Recommendation for 8' 4wt Rod/Reel

Headed to the Santa Fe National Forest and I'm looking to get a 8' 4wt rod and reel.

I've looked around some but I'm not sure what I should get. I don't want to spend $500 since I'm hopefully going to be moving back to Central Texas in the next year.

For small rivers and creeks, would the TFO and White River outfits from BPS be OK or do I need to look into something like the St. Croix Imperial rods?

There ought to be no problem with the TFO or White River outfits. More important than spending money is spending time becoming proficient with the rig that is chosen.

I have an 8' 4wt TFO Pro II paired with a Lamson Liquid reel loaded with SA GPX and I absolutely love it. Got it a couple months ago and it has absolutely been my go to setup since.

Cabelas Three Forks combo is cheap but good, look into that as well.

Second TFO. All rods are in my house are TFO, but I do not own a 4wt. I Seem to pick up my 3wt BVK 90% of the time. Other 10% my 5wt Axiom. Wife has a 5wt Casting for Recovery that she used up in Colorado, but yet to use it back here in Central Tx.

Honestly I'd just look for something on sale. Any of the higher quality Brands are good, reddington, tfo, sage, I like the cabelas l tech rod myself and I have one in that very size. Awesome rod. Bought it on sale for $45. If you're looking for the best bargain at normal retail price I'd go with the tfo, but just shop around there are several good Brands.

I have the Cabela's Three Forks in that config and it's really a surprisingly good taper, better even than the 3wt. The Prestige Plus combo is on sale right now. I looked for a reasonable 8' 4wt and didn't really like most of what I found in a 4pc. I use that rod more than any other. I have premium rods as well, just none in that config.

I have a 7'6" 3wt Cabela's Three Forks and I have to say that the quality of the rod didn't hold up. The reel seat has come unconnected twice. The first time I had only had the rod for a couple months. Took it back, they gave me a new one. That was about 6 months ago, haven't used it a lot since then and it has been in a rod tube in my closet. Gave it to a friend to use in the creek this weekend and the reel seat came disconnected again. I'm just going to glue it back on myself this time.

I have a brand new St Croix 8 foot 4 piece 4 weight I bought 4-5 years ago as a spare kayak rod. I never needed it. I'd sell it for $85 plus cost of shipping-p-

Agreed on the reel seat on the 3Forks. My 3wt came apart and I re-glued it. The 4wt loosened a little so I replaced the seat and cork with something nicer. It's now almost as nice as my other rods.

Pearow, what model is that St Croix?

Yep, the 3forks rods that I have had in the past did the same thing once. I used 5 min epoxy to put it back together again and used them hard for several months before they went to a new home. 2 1/2 years later they are still going strong.

its called "premier"-p-

I've never cast a St. Croix fly rod, but have been very impressed with their ultralight spinning rods and have several (including two they replaced after my son stepped on them). I'd giv them high marks for both quality and customer service.

Hard to measure differences in rods of this weight (IMO). Love my BVK though, and is my Oklahoma rod of choice.

So right now I'm deciding between getting a Fenwick HMG and going with just a White River Hobbs Creek Reel and the Scientific Angler Mastery MPX fly line or going with the Cabelas Three Forks outfit.

The biggest thing I'm worried about is getting to a spot and the Cabelas breaks ruining the day of fishing. I'll take 5 minute epoxy with me though just in case.

My in-laws aren't too far from Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake and that's a sunfish lake so I could possibly use it for catching some sunnies in the Austin area. So it might be worth it to get something a little better like the Fenwick.

My personal choice would be this with you same line choice. But then I am partial to TFO just for the warranty.
http://t.basspro.com/TFO-Professional-II-Rod-and-Hobbs-Creek-Reel-Fly-Outfits/product/1307090631058/

Obviously, I'm a big fan of TFO rods.

In the lighter weights, the TFO Finesse series is still my favorite.

Have a good trip and share some pictures!

After looking into it, I think I will go with the TFO Professional II rod combo.

Last question. Do I need to invest in Scientific Angler backing too or will the White River work too?

BPS doesn't carry the SA backing and Cabelas wants $13 shipping for both the line and backing or $6 for just the backing.

