Fred said:
My old 100 dollar combo fly fishing setup has broken on me, and I’ve learned enough to be comfortable with investing in a rod and reel of better quality. I don’t want to break the bank tho I’d like to keep it under 250$ reel and rod combined any recommendations? Also, can someone explain how to fish nymphs and euro nymping or just link a YouTube video that would help me understand. Furthermore, I want to try catch and release fishing for cutthroats on gales creek, and I’m also interested in fly fishing the deschutes or crooked this winter any tips?
Hey Fred, a 9 foot 5 weight is a great all-around fly rod, but probably wouldn't be what I'd use for the Deschutes, Crooked or Gales.
For the Crooked, Gales, the North Santiam, Middle Fork Willamette and many more my rod of choice is an 8.5 foot 4 weight. It casts much better than a three, and you can still toss a pretty chunky dry dropper set up. Plus, it's a ton more fun to fight a 10 inch fish on a four weight than a five, and realistically most fish you catch west of the Cascades are going to be 10 inches or less. This will also be a great rod for the Mount Hood streams when trout season opens back up.
Euronymphing requires a specialized rod to do it well. You want it to be long (10 feet minimum) with a soft tip that can protect light tippet. A 10.5 foot 3 weight is ideal. You can go with a 10 foot three weight and double this up as a dry fly rod on a bigger river. You won't really want to use your euro rod on any small streams because your rod tip will be in trees all day. It's not the most versatile rod in the world, although I have also used mine in a pinch to throw indicator rigs on still water. Go cheap on your euro rod, there are a lot of up and coming companies that sell $200 rods that do the trick just fine. Moonshine, Adipose, or whatever midrange manufacturer you like.
If you're looking to cover the most water and most techniques with the fewest new purchases, I'd skip buying the reel and buy two rods -- a euro rig and a 4 weight for dries. You can use the one reel you already have for both setups. Rio sells a euro nymphing specific line but it's completely unnecessary. Any floating line with a nice long leader will do the trick. Rio also sells pre-built euro leaders, which I highly recommend.
The one tip I'd give for anyone starting out euro nymphing is keep your rod tip high when you cast. A lot of people slap their flies down into the water and then have to raise their tip back up to get a good drift. You want the flies to be the first thing to hit the water, so that they start sinking the second they land. Keeping your rod tip high accomplishes this, and also allows you to lower your flies into the water column at a uniform rate, while maintaining direct contact with your flies. If anything out of the ordinary happens to your line, a pause or a twitch, anything -- set. And always set in a downstream direction.
Shoot me a DM and I'll show you a few holes on the Lower D that are perfect for learning. I'm usually out there at least once a week during winter.