streamflex xf2 3wts - dries?

[AaronJasper]

Yeah you need a nine footer for NZ for dries, possibly a five or a six weight depending on the island and fish. If you're using dry/dropper for big fish on the South Island, my friend said you need a heavy stick! He took multiple 10 poin browns. I would get the best rod that you can for that trip. Get a Sage ONE or a Thomas and Thomas if you have access to the T and T.

[skeets]

thanks Aaron, I concur. It depends on the rivers, not all the fishing is big fish with big currents as is made out sometimes. I've fished some streams in NZ where a 2 wt is fine, with most fish well under 2lb (last season I fished a number of mountain streams with a 1 wt and 6x and hada ball). occasionally you get blown away with big brownie in the holes, but this is part of the fun. For the last 8 years I have simplified and been taking 5's and 6's, zaxis and streamflex. The sage one's ARE great rods, but the price is also outstanding, especially when the rod handles will get boiled in bleach for an hour on return (didymo treatments) - I was pretty uncomfortable the first time with a brand new zaxis, when that rod was selling at $1000. The Grey's rods are really good performers at more reasonable prices (much less worry about the bags or quarantine, no significant diminishment in performance). I tend towards the longer rods in the 6wts, 9'6" or longer, as they are better for bigger NZ rivers, the wind, and allow more versatility, from closed in streams to large open rivers to lakes. A well balanced 9'6" and 10' rod in this rating with a properly balanced wt forward line casts dries really very accurately on a 12-15 ft leader at 40-50ft range , what you need right now, as the south island is in a NZ version of "drought". The rods in 5 and 6 wt are plenty for NZ - the locals often tend to heavier gear, but it is not needed. I took the cheaper 10ft 4wt cabelas CZN rod with me on all two of the trips last year, and it was awesome. I did get blown away some times, but it was worth it for the 99% of the time where 4wt was all I needed.
In the end, this morning, my gear bag has decided it for me, I realised that I can't fit the 11footer in my travel bag, so I'm taking my Cabelas CZN, and I'll keep the streamflex CZN for home use.
Or.......perhaps I should get a longer bag.......hmmm
Craig

[Magnet]

They are very nice on the phone Im not complaining about the way they deal with the customer . Its the product that sucks and they know it. They dont repair anything they just replace. I still cant figure out why I recieved a beat up used butt section. After I complained they sent me a new one. Why do you think Aaron doesnt use Hardy rods any more. Cuz he broke a lot of them too and doesnt want to recomend them to the guys on the site.

[Davyfly]

Johnny.
not sure how you came by the info that a 9ft rod is considered to be the best overall for accuracy.
Simply the deal is two fold, primarily the ability of the caster and secondly the make up of the leader system related to the size/weight of fly used. Tournament events which l used to compete in are a very different deal to on stream fishing scenarios.
The main reason why rods were at one time produced in 8 to 9ft lengths was due to weight which became a issue for bamboo trout rods over 9ft. Further in those days there was no other choice until fiber glass came onto the scene and then carbon.
There were also other reasons based on how tapers could be produced with cane.

What has not been addressed here in this post is this.
The line weight of a rod given is only one issue , the main issue is the action of that rod.
If say a 5wt rod is chosen with a fast tip action compared to a mid flex butt action the two rods will act very differently and demand a very different casting stroke. In essence mid flex/butt action rods are way easier to cast a very accurate line and fly as such a rod can be used to control both line speed and casting loop configurations, that is not so easy with fast action rods. these rods are designed to develop high line speed and that is not a good option for dry fly fishing, worse often the reason why fish are lost to break offs particularly when using fine tippets.

In so far as NZ fishing my experience both North and South is to use either a 5 or 6wt rod.

Davy.

[skeets]

just back from NZ. This summer is a drought, so the rivers are super low, as a result, fish are super spooky in the ultra clear waters of NZ. the plink of single size 18 nymph hitting the water in a burn was enough to put them down many times, and as the water is low, they see you at 40 ft sometimes. very hard fishing in many places.
I was in the south again, and forgot how bad the didymo is there. THIS was the biggest problem, and pretty much put the wood on nymphing on a lot of rivers that would otherwise be euro nymphing heaven. Even supending the nymphs over the bottom didn't work, as there was so much floating down that caught on the line and then went down to the nymph.
on a few streams the nymph was ok, with cleaning every 3-4 casts. a pain.
fish are still big and plentiful, just hard to catch in these conditions. plenty of 2-4lb brownies, with bigger fish mixed in.

[Flydaddy]

Pictures???

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