recommendations on what specific sorts of gear to get for fishing in the area  (especially Fletcher's, the Tidal Basin and the C&O) would be greatly, greatly appreciated!  (Any tips on extras to modify the setup to be serviceable for trout and for the shad run would also be great!)

I plan on making it out to a few Beer Ties this winter so I can pick up a little first-hand knowledge, and repay kind advice in tasty, tasty beer.

Thanks, y'all!

--
http://www.tpfr.org
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