Fishing the Right Rod

You know, I'm not the kind of guy who gets his jollies out of catching big trout on ultralight rods. Yeah, I can land a 19" trout with a 2wt rod, but I don't want to. I would rather manage a hooked trout using a rod, with enough power, to manipulate it in way that's safe to bring it into the net. And, it's just easier to manage a tight line when you're using a rod with enough strength to move the fish as needed.

I fish a few streams in New Mexico that are only 3-4 feet in width with weed beds and deep cutbanks. In these streams, those feisty wild trout (when hooked) will dart for the weeds or into the cutbank in a split second. And, I promise, a rod too weak to hold them in the main stream will result in a trout sticking itself in the weeds and throwing your hook. Of note, there are some heavy trout in these tiny, narrow trout streams of mine. I've learned some disappointing lessons that it's best to use a rod with enough power to handle the occasional large trout. Fishing the right rod is absolutely essential in these trout environments.

Now that said, I also like to use the lightest weight rod possible and so rod selection takes some judgement using those lessons learned about certain trout stream environments. I use three factors in deciding which rod to use (weight and length) for any given stream: the size of trout living in a given stream; if it's an open or a tight-stream environment; and how strong the breeze is blowing.

For size of fish, my general guidelines are:

• 2wt rods - 6" to 12" trout, with a rare trout up to 15"
• 3wt rods - 6" to 15" trout, with a rare trout up to 18"
• 4wt rods - 8" to 18" trout, with a rare trout up to 20" plus...and when fishing tricky stream banks.
• 5wt rods - 12" to 20" plus trout

These are just general guidelines that I use in deciding the size of fly rod to use...and yeah, there are exceptions. And, you probably noticed I didn't include 6wt fly rods in the above. Well, I'm a dry fly guy that loves fishing small to medium size streams. Once in a while, I'll fish a large stream and even then I usually have a 5wt rod in my hand...and occasionally a 6wt, though rare. 

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