On a 4 wt? I would not worry about the brand name of the backing.

Any backing will do. And to save on shipping you can place the order to have it shipped to you local store. They email you when it arrives .

That's what I figured on the backing.

My closest store is about 4.5 hours so I'm just going to do the Free Economy Shipping they have.

I'm not going until mid-June but I'll post pictures. I wanted to do this last year but we had not been to the area yet and so I wanted to look around first. I took my Crappie rod (spinning gear) and did some fishing at a stocked lake in the area but there were too many people and I'd rather go fly fishing.

I also think I'm going to pick up the fly tying book by Skip Morris. I doubt I will try to tie any of my flies or that I will really have time to before we go but I've had some interest in fly fishing and it might be something I take up. Hopefully I'm also going to make it to that area twice this year.

Good choice Ben, hope you catch a bunch.

If you become addicted to fly fishing like some of us here, then you'll want to learn to tie your own flies. It's part of the artistry of fly fishing and the overall experience. There's nothing like tying your own fly and catching a fish for the first time. Then developing your own unique patterns that catch more fish than anything you've purchased. Some say the cost is cheaper to just purchase but I'm not so sure about that. I've gone through 1/2 dozen flies of one pattern on a Saturday morning, went home and tied half dozen more and went back fishing that evening. Wooded creeks will eat lots of flies

Well I hope to be relocating back to College Station within the year. If it takes longer than expected, at least I have the mountains 5 hours away to make use of fly rod.

And as far as tying flies, the Lord knows I need something else to do when I don't feel like being outside because the wind is blowing 25+mph. Which it does a good bit of the year here...

We have a fly club in Bryan / College Station. It is called the Brazos Valley Fly Club. Check it out on facebook. Hope you will join up with us at some point. We have plenty of places to fish. We also do tying events periodically. Hook-Line&Sinker is the President of the club.

I actually joined the other day!

I went on one of Hook-Line&Sinker's trips in the Spring and still watch his videos from time to time and I know Kevin Morris too.

Well, the wife and her cousin booked a house in Wimberley for the weekend of July 4th. So it looks like I'll be picking up some heavier leaders, tippet, and some popper and streamer flies too!

Got back from NM yesterday. The wife and I had a good camping trip. Mostly did day hikes but I had a few opportunities to throw a fly. I caught 4 fish in all. Three were brown trout including one at the campsite and the 4th was a small minnow in a lake in the area. All were caught on an Adams dry fly.

This weekend will be Wimberley and I also picked up some popper flies and I got a few that look like crickets while in NM as well.

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Ben
congratulations on your outing- runoff is till a factor right now so you managed to do well in spite of stained water. Keep it up, it's catching...

Les

Well, we had a good time in Wimberley. Smith Creek ran behind the house we rented. The creek had sunfish and some spotted bass swimming in it. I got some of the bigger bass interested in a fly but they wouldn't take it. I did manage to catch 2 baby bass but the rest were sunfish. Below are a couple of the bigger ones I caught. I caught 2 that were close to being big enough to eat but I didn't have my phone on me to take a picture. Between the 2 flies I was using, I caught 25-30 fish.

So now I'm thinking I might have to get a 9' 8 weight fly rod to take with me when I go bass fishing.

Look at the 3 weight thread here and see how big a fish you can catch on the 3. Your 4 weight is plenty big enough unless you are going to fish heavy cover and need to horse it out. weight.http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/11607544/UL_fly_fishing_forum_3wt_and_b#Post11607544

The 8wt would be to throw bigger flies and also cast around cover.

So what 4wt did you go with? I took my own advice and picked up a TFO Pro II 8' 4wt, Redington Zero 45 reel of my step son to use for the summer. But of course I have to hold on to and use it extensively while he is not here. LOL with me starting the TDCJ training academy and working Mon-Friday we haven't had the chance to get out yet, but we will.

I went with a TFO Pro II 8' 4wt.

I just went with a cheapo Hobbs Creek (BPS) reel but I went for Scientific Anglers fly line.

Nice, I had a 5 wt TFO line sitting around that came with 5 wt Axiom that is just to light for it and strung it up on the 4wt. Should work out pretty well to punch thru the wind a little better for him while he is here.