how many fly rods to take?
this quick post on Florida Sportsman got me thinking of the trip i took to belize in july.
on the trip was myself, my uncle steve and friend of his dave. between the three of us we did a great job of using the divide and conquer method of gear management.
while most articles in any of the magazines tell you that you need 10 rods and 14 reels for trip x or 4 rods, 4 reels, and 4 extra spools for trip y, its clear that this is for the old guy who visits the expensive lodges and not for the fresh out of business school student with a wife and starting a family.
our trip included:
- 4 days of guided and DIY fishing on some cayes 40 miles east of punta gorda for bonefish, permit, triggerfish, jacks, and anything else we came across
- 1 day of guided permit fishing back near punta gorda
- 2 days of guided tarpon fishing out of San Pedro, as well as DIY flats fishing for bonefish
for our trip to belize we broke down the rod/reel mix as follows:
Dave:
8 weight R.L. Winston GVX - amazingly light, and when paired with the Lamson ULA Force SL
Steve:
8 weight Scott (can’t remember what model) - smooth as can be, also had a Lamson ULA rigged on it
9 weight Temple Fork TICr - a solid rod, but couldn’t compete with the Xi2 9 weight, i think it had some form of Cabela’s reel as well.
11 weight Albright XXT - a big rod that was only $100, and worked perfect for the amount of use it got. Used a Lamson Litespeed with this one which held up great.
Myself:
7 weight Rise Fishing Co Level Series - which came with two tips, and of course 1 broke about 20 minutes into day 2, the reel was a Hatch 7 Plus which is possibly the sexiest reel ever made.
9 weight Sage Xi2 - a great rod that throws a ton of line, and rigged it with an older version of the Lamson Velocity which is a fantastic reel
6 rods definitely seemed like overkill to my wife, but each did get used and served a purpose. We also had a good mix of great deals as well as some of the premium gear that you see in all the magazines.
All in all, i think deciding on how many rods to take really depends on how much you are willing to spend, what you already have, and how flexible you can be.
bota
