TexasKayakFisherman.com est. 2000

[Ron Mc]

Ronmc,
That's the ugliest, silliest fly I've seen in a long time. Probably going to net you lots of fish...

I don't tie many dries, but can't beat elkhair caddis, and need something equally visible when I'm forced to go smaller - the nice tall mast on a parachute helps to see them.
Look on the hook keeper. My kicking shrimp is my go-to salt fly
Look in the redfish's mouth
I've caught kings at the jetties on this fly.
Add a hi-tie, my fence lake roach, small poppers and small whistlers, and I'm all set for the salt.

Graphite is the answer to making a long rod lightweight, but absolutely doesn't work in shorter progressive taper rods.
Good thing they've been working on this question for 100 years
c.1915 Leonard Fairy Catskill, original 3-wt (line G)

Phillipson MF70 and a sight-fished Sabinal bass - they'll only take a high-sticked cats whisker, nothing on the swing.


A rod taper is the change in bulk modulus over the length of the rod.
Bulk modulus is the specific modulus times the moment of inertia (geometry - diameter and thickness).
You can make a long e-glass rod that exactly matches the taper of a graphite rod, but it would be pointless, because why triple the weight to get the same thing. As you go shorter, where the specific modulus of graphite is too great to achieve a break-proof rod, those good progressive tapers are in S-glass, cane, and e-glass, and the weight doesn't matter.
My Leonard above is 2-1/2 ounces in an 8' rod.

ps - every guide on the Guadalupe carries my swimming BWO for emergencies

fish this puppy on the swing in a BWO hatch

dun male

dun female - it's the eggs that make them olive

nymph

pocketwater result (that's my prewar Heddon/Folsom wind rod)

[karstopo]

I like all the personalities here on the fly fishing page. Fly fishing surely lets one express themselves.

[Ron Mc]

We each have our own fishing worlds and fishing experience - sometimes they overlap, sometimes they don't. Texas coast, Caribe, warmwater especially in the Texas hill country, coldwater all over North America.
This thread was about taking glass rods out with kayaks - I have fishing experience with at least 100 fly rods, I've bought and sold many old rods to try them where I thought they would improve the fishing (and sold some to buy more - always with a profit, which you can't do buying new rods). Back when we could buy them for $15-40, you could try a lot. The good rods have been identified, and the Heddon Pal Pro Weight 8381 I found for $15 and sold to Cameron for $45 (his first glass rod), now goes for $250 if you can find them. There's enough interest now that new glass is easier to acquire than old glass.

Before graphite became a buzzword and you couldn't sell a rod made from anything else, talented designers like Bill Phillipson and Joe Fisher were getting the most out of glass, and shorter rods is where glass shines.
Before glass was invented, great rod designers worked out cane tapers, and none of that effort has gone to waste with cane builders extrapolating great cane tapers today.
Sage offered glass rods to 1990, and Winston offered glass to 2000.
My current 7' glass rod is an Orvis Fullflex 5/6, built by Phillipson.
My first fly rod was a 7-1/2' Orvis Fullflex A 6-wt, which I handed down to my nephew for his first fly rod.

Again, the industry promotes themselves as science, but from marketing, it's pseudo-science, and exactly meets the marketing definition of Snow Job. If they're going to sell you another rod, they have to convince you what they sold you before is inferior. It's been going on for 100 years, and there are many old wonderful rods out there, especially cane and glass rods that can't be duplicated in graphite. There's some great IM6/graphite II trout rods out there, as well, Powell, Sage LL. (When they came out with graphite IV, they figured out its modulus was too high to make a pleasant rod, and they backed up on modulus and increased dampening on subsequent rods.)
The industry has figured this out and is now marketing "improved" glass. They started by telling us where we need to use glass, and their first new glass offerings were all ultra-light-line to separate them from their graphite market. Now they're responding to the growing number of custom glass builders with a wider range of glass.

If you have a place to fish 7' and shorter, can't beat Phillipson. (I have a rare Lami 605 that gives any short rod a run for its money.)
If you want a little longer and designed with perfection, the Scientific Anglers System rods commissioned to Joe Fisher.
There's a huge Fenwick fan club, but I could never get past these two, because they do exactly what I want (and of the Fenwicks I've owned, they have a few more misses than the other two).

For a salty kayak rod, the Cabela's CGR 7/8 is pretty perfect - we just need more of them.

[Kayak buddy]

I'm glad the thread was thought provoking I appreciate the input.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

[Ron Mc]

I own two Steffan Bros. Glass rods, love them

I'm going to join Raybo here in a plug for Steffen. Mark Steffen has been hand-rolling S-glass blanks longer than any other living rodmaker. Before the industry decided they could market glass, Steffen was the only new glass rod available in the US (and you could hunt down Japanese rodmakers with google beta-translate).
It's a tedious wait to queue in and get your hands on one, but worth the cost and exercise in patience.

