Questions about new setup and fly fishing methods

F
Fred
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?
 
Echskech
Echskech
Hey @Fred, sounds like you're ready for some damn rewarding times. Flyfishing is awesome, i fish your area, and I love to teach. So my first question to you is; Do you need to replace your reel also? Seems like even though your intro rod is broke, the reel that came on it could still be of use? Just saying, not buying a reel could save you a few bucks that are better spent on your rod and (more importantly) your line.
Flyfisherman won't willingly admit it, but the fly reels only job is to hold line. Beyond that, its just there to let other flyfishermen know how rich you are.
 
Echskech
Echskech
Next up is learning where you'll be regularly fishing. Guessing you're fishing for trout. Let's be honest, the sleepy flow, tight quarters and smaller fish of Gales creek are in stark contrast to the wide waters, rough winds, and monster fish of the Deschutes.. yes* you can fish both with th same rod, but your experience may be more fun if you were more directional.. Regardless, my blanket statement is a 5weight rod (but a 6wt would sure be nice on the Deschutes and a 3wt could reallysuit Gale's Cr.).
 
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dwkresin
I grew up on Gales creek and lived on it's shore as an adult too. There are some decent fish in there.
 
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BrandonBeach
Affordable set up:
I fish a 9 foot 5 wt 4 price 99% of the time,

I own each of these, affordable, very usable

TFO Lefty Kreh Signature Series II 5 wt Around 100$
Okuma Sierra reel 4-6 40$ ish
Scientific Anglers or Cortland wf 5f 60$ ish.

(but by no means the only useable options out there, you can go with less expensive options and be ok.)

YouTube videos, there are lots out there, here are two

as for nymphing:

And euro style :
He explains the set up well.

The Deschutes in winter used to be my go to river, mainly a nymphing game then. That being said, I had the best dry fly day ever in February, a monster mid day mayfly hatch with the town of Maupin literally in sight.


Good luck,


BB
 
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olshiftybiscuits
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.
 
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Grant22
Grant22
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?
I have a 5wt 9ft echo base rod and I really like it, I think its like $100 or something like that.
 
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BrandonBeach
In my previous post in this thread, my intent was not to offer up items fore sale, ( I may give em away, but won’t sell them) just a recommendation for an “affordable” set up.

good luck,

BB
 
jamisonace
jamisonace
BrandonBeach said:
In my previous post in this thread, my intent was not to offer up items fore sale, ( I may give em away, but won’t sell them) just a recommendation for an “affordable” set up.

good luck,

BB
Sold! I'll take it all.
 
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BrandonBeach
“I may”,
That’s the key word there. 😄

A genuine need based based story would have to be involved.


BB


jamisonace said:
Sold! I'll take it all.
 
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copperjohn
copperjohn
A new set up I just got myself is a Fenwick Eagle 9' 5 wt paired with a orvis clearwater size 2. Rod was $99 and reel was $89. I pretty happy with it. After I bought backing and some WF floating 5 weight line it cost me $218 all together.
 
F
Fred
Echskech said:
Hey @Fred, sounds like you're ready for some damn rewarding times. Flyfishing is awesome, i fish your area, and I love to teach. So my first question to you is; Do you need to replace your reel also? Seems like even though your intro rod is broke, the reel that came on it could still be of use? Just saying, not buying a reel could save you a few bucks that are better spent on your rod and (more importantly) your line.
Flyfisherman won't willingly admit it, but the fly reels only job is to hold line. Beyond that, its just there to let other flyfishermen know how rich you are.
My reel has a crack on it. I mean it can still work for now, but the line on my reel is in poor condition.
 
F
Fred
BrandonBeach said:
Affordable set up:
I fish a 9 foot 5 wt 4 price 99% of the time,
Thank you very much this information helped a lot.
 
Peaceful
Peaceful
I second what @Grant22 said about Echo's "Base" setup -- it's a great package for the price and put a lot of fish in the net this year, mostly on small-mid sized streams.

I also added a Euro rod to my mix this year after totally resisting anything other than dries (boy, wasn't that a foolish position!). I don't know whether or not a high-end rod is necessary -- I personally was sold on the higher middle end of the spectrum with the Echo Shadow X, which I'm extremely happy about -- but I do know that euro nymphing as a style didn't click in for me until I switched to the micro leader or micro thin leader (not sure what exactly it's called), which is best to build/tie yourself, in my humble opinion. I tried all the Rio/SA pre-tied euro lines and found it totally cumbersome (I can explain more on this if you're curious). Here's the gist of the formula:

1610597905509.png


This leader formula made what was a headscratching "tight line but not so tight afterall?" experience into a OOOOH MY, NOW I GET WHY THIS STYLE IS SO DAMN GOOD! experience. Again, happy to share more on this if you're as eager as I was to cure the fever. :D
 
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Northwesttenkara
Northwesttenkara
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?
So I have been fly fishing for the better part of 40 years ....( gawd I am old .....) I grew up in Central BC where the claim was you can hit a different lake every day of the year within 1 1/2 hr of your house and never hit the same one twice. Well This year I took up Tenkara Fly fishing .....and I love it ....it is the simplest form of fly fishing, Rod, Line Fly. fixed length line .....

This style of fishing is more about presentation than matching the hatch ...meaning if you present something that looks like a reasonable food source, with the presentation, they will strike .... I fished 16 different bodies of water this last year ( many t and 3 times ) I have caught more fish than I have in years ....Part of it was getting out, but also the fun part was I only used basically 4 fly patterns all year .....I caught fish from 3" on the Salmon River out by Otis to 18" lunkers on the Fall River.

Have a look at it as an alternative to conventional Western fly fishing .....the gear is inexpensive and compact ...great for small creeks and rivers ....

Tight Lines ......

Chris
 
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EBT
One thought that I didn't see above. You should consider adding an extra spool for whatever reel you purchase. That would allow you to add a sinking fly line for lake fishing, easily and a bit cheaper than buying two reels. Or you could just get two reels - believe me, you'll need it eventually.
 
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nikita_pdx
nikita_pdx
For euro nymphing I have a fenwick aeteos 10’ 3 weight and it’s amazing on medium to small rivers. The reel is simply to hold line and peel drag on bigger fish, so I got a $50-$60 Maxxon talon II. Rio Gold for line. There’s premier, advance, etc...choose the one for your budget. The whole thing cost around $250.

Remember that the rod and line is waaay more important than the reel.
 
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olshiftybiscuits
nikita_pdx said:
For euro nymphing I have a fenwick aeteos 10’ 3 weight and it’s amazing on medium to small rivers. The reel is simply to hold line and peel drag on bigger fish, so I got a $50-$60 Maxxon talon II. Rio Gold for line. There’s premier, advance, etc...choose the one for your budget. The whole thing cost around $250.

Remember that the rod and line is waaay more important than the reel.

For folks euro nymphing on rivers like the Lower Deschutes or Metolius, a reel is definitely more than a line holder and a worthwhile investment!
 
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Peaceful
Peaceful
olshiftybiscuits said:
For folks euro nymphing on rivers like the Lower Deschutes or Metolius, a reel is definitely more than a line holder and a worthwhile investment!
I can attest to that! Even in winter, when they're supposed to be more "lethargic."
 
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olshiftybiscuits
In regards to the line, you can use whatever you want for euro nymphing. Rio makes a specialized line for around $60, but if you want to get started real cheap you can just use any reel/line you already have and slap it on a 10 foot three weight. It's all about that leader anyway.
 
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