You can find fly rods on the most peculiar places. Don't buy the cheapest you find in the
supermarket. Go to a well reputated dealer who can let you try out the kind of rod you think
you can live with. When you know what you want you can either buy it there or somewhere
on the Internet. There are several fine On Line Stores in all countries in Europe and in the US.
It will probably be a little cheaper on the net than in the local store.
It's your wrist that decides how heavy your rod should be. Allthough almost every new rod
is very light, still the length of it can reduce your ability to cast a whole day.
If your rod is too heavy compared with your physics you'll end upp with acheing arm,
neck and back. And this can be very painful, believe me, I know...
Rods longer than 9 feet can feel a bit heavy due to unbalance, and that isn't good either.
Most rods for trout fishing are 8 - 10 feet long, and the 9 feet is the most common.
All rods are classed to carry a line with the same class, and for river fishing for trout
and grayling you mostly use a class 4 - 6 rod. The lake fishermen often use class 6 - 8.
For salmon and sea trout you often use class 9 - 12 and rods as long as 15 feet.
The speed and temper within you, or what you should call it, is finally decideing what rod
you should use for enough power and without tiering you too much. Usually you talk about
a fast, medium or slow rod. The stiffer the rod - the faster. With a soft rod you can make
more misstakes when casting than you can with a faster one. If you use a fast rod you'll
have to increase your casting skills. Therefore, choose a softer rod if you are just beginning
fly casting. You can change to a faster one after a season or so, when you've become a
better caster. You will probably buy several rods in the future, so it's best to get used to this
right from the start.
Something about fly rods.
Some of the well known and with a quality stamp on their brand are: Hardy - Brittish,
Loop - Swedish, Sage - US, Guideline - Swedish, Marryat - US, Loomis - US,
Vision - Finland, Simms - US, Scott - US. There are a lot more brands, but we can't
mention them alll, can we?. All of them have rods in different price categories and
of different types.
Most of todays rods are made from carbon fibres in varying quality. The higher modulus,
the stiffer, and more expensive, rods.
Still there are som rods made from glass and carbon fibres, and evenr cane - bamboo.
The cane rods are now all handmade in exellent quality and you have to have loads of
money if you want one.
A special variant is Rackelhanen. A Swedish rod, hand built by Thomas Boström, with
cane bottom part and carbon fibres the rest of the blank. This is a rod that practicly
casts for it self. A bit expensive though and not som many are made each year.