By the end of this piece, you’ll know how to set up a fly rod for a variety of fishing situations. Whether you’re after trout in the Rocky Mountains or bass in the Midwest, you’ll be set to catch fish with this guide.
Fly fishing is, if nothing else, an intimidating sport. From the vast array of fly rods, rod and reel combos, fly lines, knots, and various accouterments, knowing where to start seems almost impossible.
That’s what this article is for.
How to Set Up A Fly Rod: The Basics
First off, know that a fly rod is completely different than any of your spin or baitcasting rods. That might seem like a simplistic thing to say, but it’s true. Conventional fishing gear uses a stiff rod and the weight of a lure to hurl line towards a fish.
Fly fishing is the exact opposite. A long, flexible rod pushes the fly line back and forth in the air, and it’s the mass of the fly line that pushes the line, leader, tippet and fly forward towards a waiting fish.
Think of it like this: a fly rod gets all its power from the weight of the fly line. Flies themselves weigh a few ounces. Spinning and baitcasting rods get all their power from the stiff blank and heavy lures.
It’s important to know the differences between the two because understanding what makes a certain rod behave in a certain way is critical to setting it up for the performance you want and need on the water.
Fly fishing does, however, use a lot of the same terminology, knots, and gear to set up a rod. It can be confusing at times, but, for example, just remember that an arbor knot is an arbor knot, no matter what context it’s discussed in.
Required Fly Fishing Gear
To get your fly rod set up and ready to go, you’ll need:
Choosing a fly rod is another task in and of itself – and worthy of an entire post on its own. Today, though, we’ll only briefly touch on what to look for in a rod and reel.
Choosing a Fly Rod
The right fly rod for you likely won’t be the same rod that’s right for someone else. We all have our personal fishing preferences, and that’s largely why so many fly rods exist for sale.
I prefer slow to medium-fast action rods and really enjoy fishing bamboo sticks. There’s a relaxed nature to fishing a bamboo fly rod that you don’t get out of graphite.
But I digress. For most trout fishing – which is largely what gets people interested in fly fishing in the first place – a 9-foot, 5-weight fly rod is all you’ll need to start. You can spend as little as $80, and up to $1,400 on a graphite fly rod in this configuration.
For most beginners, an entry-level rod from a trusted brand is a good place to start.
Choosing a Fly Reel
After you’ve picked out your fly rod, you’re in the market for a fly reel. Once again, the world of fly fishing and conventional fishing diverge here. In conventional fishing, the reel is your primary source of leverage and power over a fish.
In fly fishing, the rod and your free hand are used more than the reel, especially when going after trout.
A fly reel is available with two different types of drag on a fishing reel: a disc drag, and the old reliable click-and-pawl. Disc-drag reels are adjustable, place an incredible amount of force and pressure on your fly line, and most of them do an outstanding job of stopping big fish dead in their tracks.
Click-and-pawl reels have just a single gear – the pawl – providing resistance against the spool as fly line exits or enters. This means that the angler has to do more of the fighting by palming the reel, stripping in the excess fly line, and changing rod angles to get the fish to the net.
As you can imagine, the cheapest fly reel is the click-and-pawl, though there are some great disc-drag options available for a reasonable price. The best thing to do when buying your first fly reel is to get the best you can afford, but don’t spend more than $150 or so. You’ll likely be able to use that one reel for all of your trout fishing for the rest of your life. A fly reel is, at its essence, usually just a glorified line holder. The amount of times I have to put a trout on my drag while using a fly rod is pretty minimal.
As an aside – you can usually find good deals on rod and reel combos from the big-name rod builders. These combos come with a rod, reel, backing, fly line, and leaders.
Choosing Backing
So, you have your rod and reel. Now you need to find some fly line backing and fly line.
Most of the backing used on fly reels is a 20-pound braid material, similar to what you’d find as backing on big-game conventional reels. Obviously, fly reels use quite a lot less of it, but it serves the same function. Fly line backing exists to help keep the fly line off the spool, increase the amount of line retrieved with each spool revolution, and to give you extra line should a big fish take more than the standard 90 feet of fly line.
The backing isn’t very expensive, and a 100-yard spool can easily rig up two reels’ worth of fly line.
After getting your rod, reel, and backing, you’re ready to pop on some fly line. Just like everything in fly fishing, you have more options here than you likely know what to do with. But luckily, we’re here to help distill it all for you.
Choosing a Fly Line
Fly line is made in two general types – weight forward and double taper. A weight forward line has almost all the weight of the line in the first 40 feet of the line. The rest of the line is thin but still floats like the rest of your line.
A double-taper line has all the weight of the fly line evenly distributed throughout its 90-foot length. And remember, fly rods get their power from the weight of the fly line they cast. A 5-weight rod needs a 5-weight line to cast properly. There are very few instances when you’d want to fish a rod with a line that’s not the right weight.
Weight forward lines are the most popular, because they help load a fly rod quicker, and are more friendly to the fast-action of today’s graphite fly rods. Double taper lines are used primarily on older graphite, bamboo, and fiberglass rods. That is the rods with slower, softer action.
Choosing a Leader
A leader is the next thing to buy on your list, and this is the one where all the differences really don’t matter. A good 9-foot 5x monofilament leader is all you need to start catching fish. Grab a spool of 5x tippet to go along with it, so you can restore the fine end of your leader after cutting off and retying multiple flies.
Now, you have all your gear, and you’re ready to rig up the fly rod. Just how exactly do you go about it?
Rigging Up
To get set up, you’ll want a pair of scissors, a trash can, and an empty table. First,