Favorite Trout Rod Roundup

Thanks to the folks who weighed in on our “What’s Your Favorite Trout Rod?” post last week, we’ve got some somewhat interesting, statistically sort-of-significant, semi-scientific data to present today!

Actually we got some great input across the board.  Here’s how the results broke down across the not-publicly-disclosed, non-GAAP categories that we decided to study.  In case you missed the original post, we just asked the completely non-specific question, “What’s your favorite trout rod?”.

Which Brand?

• Everybody asked for this one, so here you go.  People apparently like Sage rods.
• Sage – 54.2%
• Scott – 12.5%
• TFO – 8.3%
• Cabela’s – 4.2%
• Diamondback – 4.2%
• Lamiglas – 4.2%
• Loomis – 4.2%
• Orvis – 4.2%
• Winston – 4.2%

What Weight?

This is another obvious question, and we’re good at answering obvious questions.  Not surprisingly, 2s and 7s are not applicable as ‘faves’, and 5 weight trout rods are pretty popular.

• 5 – 41.7%
• 6 – 25%
• 3 – 16.7%
• 4 – 16.7%

Currently Available?

Can you walk into a fly shop and buy this rod today?  Here’s where we were surprised.  Don’t worry – we’ll pontificate below.

• No – 70.9%
• Yes – 16.7%
• Not specified – 12.5%

Commentary

According to our EPO-adjusted, anglers’ union-despised, highly-controlled study, the vast majority of the ‘favorite trout rods’ out there are not available today.  Why is that?

There’s been a pretty serious trend over the past few years towards producing fly rods that are really fast and really light.  There are definitely some applications where fast and light are important – long days on saltwater flats come to mind.

On the other hand, there are lots of situations where feel, predictability, and ease of use seem to matter quite a lot – like your typical day fishing for trout, maybe?  We’ve cast more than a few recent-model trout rods that are amazingly fast and mind-blowingly light, but somehow wind up with a feel that’s mighty similar to the proverbial 2×4.

Call to Action

Attention fly rod manufacturers!  When we’re fishing for trout, we love our old SPs and LLs and glass rods and old-school slow graphite sticks!

Maybe think about focusing on moderate action and a nice feel, and not as much about lightning speeds and feather weights.

Thanks.

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