[roadkill]

i think id go a step or 2 up from those 50-60 dollar combos just a decent fly line will run you 30 bucks or so i started out with some cheap stuff cause that was all i could afford and it took more effort to cast and the cheep lines never floated very well i went the cheep route for many years until i inherited a decent rod a while back nothing real pricey but a 100 dollar plus rod and i put a 30 dollar line on a cheep reel and i cant believe how much easyer it is to fish with

id get the cheepest reel i could find even wally world or used at a swapmeet and then get a cheeper line from a fly shop or order it over the net and then buy the best rod you can afford with what is left but i wouldnt go more than about $100 bucks for the rod alone

you can certainly fish and have fun with cheeper stuff but i think in the long run you will end up fishing with it more if you get into the 100+ bracket for the full combo you can scrip on the reel but get a decent rod and line

as to the wieght of the rod and line that depends a lot on how you plan to fish and what type of flies you plan on chucking if you plan to fish smaller waters and use smallish flies then a light wieght like a 3 would work but if you want to make longer casts or toss big bushy flies like bass bugs and poppers a heavyer rod will be needed i seem to recall a lot of folks going with a 4 or 5 wieght and a weight forward line the weight forwrd will carry heavyer flies and cast a little farther easyer but the double tapper will be more delicate all other things being equal

i have heard some good reports on the quick conect things but i have been useing loop to loop conections latley and found them to work good for me

 

[roadkill]

apposed to using huge swimbaits for bass or other things that really isnt geared to the colorado fisherman(note I said huge, im sure someone will reply how they do good on swimbaits, but they arent the 12 inch rainbow swimbaits they use in cali or mexico )

i need some of those big rainbow swim baits to drag for big lakers and pike/muskie

 

[roadkill]

I heard from a well known guide that a custom rod manufacturer said that it never cost more than 100.00 to make a great rod...just makes you think what we are paying for when we buy those 600.00+ rods...the name?

TH

ive done a bit of rod building no fly rods yet but just a quick look and i see lots of fly rod blanks in the $300 range and good high quality guides cost a bit to and you figure an auto mech gets from 40-60 per hour to fix your car is that the level of quality you want from someone building your rod and a good rod put to gether right and finished good could take a couple hours and we are just talking glass/graphite rods. you want a realy special rod have a custom split bambo rod made

 

[roadkill]

the "weight" rating of the rod and line dont have much to do with the size of the fish just what and how far you can cast for biger fish just up your tippet but even a 6x tippet is around 2# test and you can land some big fish on that remember the long flexable flyrod really helps is landing the fish if your going to key on the trout and not planning on tossing poppers for bass and pan fish you might consider a 4wt and maybe only 7 1/2 ft and i promise you will be ble to cast farther than you could see a size 18 coachman drifting on the surface unless you got bionic eyes