[Kayak Kid]

Ron Mc,
I've slowed down a bit lately, and no longer fish as often as I'd like, or where I'd like. You cannot imagine what a vicarious pleasure it is to view your shared photos.
Most appreciated.

[Ron Mc]

thanks friend - I've slowed quite a bit also. Don't really pound the hill country any more, and my big involvement with trout is running Trout in the Classroom for Texas. I am bicycling a lot - my AR pulse is in the low 40s, and BP the same as when I was 19. Steve and Lou who were with me on my last couple of coast trips are bicycling buddies in addition to kayak buddies.
I still get out occasionally, but our planned coast trips are my biggest fishing excitement by far. We're going to be adding some spring trips with our RV buddies.

btw, cycling (largest sports entertainment market by far) just like fly fishing, suffers from Snow Job marketing of Chinese goods (the US imports 18 million Chinese bicycles every year - if you do the math, that's a new bike every 6 years for everybody, and not everybody rides). All but one of my bikes were bought used, made in '98, 92, '74, and '57.
Here's my '74 flagship Raleigh, which I've ridden about 65,000 miles and rebuilt 3 times around new wheelsets and gearing.

[TexasJim]

Ron: You stated recently that golf, cycling and fishing were the top three sports in terms of dollars spent. It's interesting that Shimano is a major player in fishing and cycling technology. Are they in the golf equipment scene also? TexasJim

[JW FunGuy]

Hey TexasJim , maybe Ron knows for sure but I don’t think Shimano does golf anymore. I think they tried in the EU market awhile back an got out. I like that just because a company “can” make something doesn’t mean they should. I’m tired of these companies that try and be something to everybody and all they end up doing is diluting the market. IMHO

[Ron Mc]

Japanese corporations are all mega industries. They make power plants to entertainment.
Shimano is not in golf, but one of their sports entertainment markets is rowing
https://shoprowing.shimano.com/

[JW FunGuy]

I don’t know if I would call Shimano a “Mega Industry” the sales were something like $3.2 Billion, 80% was cycling and only something like 18% was to North America. I was always a Campy guy on my road bikes but now I’m back to Shimano. I think the only fishing Shimano I have is a set of pliers and dikes.

[Ron Mc]

everyone including Campy has copied SunTour's 1964 rear derailleur patent.
Campy held out the longest, but gave in in 1988 - every Campy since Chorus introduction is Campy SunTour, and they're the best derailleurs ever made. (I have Chorus on my '98 Moser and love it - of course I have Chorus DT friction shifters with Record 8sp cassette.

Shimano was the first to copy anybody - Campy, only lighter, cut some mass out of the derailleur body and Shimano's today still crack there. Shimano actually introduced their first SunTour copy a year before the patent expired.
Where Shimano won was indexing. My buddy's daughter recently rebuilt an '85 Shogun Selectric, Shimano's first 6-sp indexing with Exage (Shimano 300).
Of course the RD was cracked right where it was supposed to be - she replaced it with a current 105 10s RD, and it indexes the 6sp rear and shifters perfectly.

SunTour made the best rear derailleurs, and Shimano always made the best front derailleurs, because they designed lift into the cage.
My '92 Viner has Shimano CX70 front derailleur and Microshift R10 rear, which is also sold as the current Sun XCD. 2x9 compact double, and the only indexed bike I own - with Microshift thumbies.
The '74 International above has Cyclone GT RD and Shimano 600EX FD (in 1975, anyone with a brain replaced their Campy RD with Cyclone).
here we go, bikefish photo from Frank Wolner's book Trout Hunting

Here's my '57 Raleigh Lenton Grand Prix, built from bare frame - the top is basically correct, and the bottom is custom, beginning with Phil custom hubs to get the 115mm OLD rear with 3/8" axles.

could go on and on - I have almost as many bike photos as fish photos

[JW FunGuy]

Ha! I love it! A man after my own heart.
The last Suntour we had was on my wife’s mountain bike, until we walked out of a hotel room in Durango and fount that somebody had taken cable cutters and removed all of the Suntour components! The bikes were locked on but....we never did that again.
I used to mountain bike into creeks in CO to fish, Dominguez etc, now there are roads and parks.. awe those were the days.

[Ron Mc]

The headwaters of the Pedernales is a great place to bikefish. Big fish there - many 10-lb bass, and giant bluegill.
The landowners freak if cars park at the crossings, but many don't care if you cable-lock your bike to a tree.
Here's a yellow-belly the size of a dinner plate from there