Sorry if stupid question but can you throw a tx or carolina rig off of a fly rod with good results? About to really persue freshwater fishing (living near lake) will use bait cast and spinning as well. Just wondering if its stricktly striper, dry, or popper type with success on tx lakes? Mainly going after bass.

Also any way to tell what weight a rod is? Its probably listed but my friend who worked for allstar rods made me a rod but did not list the weight. My father in law (avid fly fisher says probably nine weight). Does that count out smaller perch or blue gill?

What about frogs or popper frogs? Would you use a braided line tippet or leader? expessially in heavy lilly pads?

the fly is propelled by the line weight and not the fly weight like in conventional fishing. you would have to have like a 28 weight rod to throw a bullet weight. for texas lakes about 60-70 percent of any fly catches are on subsurface or sinking flies. I think you could try imitating that texas rig worm with a subsurface fly. with a 9 weight you can throw really any regular bass fly.
for braided line for leaders- I wouldn't reccomend it unless you are in super heavy cover. stiff mono works fine for leaders kin this situation

for the rod weight question try a couple different lines trying to cast it. I would cast a real known 9 weight rod and see how the rod "loads" on the backcast. try casting it with an 8, 9, and 10 weight line and see which loads the rod the best

and it does not count out the bluegill but it would be like hauling them in with a broom stick. i'd try a lighter rod for 'gills

I have successfully cast 4-inch soft plastics, texas-rigged on unweighted 1/0 hooks, on a WF7F line and on a 6-wt "mini tip" line (5 feet of sink tip, the remainder a WF6F).

These are "tiny brushhogs" (total bass killers, by the way) and 4-inch plastic lizards and such.

I don't think I would try casting them on a 5-wt, I don't have the casting skills to maintain a loop with that heavy a lure on the end of the line, and to be honest, a 5-wt's not really designed to handle really large, wind-resistant flies (or anything else) like so many bass bugs are.

If you're going to be tossing these things into really heavy cover, you're gonna want a beefier rod - an 8 or 9 wt or a specialty rod like a Sage Largemouth or TFO Mini Mag.

That's my opinion, anyway. I don't chuck these plastics all that often but it can be a lot of fun and usually draws strikes on those rare days when even the venerable woolly bugger is being ignored.

As far as Texas rigs or Carolina rigs, I suppose that a fly rod could be made to cast and fish them. But it would not be the operational envelope that fly rods are designed to fish in. Not impossible, just a lot easier with a bait or spin cast rig.

Wee dark morning, as big a popper as that rod will handle, you are in for some topwater action!

True and truer.

The fly rod's not really designed for the soft plastics or other rigs. You can toss 'em, but at least for me they are not a place to start. More like a "when all else fails" approach.