# Streamer Rod



## Matthew Looby (Feb 22, 2017)

Starting to get ready for some spring time streamer fishing. In the market for a new rod and would like to have a little info before I purchase. Currently use a cheap pretty stiff 2 piece rod. Looking to upgrade. What rods do you guys like to use? Anything to avoid? Pros and cons to rods you guys use?


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## jd4223 (Feb 12, 2012)

If you can afford to buy a new rod,I would get a 10' 7wt from TFO. Put on a Redington Behemoth 7/8 reel($109-$129),add your backing and buy the new Airflo Shovelhead fly line(280grn) designed by Kelly Galloup ($99.00). Right now I'm using a Cabelas 10' 7wt(Traditional)2 piece.


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## Gamechanger (Sep 26, 2014)

Matthew,

You don't mention what type of water you intend to do your streamer fishing in. The size of the streams/rivers that you intend to fish as well as the average size of the fish you intend to catch certainly have a lot to do with equipment selection.


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## Matthew Looby (Feb 22, 2017)

jd4223 said:


> If you can afford to buy a new rod,I would get a 10' 7wt from TFO. Put on a Redington Behemoth 7/8 reel($109-$129),add your backing and buy the new Airflo Shovelhead fly line(280grn) designed by Kelly Galloup ($99.00). Right now I'm using a Cabelas 10' 7wt(Traditional)2 piece.


I have a 7/8 weight behemouth that i currently use and love. Do you know of any shops around michigan that have any TFO rods. I have heard good things about them but would like to test one out before purchase.


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## Matthew Looby (Feb 22, 2017)

Gamechanger said:


> Matthew,
> 
> You don't mention what type of water you intend to do your streamer fishing in. The size of the streams/rivers that you intend to fish as well as the average size of the fish you intend to catch certainly have a lot to do with equipment selection.


Gamechanger, that is a very good point. I usually fish medium to smaller streams for brown trout and bass. I use a 6wt Sage mostly for bass fishing poppers. The rod I would be getting would be for trout. I always hope to catch fish into the mid 20" range, but I mostly catch fish in the mid teens size range.


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## jd4223 (Feb 12, 2012)

Matthew Looby said:


> I have a 7/8 weight behemouth that i currently use and love. Do you know of any shops around michigan that have any TFO rods. I have heard good things about them but would like to test one out before purchase.


You might want to contact Shultz Fly Shop in Ypsi. They would have all the answers you're looking for including being able to test the rods right on the river.


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## Gamechanger (Sep 26, 2014)

Matthew,

For larger streams and streamers, the Sage 6wt you have would certainly fill the bill. IMHO, a nice medium action 4wt would round out your arsenal for the smaller streams that you fish. Keep in mind that you can change the characteristics of a fly rod to some extent simply by going up or down in fly line size, so sometimes it pays to invest in a couple of additional fly lines.

jd4223 gave some great advice in visiting a fly shop, especially if they provide the opportunity to test their rods.

Good luck in your search - I hope you find what your looking for within your budget.


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## kzoofisher (Mar 6, 2011)

I have a TFO and like it a lot but the model has been discontinued. Easy to throw and accurate. If you fish streamers with size 4 hooks or larger I wouldn't go lighter than 5wt and if you like to throw 5" or larger I'd go at least 7wt. I have one dedicated steamer rod, the TFO in 8wt 9', that I use in big water with big flies. In smaller water I use a 6wt most of the time unless I'm running streamers and waiting out a hatch. Then I compromise the streamer casting for a better dry fly rod and adjust my streamers to match. I don't feel I get good hook sets with a lighter, softer rod but I'm not carrying two all day. Besides the shop in Ypsi you can go to Nomad in Lansing or GR and Uncle Jake's in Battle Creek for TFO. The BVK and Clouser are both nice streamer rods with weight and length options to match the water you fish most. Link to dealer locator https://tforods.com/global-dealer-locator/


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## BeanOFish (Jul 28, 2003)

For me, for streamers you want as fast of an action, and as stiff of a rod that you feel comfortable throwing. From there the weight of the rod as well as the streamer line you're throwing will largely depend on the size of the streams that your fishing, and the size flies that you intend to throw. I carry 3 streamer rods, 6-8wt, and what I use is largely dependent on the size of the river. Smaller to mid size rivers with slower current the 6wt get most of the action (I have a 200 grain streamer express for my sink tip), mid to larger rivers, as well as faster currents the 7-8wts get thrown (these rods have either a 250 or a 300 grain sink tip on them depending on the river). You'll also want to consider what size flies you're going to throw. If you're planning on throwing mostly flies in the 2-5 range then a 6wt will do the job. But if you want to start throwing bigger and heavier flies that are 5in+ you'll want to look into a 7 or an 8 (especially if the rivers your fish get steelhead and salmon, hooking one a 6wt is fun until they snap your rod). 

