Q:

Doug:

Love your articles. Your analogies to golf are great (e.g. a fly fisherman without a roll cast is like a golfer without short irons!). Fly fishing, golf, good health, and the Good Lord's great outdoors. What more do you need?

Here's the question. I'm kinda new to fly fishing, having used spinning tackle mostly since I was a kid. My current rod is a 9' 6 wt moderate action. Good to learn on and good for smallmouth on our medium to large open rivers here in Central Ohio as well as Lake Erie. But it's a bit much for panfish. Your "Assembling the System" series on panfish mentioned that a spinning blank makes a nice little inexpensive fly rod if you build one yourself. Here are the specs on a typical Cabela's spinning rod blank:

length = 7 1/2 ft. butt diameter = .406 (inches?) tip diameter = 5/64 rated action = ML (moderate to light?) lures = 1/8 - 1/2 oz.

Using 437.5 grains per ounce, an1/8 oz. lure = 55 grains approx. and 1/2 oz. lure = 219 grains approx. Splitting the difference leaves you at 137 grains, which corresponds to a light 5 wt fly rod based on the AFTMA standard. This would be too heavy for what I'd want. They have lighter spinning blanks rated for as light as 1/16 oz lures, but they're all under 7 ft. in length., which I would think would be too short.

Is this kind of thinking correct? Is this how you'd go about figuring the proper equivalent fly rod weight for a spinning blank? Or am I making this too complicated?

Thanks and Happy Holidays ... Tim

A:

Hi Tim,

Thank you for the kind comments. They mean a great deal to me ....

I understand your question and for a quick response, simplicity is the name of the game. Having said that, a spinning blank from 5 to 7.5-ft. should be ideal for panfish. When I need an ego builder, I chase the little devils with rods ranging from a 6 foot, 4-weight bamboo to a 7 foot, 4-weight fiberglass. Ordinarily, I do best my best panfishing on small waters where a very precise presentation is usually rewarded with a vicious attack.

If you go with a spinning blank, go for a 2-piece in a medium to fast action. To make it into a great fly rod, find the spine for both sections and, marked accordingly, mount the guides beneath the spine as opposed to with the spine. You will find more about the spine in my discussions of fly rods.

The fact is a light/medium spinning blank will easily throw 3- and 4-weight fly lines. Just be sure to observe the rod/line performance on the backcast.

Happy Holidays,

Doug Macnair