7 – 8 weight: Ideal for larger streamer patterns, heavily weighted flies, bass bugs, and in-shore salt water fishing. Lets you cast larger flies with ease and cast greater distances. Very effective for windy conditions. Casting range = 80 – 110 feet.

9 – 10 weight: Used by many pike, salmon, and saltwater fly fishermen and can carry larger flies with ease. Casting range = 80 – 120 feet.

12 weight and up: Rods in this weight are designed more as fighting tools than casting tools. Especially suited for larger saltwater game species.

Remember this general rule of thumb when purchasing your first fly rod………Small flies can be cast with a larger line weight, but larger flies cannot be cast with a small fly line. When you purchase your first fly rod, match it to largest fly you expect to cast.

Disc Drag Fly Fishing Reels

The second type of drag system is newer disc-drag system. This type of fly reel uses various materials that essentially act like a brake on a car. A pad inside fly reel is adjusted up or downward (by drag adjustment on reel), which in turn applies more or less tension to fly line. Disc-drag fly reels are all rage in fly fishing. Even cheapest of cheap fly reels tout their disc drag system.

Disc drag reels excel in large fish situations, like when catching exceptionally large trout, large bass, steelhead, salmon or saltwater species. The disc drag reel is designed to exert a smooth but hard pressure on fly line without seizing up and is ideal when large fish that strip out hundreds of feet of line are caught.

The drawback to a disc drag reel as far as fly fishing goes is that in comparison to a quality spring-and-pawl reel, tension can be just a bit more uneven. This is not a problem in most fishing situations that a normal trout fisherman will encounter. However, if you are using 6x and 7x tippets and fishing for wary trout, even slightest hesitation or change in tension pressure can cause a tippet to part ways with trout.

Now that you know more about drag system on fly reels, it is now time to turn our attention to quality of fly reel.