![]() ![]() Rod tapers are now just as important as rod materials. A price point rod can often be “hyper fast” but feel like a broom stick while many rod makers are producing high end (and expensive) slower action rods that feel buttery smooth. As rod materials and designs have advanced, most rod makers are placing more focus on application specific rods. In the past the most expensive rods tended to be fast action with higher density graphite fibers while the price point rods were “slower action”. Today’s resins and graphite fabrics all have the potential to make hyper fast action rods but that is not always what an angler needs. In the early stages of graphite rod development the race was to produce stiffer and stiffer “fast action” rods. While rod technology including new graphite fabrics and new “nano” resins continue to help make lighter and stronger rods simply relying on lighter and faster doesn’t always produce the “best rod”. 20 years ago it seemed like whichever rod incorporated the newest generation of space age graphite would win the “best rod” race. ![]() There are quite simply a lot of really great fly rods on the market today. Now the answer gets a little more complicated! Of course the follow up question is then “which 6 weight should I buy?”. When someone is buying their first fly rod for fishing our local rivers we generally steer them towards a 6-weight for these reasons. A 6 weight is hands down the perfect big river nymphing rod. No rod is perfect for every scenario but a 6 weight has enough back bone to toss smaller streamers yet still provides enough “feel” to throw dry flies on a windy day. This is the catch all rod that can handle our most common fishing scenarios on many of our most common fishing scenarios in Southwest Montana. Our canned answer is a 9 foot 6 weight with floating line. We are frequently asked, “What is the best rod for Montana fishing”. Spoiler alert: Our heads are still spinning and we aren’t sure if we are any wiser after completing this endeavor than when we began, but we did learn a few things. With this no win outcome in mind we set six of our favorite 6-weight fly rods head to head in different environments in the hands of different anglers to at least provide some reasonable guidance to how rods actually perform on the water. It is like listening to sports talk radio hosts argue who is the greatest quarterback of all time there is really no definitive answer. To complicate matters, I have lost track of the number of times that I have listened to friendly arguments between fishing guides on which rod is “best”. I have also found that over and over again that the rod I enjoyed most behind the fly shop is not the one I enjoyed most on the river. I have often fallen in love with a rod on one river, fishing in one style only to curse it later under different circumstances. ![]() No fly rod is the perfect rod on every river, on every given day. ![]()
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