Fly Rods

We are very fortunate today to have the finest fly rods available in the widest possible choice of sizes and actions that can accommodate all styles of casting and fishing.

The earliest rods were made from wood such as ash, blackthorn or greenheart until the introduction of cane. These cane rods are still skilfully made with great precision and dedication even today. My introduction to fly fishing was with a fiberglass fly rod and I can remember anglers fishing with metal wireless aerials taken from old tanks. The introduction of carbon fibre set the scene for the modern rod and we have seen rods of boron, beryllium and copper mix all come and go. The early problem with carbon rods was that graphite fibre could only be made to certain designs and did not always make nice rods to fish with. A joint development between the aerospace industry and modern rod designers has today provided us with the high performance and choice of rods that are available
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Try and take a trip to House of Hardy and watch the blanks being made or ask the Sage rod representative to show you the rod making presentation. Both would give you an insight as to what it’s all about. I will try and explain a few stages in the process although the quality you would have to see for yourself. The amount of design research and field testing by different companies will never be fully appreciated.

The carbon fibre is made into a cloth and then after lots of research the cloth is cut and rolled onto a mandrel which is a specially designed steel bar. The mandrel is then put into an oven and baked. Important issues here reflect the cost of rods, such as the amount of research, quality of the carbon, and types of resin used to hold everything together. The research and the way the cloth is cut determine the action of the rod, so this is a very important process. The mandrel is then removed and the blank is made into the finished rod.
The action of the rod in simple terms is the bend and the diagram will help you understand what is meant by tip, middle, and full or through action rods.

It is important to understand that the rod action should suit your style of casting so if you are a complete beginner it is wise to get professional advice before you buy. In a nutshell if you are a laid back type of person a fast action rod may not be the best rod for you and for someone who is very fast, a slow action rod would be a problem.

Rod length is another factor to consider and it is a very individual thing but here are a few points for you to consider. The rod length is used to control how the fly is fished in order for the fly to be presented as naturally as possible. This is done by what we call mending the line or putting slack into the cast. Almost all of the rivers fished have slacker water near to both banks and faster flowing water in the middle. This faster water puts a belly in the line and pulls the fly unaturally across the fish because it is moving faster than the flow.

To remedy this the angler can put various mends or slack line into the cast so that the fly passes over the fish in a natural way. On a larger river the angler can still cast across with a short rod but the longer rod will help to mend and control the fly a lot better. In the first example the angler has cast upstream and across but the quick flowing water pulls the fly back towards the angler and away from the fish.

In the next example the angler has repeated the cast but has included an upstream mend allowing the fly to pass over the fish in a more natural way.

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