Okay, I got my hands on some gear today. I found a couple names I fish with now, namely St. Croix and Pflueger, so I tried them out. Pflueger had a 4 weight, that was 7.5' long that felt great, It reminded me of an ultralight spinning rod. They also had a 5 weight that was 8.5' long, that felt almost as good. The st. Croix was a 5/6, and it was also 8.5' long. I could definitely tell it had more "backbone?" to it. Can I assume that since the general recommendation was to stick with the 5/6 that it would be easier to learn on? What about length? I tend to gravitate to the shorter rods, probably because that's what I've always fished with. Is a longer rod easier to manage? The reels I looked at really didn't look all that different from one another. There must be some internal improvements that account for the price differential. I like the idea of a sinking fly, or lure. Since the line floats, does the length of the leader determine the ultimate depth the fly will sink to? From a fisherman who goes to great lengths to find line that's nearly invisible, the thought of flourescent green or orange floating line seems counter productive. I assume that's to make it more visual for the angler's benefit. I know it's a lot of questions to ask, I honestly have no clue. I'm going to spend some time online researching, so I'm bound to find some of the answers, and develop new questions. Thanks for all the help, I appreciate everyones' patience.
Sparkplug, KEEP IT SIMPLE - Too many questions and too many answers that seem to contradict each other.
For the time being, don't worry about rod lengths, sinking or floating lines, color of line all this stuff - that will come in time.
If you want a fly rod to fish your pond buy a quality combo fly rig and learn some basic fly casting skill and go have fun.
This subject can get complicated real quick - from itsy bitsy 2-3wt fly rods with itsy bitsy flies for itsy bitsy fish with floating lines to monster salty critters using 10-12 wt fly rods with big flies with lines from floaters to full sink lines.
KISS - it's not all that complicated.
Go for the TFO NXT combo - they have made all your decisions for you.
We'll get into basic casting lessons later.
ps: Fishinbub - nice loop!
Save the double haul explanation 'til later ...
