old fenwick rod

I need some help from you fly fishers out there. I want to try to take up again fly fishing for trout. I have a rod I bought for the purpose when I was a kid. It's a cheap 30 year old Fenwick rod, made, I believe from glass fibre. It is 8 1/2 feet long and says AFTM 7 on it. I assume this means its
"weight" is 7? My question is, would this be a reasonable rod to try fly fishing again after doing it perhaps half a dozen times in Scotland as a kid
30 years ago? Opinions on this would be useful. I also need suggestions as to what might be an appropriate reel to buy to use with it. Do I need to buy a reel of a matching weight? I was thinking of maybe an LL Bean
"Streamlight" or an Orvis "Clearwater" or "Rocky Mountain" (These last are now on sale.) Do any of these sound reasonable?

Just to make matters harder, I have no idea yet where I am going to fish. I am located now in Southern California and know nothing about the possibilities for trout fishing here, so opinions on where I might start would also be welcome. As a kid I fished small rivers and lochs in Scotland and I think I would like to do something similar. Northern California is a possibility. I am somehow (and I dont want to knock anyone else's pleasure)
against sitting in a boat reeling in trout after trout in a lake that will be restocked the minute I have gone home for the day. What I remember liking about it as a kid was that the fishing was but one part of a whole day spent in the wilderness with few people around.

This no doubt all sounds rather woolly, for which my apologies. I would be genuinely grateful for any practical advice.

I would get the largest one, the 7/8. It was called a size # IV too.

3/4 was also called a size "II"

5/6 was a "III"

7/8 was a "IV" (get this one).

Sorry for the confusion.

That describes almost exactly my entrance to the sport. I walked into a shop carrying an old hand-me-down HI fiberglass rod with a mashed tip top, knowing little to nothing about what I was getting into. A new tip top and a few minutes out back with the rod to determine the weight, and I was a new flyfisherman with a 6 wt. line on a new Cortland Rimfly reel. A quick casting lesson, a little advice, a few basic flies,

Dan, go for the 7/8. It will allow you to use a decent amount of backing. The guy you buy the line from should be able set it up properly. The 5/6 will take a 7 wt WF line, but with minimal backing, and if you later on decide to use a double taper line, you'll be screwed, as it likely won't fit on the smaller reel.

George Adams

"All good fishermen stay young until they die, for fishing is the only dream of youth that doth not grow stale with age."

We fish for trout with #4, 5 and 6 weight outfits with #5 being the top choice.

You need to put a WF7F on your rod so it will perform properly.

Your fiberglass rod is softer than the new graphites rods so it will be fine for trout to get you started into the sport.

Later on you could buy yourself a nice 8' #4 outfit for small trout streams if you feel that would be good for you.

Some good friends of mine that guided in Alaska for years used that exact fly rod for their number one rod of choice. Becuase it was a soft #7 they could catch anything from Rainbows to Silver Salmon on it. It is one of the best casting fiberglass rods ever made and is today still a fine fishing tool.

Let us know how it goes and if you have more questions

I am going to do as you suggest: order a reel online, and then look for a local shop for line and more advice.

I am still a bit confused about which size reel to buy. You said, "get the largest Orvis "Clear Water" or "Rocky Mountain" fly reel which is the #IV for a #7/8 rod."

Well, the "Rocky Mountain" reel comes in

a) 3/4, line wts. 2-5

b) 5/6, line wts. 4-7

c) 7/8, line wts. 6-9

Are you saying I should buy the 3/4 or the 5/6? I would have thought the 5/6 since my rod is a 7, but you are the expert and I may have it all backwards.

Again, thanks a million to you and to everyone else who has chimed in.

Thanks for your advice. I have (of course) a few more questions. When you say a little larger size reel, what do you mean larger? Larger than what exactly? Larger than #7? Could I get your opinion on the reels I mentioned, viz Orvis "Clearwater" and "Rocky Mountain" and the LL Bean "Streamlight"?

I assume WF7F is a kind of line? I know there are all kinds of lines and I have no idea which would be appropriate for whatever kind of fishing I end up doing. I guess I need to buy a book and do some research.

