Beginner Topwater Fly Fisherman?
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I have been fishing for over twenty years and now want to topwater fly fish in large ponds and small lakes in Mississippi for bass and bream. My question is would it be better to buy a pre-rigged topwater Albright combo from Bass Pro for $149.99 (http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&partNumber=83668&hvarTarget=search&cmCat=SearchResults)or buy an Eagle Claw Trailmaster for an eBay PowerSeller (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=120244063026&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=002) for $66.00 and rig it myself. I have never rigged a fly rod before but do understand that the line weight must match the reel. There are also several diagrams on the Net.
The Albright says that it’s pre-rigged with backing and line but I see nothing about a leader. What type of leader would I need?
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The BassPro setup will take you through your first baby steps but if you are like me and nearly every fly fisher I know, you will eventually want to select components seperately. The reason you would do this is because you know exactly what kind of action you want, etc but at this point that is not an issue since you dont know what you want/need.
first off the line weight must match the rod, the rod is designed to cast a paticular line weight and will not cast properly with the incorrect line. as long as the reel has enough space for backing and line its not to important what its rated for, although you will want to take weight into consideration, lighter is better and milled is much better than cast, if you drop a cast reel it breaks, milled will dent or bend and can generaly be repaired.
your leader and tippet weight will be dependant mostly on what you’ll be fishing for, water conditions and lastly on your line weight. line weight will be determined by what your fishing for and how much fighting you want to do. the only thing I recomend is that you either put on a permantant loop or you buy a line with one already attached, I like the orvis green river lines. they are inexpensive, high floating, very little memory and actually cast better than my orvis wonder line that cost 4x as much and has a terriable memory (line retains coils from the reel).
albrights are decent rods, I have several myself(GP, A5,ESX) they perform well, not quite a sage or winston but they they still cast well. Albright is actually the staff of Redington, they started albright after the name and designs of redington were purchased by sage. I personaly have never seen an eagle claw that I liked, they tend to be heavy and lack sensitivity, they’re like trying to fish while wearing boxing gloves the one in the auction I dont think I have any experiance with but I can tell you the IM6 is usually medium action, this is nice for casting dry flies that require a very gentle presntation and great accuracy but it does make it a little more difficult for beginers to learn false casting (the slower medium action requires longer pauses between casts and the timing can be difficult to pick up at first) and doesnt throw heavier wet flies as well or as far as a medium fast action. the IM6 graphite however is more forgiving of impacts (from beadheads or lead weights) than the higher modules rods (IM7,8,9).
redington also has some nice entry leval outfits, I’ve used the red fly outfit, rod casts nicely the reel works but is pretty cheap, the crosswater is priced very well for a entry leval rod but I’ve never played with one.
I recomend you rig an outfit yourself, its pretty simple and its good to learn how everything works, and the knots you’ll learn arent to common in other forms of fishing, and the thing with fly fishing at least for me, once you get it you’ll never go back.
you may also want to check cabelas.com , they’ve had some good prices on starter outfits lately, and if your lucky enough to live near one of their stores they’ll help you rig an outfit.
just keep in mind that the entry leval outfits dont usually carry the lifetime no fault warrenty that most of the better rods carry.
The bass pro seems an OK deal compared to the eBay one, however the rod isn’t of the best quality for that price, in fact you could get a st croix, or redington for that price, be careful of the line supplied i don’t think it will be of very good quality, if you want an instant out fit go for bass pro, if you have time shop around, look at redington rods and reels. Also cabelas own brand of fly rods are excellent with a easy to use middle to tip action for a beginner like your self. As for the leader use a tapered leader of around the 8lb test, then attach your tippet to that, Rio makes some good tippets, if you want to use fluorocarbon as tippet then look no further than airflo g3 for leaders try
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/standard-pod-wrapped.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/pod-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20431-cat20439-cat20524&rid=&indexId=cat20524&navAction=push&masterpathid=&navCount=1&parentType=index&parentId=cat20524&id=0000985
tippet
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/index/index-display.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/subcategory/subcategory-index.jsp.8_A&_DAV=&id=cat600599&navCount=0&parentId=cat20431&navAction=push&returnPage=&returnQueryString=&cmCat=MainCatcat20431-cat20439&parentType=subcategory&rid=
For knots and more info try
http://www.animatedknots.com/indexfishing.php?LogoImage=LogoGrog.jpg&Website=www.animatedknots.com
General fly fishing
http://www.sexyloops.com/articles/sxyloops.shtml
Albright is a good brand. I would avoid Eagle Claw.
I highly recommend Temple Fork Outfitters rods (TFO) excellent no fault warranty, and very good quality rods for the money ($99.00 and up)
If you are planning on fishing for bass, make sure your reel has a good drag to it. Okuma makes some excellent reels for the money with very good drags.
Rigging a fly rod is easy, you can do it yourself quite handily, but if you buy the reel and fly line from a fly shop, they will usually fill the reel with backing and the line for no charge.
Temple Fork Outfitters sells a very nice combo for around 179.00 that includes a 4 piece rod, reel line, backing, leader and rod case. I strongly recommend these.
Good luck- you will enjoy flyfishing for bass- its quite a thrill.