Short (stiff) rod, long line.

by Carlos

This an idea I want to share, maybe someone else can also benefit from it.

Lately I've been fishing using a short (9'), stiff (7:3), powerful (45 penny) rod paired with a long (13') PVC line.

What for?
Tight mangrove channel fishing from a Kayak.
Mangrove banks and roots is where my target fish (snook) lives and many of that banks has a cover of overhanging branches. The shorter stiff rod works for a precise presentation that is key to this fishing and, at the same time, has enough backbone to pull an occasional lunker out of the roots.

You can present a fly with a longer rod but with the shorter one it is much easier to make a lower presentation. Also sometimes you just have no room to lift the long rod to set the hook.

The longer line is to compensate the lack of rod reach and I prefer the PVC ones cause sometimes the only possible way to present the fly is by roll casting it under the branches. And that line accomplishes it better than any other I've tried.

All the best.

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” - Benjamin Franklin

"Be sure in casting, that your fly fall first into the water, for if the line fall first, it scares or frightens the fish..." -
Col. Robert Venables 1662

As age slows my pace, I will become more like the heron.