In reference to the rod, I was doing some reading of old ROFF posts and saw references to some old brown Fenwick fiberglass rods that were meant to be pretty decent. Mine however would be bottom of the line. I bought it in a local sporting good store when I was nine (and I would be surprised if it cost more than $30. It was rebadged for Milbro and is amber in colour and looks to be of low quality construction. OTOH, after 30 years nothing seems to have perished at least.

Finally, is there trout fishing in Sequoia National Park, do you happen to know? I go there quite a lot.

Thanks Bill. But I have another question. I have been studying up on the internet and it seems that your choice of fish determines your line weight, which in turn determines your rod and reel weight. So, my old rod is a seven and you are suggesting I get a reel to match and therefore, I assume, a 7 weight line also. My question is, will that not lock me in to fishing for large fish, like salmon or steel head? All the webpages I have read suggest
4 or 5 weight lines/rods/reels for trout. Does this mean I will need a new rod if I want to end up fishing for trout?

p.s. I wish your shop was in Los Angeles where I am. I would be in there tomorrow.

<snip>

Ding, ding, ding! A winnah!

'Though a book (or two or three) is best, here's a good website for some of the basics: http://www.flyanglersonline.com/begin/101/

I sold that rod and own them too. That was on of the best casting sizes
Fenwick made in those days. Today for trout we use mostly 4, 5 and 6 weight rods, but your rod is fairly soft and will work for lots of fly fishing in
California.

I would buy a little larger size reel that is for a # 7 line rod and all the ones you mentioned would be fine.

I would spend some money like ~$50US for a good new WF7F.

There are lots of fly fishing clubs and good fly shops in California for help.

Howdy Dan Check wth Uncle Wally at ezflyfish.com he will set you up with reel ,backing,leader and tippet. He sells many kinds of reels from the inexpensive to the very expensive but all are top quality and he will stand behind the products he sells.....Just because it says 7 on it doesn't mean you have to put a 7wt line on the rod you could get a reel and a couple spare spools one with say 5wt line for trout and sunfish and one with 7wt line for steelhead and salmon Standing in a river waving a stick

Just get the largest Orvis "Clear Water" or "Rocky Mountain" fly reel which is the #IV for a #7/8 rod.

Probably the best deal on a fly line for your rod is a WF7F Cortland 444 (Peach colored) line or an SA/Mastery "Head Start" line. Getting a good fly line is the most important part of the deal. Normally you will have to spend over $30 for this and the "top of the line" is about $50 - $60US.

If you buy the reel on sale on the Internet, you can take your old rod and the new reel to a good fly shop and get a good fly line from them and have them install it properly for you. They can get the right amount of quality small diameter 20# braided Dacron/Micron line on the reel with nice knots for connections too. All well run fly shops can be a lot of help to people getting started. If they don't seem interested in you and your old Fenwick, just keep looking till you find a good fly shop.

Lastly, your Fenwick fiberglass fly rod was one of the best brands of fly rods in it's day and they did not have different price levels so yours is the same as all the rest and a good fly rod. They were mostly all sold at discounted price through the discount stores in those days so they were about $37.50???

Fenwick was started and owned by Don Green. He sold it to Berkeley Company and then moved on to start the Sage Rod Company. Now you know the rest of the story.

There's ALWAYS a reason to buy new gear! You can catch trout with 7WT just fine. Someday, when you want a more delicate presentation, you'll want to go for a lighter weight rod and reel.

You got it right on the money.

Nice to see someone that really cares about this guy.

We get people in all the time with old outfits. We just tune them up a bit if it is workable so they can get started. It might mean straightening the tip top with pliers so the line will shoot through better, just putting on a little backing, some knots and a leader, tippet and a few flies. Then if we are not too busy, we take them out side for a few minutes to give them a quickie casting lesson for free. It is amazing how many of these people turn into long term customers and/or send us lots of people they meet for help.

I have enjoyed this thread about the old Fenwick rod. The last rod I bought is an old Fenwick that appears to be from the 60's. As my old friend michael used to say"I never met a fiberglass rod I didn't like." This one works pretty good with a 4WF line.

Some people in business underestimate that service aspect. If you can help set someone down the right path to get what they want / need, sometimes even if it means sending them to a competitor, that service is not soon forgotten. I buy my heating oil from a local company for the same reason and refuse to even shop anywhere else.