I will agree with Kzoo, the BVK's are very nice rods for the price point, and very light weight. I have an 8wt, and it gets thrown quite a bit in the early spring and late fall.


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## OH-YEAH!!! (Jun 18, 2009)

Matthew Looby said:


> Starting to get ready for some spring time streamer fishing. In the market for a new rod and would like to have a little info before I purchase. Currently use a cheap pretty stiff 2 piece rod. Looking to upgrade. What rods do you guys like to use? Anything to avoid? Pros and cons to rods you guys use?


There are a lot of great rods for all budgets on close out here;

https://www.sierratradingpost.com/s~fly-rod/

I’d probably go with the 5 weight Sage Bolt. Normally $650. $329. Perfect action for streamers.

Or, if you’re on a budget, the Redington Vapen


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## OH-YEAH!!! (Jun 18, 2009)

This in a 4 weight would be pretty sweet for small/medium streams 

https://www.sierratradingpost.com/s...ring=s~fly-rod/&merch=prod-rec-prod-prod307FD


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## cordesr1 (Jan 17, 2014)

OH-YEAH!!! said:


> I’d probably go with the 5 weight Sage Bolt. Normally $650. $329. Perfect action for streamers.
> 
> Or, if you’re on a budget, the Redington Vapen


I started out with the Vapen in 10' 8 wt, It got heavy after a few hours of pounding the banks. I had this as a steelhead rod and tried to make it do double duty. No such luck. 

I picked up a Redington Link 9' 8 weight and it did well, could net believe the difference between the two. Its nice but when i saw the Sage bolts go on sale i couldn't resist. I picked up a 9' 8 weight bolt. The bolt cast amazing on an icy road but that's as far as i've taken it. 80' bombs are effortless. still cant hit the 100' mark.

I have both an Allan Kraken and Orvis Hydros set up with sink tips. Both are awesome reels. 

I Mostly chuck 4"+ streamers on sink tips on the larger tail waters from a boat. 

I would look for something from a saltwater lineup, 
Fast Action
9'
4 piece 
fighting but is nice on a streamer rod. 
I probably wouldn't go below 6 weight. its easier to throw small streamers with a big rod than to try and trow a deceiver or ditch pig on a 5 wt. 

Sierra trading post has the Sage VXP in 9' 8wt for $280, I had planned on getting this till Cabelas had the bolts at $300.


In the end, the man with the most rods wins.


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## paradise (Jan 30, 2003)

jd4223 said:


> You might want to contact Shultz Fly Shop in Ypsi. They would have all the answers you're looking for including being able to test the rods right on the river.


I talked with Mike Shultz last month about a 10 wt. and he was recommending TFO. I want to use it for pike and lakers.


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## Boardman Brookies (Dec 20, 2007)

I have a dedicated streamer rod. The St Croix Bank Robber. Kelly Gallop designed it. Really like it!


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## carsonr2 (Jan 15, 2009)

Boardman Brookies said:


> I have a dedicated streamer rod. The St Croix Bank Robber. Kelly Gallop designed it. Really like it!


Same here, my bank robber in 7wt will fling a 250-350 grain line with a 7 inch fly, like nobodies business.

Overall for fishing streamers I use 3 different lines on separate reels with two different rods dependent upon the type of water.

I have a 6wt TFO TiCr (discontinued, but an awesome lightweight streamer rod with the correct line) with a rio sinktip that I use for small streams and smallish streamers.

I use my 7wt bank robber with two separate reels and line weights depending on river size and depth. I have an airflow Gallup streamer max short and a streamer max long. That short line is used on rivers that require some roll-casting, but I still want to present a 7 inch fly. The long is used for larger rivers, such as bigger sections of the Manistee where it is mostly overhand casting.

I have a TFO BVK 8wt also, but after doing a side x side comparison to the Bank Robber for throwing sinking lines and streamers it is now strictly delegated to throwing hex and mice with a nice weight forward floating line.

Personally if one is looking at buying a dedicated streamer rod, I wouldn't go below a 6wt. My reasoning is that if one is looking to throw sinking lines and weighted or large streamers going to a 4wt or 5wt defeats the purpose of having a rod that can handle those serious loads.

