Rod & Reel

Currently I am using an 8' 4wt made by St. Croix.  It is the Rio Santo model and it is a moderate-fast action, two piece setup.  My reel is the excellent Lamson Konic, which I have spooled with Cabela's Prestige Plus 5wt line.

Its a budget setup, but I can't really imagine spending $800 on a rod, or even on a rod and reel.  That this lack of imagination is simply due to the fact that I've never got my hands on a premium setup is a possibility that I'll be glad to explore just as soon as Hardy and Orvis mail me their latest...

But truth be told, this setup catches plenty of fish and puts the fly where I want it.  At the end of the day, what more can I ask?

My wife (truly a great supporter of this passion of mine) gave me a William Joseph magnetic chest pack for my birthday the year prior to our wedding.  It has room for two small boxes and enough leader/tippet materiel for any expedition.  The magnet is very strong and has never failed, and when opened the front flap makes a sort of mini workstation.  It is also waterproof (or at least water resistant) and I entrust  my iPhone to it with confidence.  

I think of my setup as "minimalist" and that sort of fits in with how I try to approach fishing in general. (written in 2013)  

Reading that entry from a decade plus ago makes me feel pretty grateful for the tackle I use now.  I still enjoy the idea of being "minimalist" but, as always seems to happen, that has evolved from one fly box and a chest pack to a selection of role-specific rods, many fly boxes, and many ways of carrying it all.  I am minimalist on the water, but maximalist in the garage!

The current (2025) stable in order of line weight.

Orvis Recon 10' 2wt graphite.  This is the 2023 version, which I got on a crazy good deal from Orvis when they introduced their next gen Helios and Recon series.  Nymphing is becoming something I am taking more seriously but with which I have little experience at this point.  The rod feels good, looks good, and is hyper sensitive to even the most tentative takes.

"Mr Ant" 6' 3" 3wt graphite (custom).  This is a fun little rod I had custom built by Rich Steinhart.  Rich is not a believer in expensive tackle, and his prices reflect this.  Yet this rod casts just as accurately and easily as my Orvis Superfine glass rod, which cost nearly three times as much.  I don't use it as much now just because I do love the feel of glass, but it goes with me everywhere as a small stream backup.  My most striking memory of this rod is of catching dozens of large (18" plus) Brown Trout in a backcountry stream in the last days of October.  These were big, heavy fish that I was not at all expecting to find, and this little rod didn't miss a beat.  The extreme sensitivity of the tip section preserved my tippet as well, and on that particular trip I never broke a fish off.

Orvis Superfine Fiberglass 7'6" 3wt (2022 version).  I love this rod and use it more than anything else.  It is the perfect small stream rod.  It boasts extremely accurate and natural casting as well as that soft, slow feel of glass which not only encourages a more relaxed casting stroke but lets you feel even the smallest high mountain brookies deep into the grip.  I pair it with a 406 Fly Lines DT 3wt line and an Orvis Battenkill click and pawl reel.  For anything up to a size 12 dry fly this is perfect, and it handles small dry dropper rigs and even small streamers easily.  It also breaks down into a tiny package that can be surreptitiously thrown into a day pack for low profile trips into lesser known destinations!  I like it so much that my next rod purchase will be a 5wt of the same rod.  There is something about glass...

 

Sage Approach 9' 5wt:  This was my first "serious" ie, "name brand" fly rod.  I have caught more fish on this rod - from trout to bluegill and from high mountain streams to Oklahoma farm ponds - than any other.  I've even fished it in the surf a few times.  Before I knew any better, I though it was the perfect rod.  As my fishing style developed into the small stream-centric approach that I now take, and as my casting skill increased, I began to realize that it does have some shortcomings.  It is very fast and requires considerable fly line out of the guides to begin loading.  From other experience I have, that is typical of the manufacturer's style.  That makes it a poor choice for the small streams I love so much, but it makes a good rod for bigger water, such as fishing a wooly bugger in the San Joaquin in August, or for streamers in the higher mountain lakes.  I have also had good success using this rod for my indicator setup.  It was a wedding gift from my wife and because of that, and because of the places I have taken it, it holds a special place in my heart.

Echo Ion 9' 6wt: I bought this rod back in 2015 for the purpose of surf fishing in Southern CA.  It did ok at that, but I moved to Oklahoma before I really got to use it for that reason.  I used it quite a bit in OK, though, and it proved to be an excellent rod for bass and bluegill.  It is very slow for a graphite rod and has a much more glass-like casting feel than any other graphite rod I have.  It isn't especially slim or trim, but it is very forgiving.  It really came into its own in 2020 during the lockdowns.  I caught a lot of bass in the reservoirs near my house in OK with it using an intermediate line.  I haven't used it much since then, but fills a spot as my lighter bass rod.

Sage Pulse 9' 8wt: This rod is a classic case of buying the right thing at the wrong time.  I bought it in 2020 a few weeks before the world shut down during the initial pandemic.  I intended for it to be a bass rod that I would use that summer after I left the Marine Corps.  The idea at that time was for my family to stay in OK for a few months and enjoy the State that I never got to see when I was on Recruiting Duty.  However the pandemic and my dad's cancer changed everything, and we left OK before I got to fish this rod more than twice.  Now that we live in trout country a long way from any decent bass fishing, this rod stays in the tube.  That's a shame because it is a really nice stick with tons of power.  I've used it to catch some stocked rainbows in a nearby lake, and I've played around with it from a boat, but I have never gotten to use it like I planned.  Theoretically it is now my surf rod, and I would like to use it for that role, but just haven't gotten to it yet.  Someday!