In the extremely rare case that I am going to throw a streamer on a 4wt, it is usually a woolly bugger with a fluorocarbon leader on a small creek (Bear Creek above 9 mile road as example), and my intention that day was to fish dries and droppers, hence why I'm out there with a 4wt. If I'm thinking I may need to toss streamers too, I'll have my 6wt along for those small streams.

Beyond the difficultly in appropriately handling a sinking line and heavier streamer, a lightweight rod (4wt-5wt) with that setup that hooks into a decent fish stacks the cards against the angler. Why not gun-up and make life easier on both your rod and bodies ability to cast the appropriately weighted lines and flies, with a greater chance at landing the fish both quickly and effectively.


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## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

As many have stated already, the more rods you own the more likely you will end up using one for a specific situation depending on the body of water you're fishing, the size of the fly you're presenting or type of fly line. 

Years ago I bought a Scott 8' 8" 8 weight. It's pretty sweet for throwing streamers on sinking lines from a drift boat. If I were wading I might opt for my Sage 10' 6 weight. For floating lines, my Sage 9' 10 weight.

And believe it or not, I have used a Sage 8' 9" 3 weight and a floating line with a 9" streamer. But your casting will be more like a single haul chuck and duck type cast and 'rolling' the streamer on the surface waiting for an explosion.


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## abbatoys (Sep 3, 2005)

Lately I have been using Echo rods and really like them.


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## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

My Streamer rods are all 9' Orvis tip flex rods. 4, 6, 8 & 9 wts. None are the newest stuff, but they work just fine, thank you. Trust me, a good 9 wt will easily handle a big muskie fly, even with a DC sinker....no need for a 10, but it can make getting deep easier.


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## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

ESOX said:


> no need for a 10, but it can make getting deep easier


Yeah, that old 10 weight I referenced is about 25 years old now, I reckon. Sage graphite III RPLX 3 piece. It's slow as a dog by modern standards. It's really more like an 8/9 weight. I have caught a lot of fish with it though.

The Scott 888 is a rod designed by Chico Fernandez as a mangrove stick. I think they called them Heliply. They have a cult like following. Who knows maybe I'll sell it one day for more than I paid for it new... Dude recently sold one on eBay for $450 bucks. I think I paid around $200 when I bought it on clearance from the Riverbend in Southfield back in the day.

The rest of my Scotts and Sages I custom wrapped myself or had wrapped for me.


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## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

PunyTrout said:


> Yeah, that old 10 weight I referenced is about 25 years old now, I reckon. Sage graphite III RPLX 3 piece. It's slow as a dog by modern standards. It's really more like an 8/9 weight. I have caught a lot of fish with it though.
> 
> The Scott 888 is a rod designed by Chico Fernandez as a mangrove stick. I think they called them Heliply. They have a cult like following. Who knows maybe I'll sell it one day for more than I paid for it new... Dude recently sold one on eBay for $450 bucks. I think I paid around $200 when I bought it on clearance from the Riverbend in Southfield back in the day.
> 
> The rest of my Scotts and Sages I custom wrapped myself or had wrapped for me.


OMG. I forgot about Riverbend. I had a buddy who would drive from St Clair al, the way to Riverbend for a spool of tippet. Talk about excuses to go looking for trouble!! Northwestern Hwy was a like a foreign country to me back then. Lol

Sent from my SM-T567V using Tapatalk


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## OH-YEAH!!! (Jun 18, 2009)

ESOX said:


> OMG. I forgot about Riverbend. I had a buddy who would drive from St Clair al, the way to Riverbend for a spool of tippet. Talk about excuses to go looking for trouble!! Northwestern Hwy was a like a foreign country to me back then. Lol
> 
> Sent from my SM-T567V using Tapatalk


It was a nice little shop. John the owner was a nice guy. They then opened the store on Crooks in Royal Oak. Then Westbank Anglers opened a shop at Maple and Telegraph.

As soon as they opened so did the corporate Orvis store in Royal Oak. Then Cabelas in Dundee. When that Cabelas opened they had full quivers of Sage and St. Croix and, I think, Scott.

Westbank was owned by a really nice guy named Pat but only lasted about 3 years. Riverbend closed shortly after Orvis opened.

Too bad. They were much more interesting than Orvis.


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## PunyTrout (Mar 23, 2007)

OH-YEAH!!! said:


> It was a nice little shop. John the owner was a nice guy. They then opened the store on Crooks in Royal Oak. Then Westbank Anglers opened a shop at Maple and Telegraph.
> 
> As soon as they opened so did the corporate Orvis store in Royal Oak. Then Cabelas in Dundee. When that Cabelas opened they had full quivers of Sage and St. Croix and, I think, Scott.
> 
> ...


Yeah, Pat was super nice. We worked together at the Southfield store. When the original partners sold the Riverbend to the Flymart brothers is right around the time when I traded jobs to start my engineering career. Then they had the little store on 4th street in Royal Oak for a short period before moving up the road the the Main Street & Crooks location.

The Southfield crew were a disparate bunch of characters. Some super cool dudes worked there at the time. Most were absolute lunatics playing a reserved role and trying to keep a straight face while at the shop. We had a lot of great fishing 'trips'.

A memorable moment for me was the time that Mr. & Mrs. Peter Strogh of the Strogh Brewery came in and wanted some flies for a trip to Tierra del Fuego. I ended up explaining that the standard Orvis flies weren't tied on particularly strong hooks and probably wouldn't be suited for sea-run Browns and agreed to tie some custom flies for them. That was my first proper custom fly order even though it was through the shop. After that I started to take fly tying seriously and had a lot of fun tying for friends or guides that I've known over the years.

Memory lane...

_So, back to streamer rods._ Get a rod and cast some streamers. Catch some fish and _have fun_.

And FWIW I'm certain that I have more fly tying materials in my collection than that Orvis store on Woodward.


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## StormyChromer (Jul 20, 2016)

I stopped by Schultz last week and asked for suggestions on a new streamer rod. Told them to keep it under $400 and they said I really needed to try a Redington Vice. All the reviews online looked good so I bought one. My 6WT 9’ 6” showed up yesterday and it’s being sent back tomorrow.

For $200, I knew it was going to be a cheaper quality rod but that thing is pure junk. Bubbles in the epoxy, extremely cheap reel seat and the last guide was busted. Redington was great and actually called me to see if they could send out a replacement.

Think I’ll wait and see if Mystic will carry a 6 or 7WT 10 footer in the new Reaper X.


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## Perchdog (Oct 23, 2005)

StormyChromer said:


> I stopped by Schultz last week and asked for suggestions on a new streamer rod. Told them to keep it under $400 and they said I really needed to try a Redington Vice. All the reviews online looked good so I bought one. My 6WT 9’ 6” showed up yesterday and it’s being sent back tomorrow.
> 
> For $200, I knew it was going to be a cheaper quality rod but that thing is pure junk. Bubbles in the epoxy, extremely cheap reel seat and the last guide was busted. Redington was great and actually called me to see if they could send out a replacement.
> 
> Think I’ll wait and see if Mystic will carry a 6 or 7WT 10 footer in the new Reaper X.


Umm,

I have been looking to get into a beginning fly set up for both me and the girlfriend. We have been kicking it around seriously. Last Saturday we went around town looking at rods, she was really impressed with the feel of the Orvis Clearwater but they lost the sale due to their store goon was up my ass the whole time waiting on me to lift some of their overpriced crap. Its a shame she really liked the feel of the rod but refused to go that way thinking Orvis had as tagged as thieving scumbags.

Meanwhile I knew Mystic re-instituted the 2 for one special on the Reaper rods. The sales guy at Orvis advised for our situation a 10' rod would probably be best. The Mystic site showed the 10 footers out of stock, 9 footer no problem. I called Mystic Tuesday and their guy said they were spinning the 10 footers up somewhere in the US, but the blank is made in Korea.

Anyhow they were waiting for me on the porch when I got home from work today, 
Can't really complain, delivery fast as hell and at $145 per rod I think the will fill the bill quite well. Promo ends the 28th


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## crazydrake (Mar 7, 2002)

PERCHDOG said:


> Umm,
> 
> I have been looking to get into a beginning fly set up for both me and the girlfriend. We have been kicking it around seriously. Last Saturday we went around town looking at rods, she was really impressed with the feel of the Orvis Clearwater but they lost the sale due to their store goon was up my ass the whole time waiting on me to lift some of their overpriced crap. Its a shame she really liked the feel of the rod but refused to go that way thinking Orvis had as tagged as thieving scumbags.
> 
> ...


The Midwest fly show is coming up, you might find something there. I think John Bueter, who use to own Bueters FlyShop in Northville was a rep for Mystic . BBT , Gates, Old Ausable are just a few of the shops at the show. TradenStuff.com is a website for new , used and demo's from shops and private sellers all over. i bought a rod from there.


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