Best Fly Rod and Reel Combo (Complete UK Guide On Top Fly Rod & Reel Kits)

Why the right Fly Rod and Reel combo is important

Once you have mastered the basics of fly fishing and started to settle into a groove then you will be looking to improve – your catch rate, skills, casting, (pretty much everything). This means spending more time at the waterside.

If you are going to enjoy the sport you want to be able to spend more of that time fishing and less nursing sore shoulders or messing about with kit that doesn’t work for you.

The rod needs to be the right length and line weight for your preferred venues of course, and as a general principle, you need a balanced outfit. The fly reel, rod and line must all work in tandem.

Getting the Right Balance

With the classic older style (and usually much heavier) split cane rods, balance was also important but probably more easily achieved because everything weighed more and the set up was less sensitive to reel weight.

With the move to lighter rods – usually carbon fibre, (but there is also a new generation of glass rods) setting up a suitable reel which is not too heavy for the rod will help you to maintain effective casting for a day on the water.

Again modern materials and techniques have come to the rescue with large arbour designs in machined aluminium.

Cast aluminium frames machined down is a cheaper process but heavier than machining from solid aluminium bar stock, and modern resins which create superbly light and strong reels.

You can of course keep fishing all day with a poorly set up rod and reel combination – but your casting efficiency will be impaired and you may well end up flogging the water and scaring the fish with splashy casts.

So, you need the best rod and reel combo set up which enables you to cast about as well at the end of a long day as you were at the start of the day. (And for those of us with bad backs this is even more important).

Getting the balance right also involves checking your own posture, with one foot advanced before the other rather than legs akimbo when casting.

Checkout the following video that emphasises the importance of the correct Fly Rod & Reel balance...

Factors Affecting your Fly Rod and Reel Choice

So; the key factors affecting your choice of rod and reel will be the weight and length of the rod and the range over which you are likely to cast to fish.

An example of this is to consider what size water you are targeting. A setup for reservoir fishing will be different to that if you prefer narrow streams.

Once the water size is decided, a balanced weight of reel which can hold sufficient line of the appropriate weight needs to also be considered.

The rod and line can be matched by the AFTM number – the Association of Fishing Tackle Manufacturers rod and line weight number. The bigger the number the heavier the line which can be thrown further – but requires a more robust and usually much longer rod to flex and cast the line.

If using a heavier setup, you could compensate the extra weight by lightening the load of some other gear. A good fly fishing vest could help with this. 

Matching the AFTM numbers is a good guide to setting up the rod for maximum efficiency – the line weight calculation assumes you will have thirty feet (about 10 metres) of line out from the rod top ring in order to load the rod and help it act as a casting ‘spring.’

The best fly rod and reel combo packages will do this for you, so you need some flies and a line and are all ready to go fishing.

The speed of the rod will also be important – whether it has a soft or fast action. There is no point acquiring a super light rod only to find the action is fast and ‘tip action’ with virtually no through-flex.

This is a key consideration If your casting style is relatively soft and slow and you fish small waters with the dry fly and need a gentle action.

High speed rods were all the rage twenty years ago but there seems to be a realisation now that mid action or softer rods are, at least for most of us, much better choices.

If you are a skilled caster, and a dab hand with a fast tip action rod then chances are you don’t need to read this article!

And of course your target species will also have a significant impact on your choice of rod and reel – predator and sea fishing will need a saltwater resistant selection for example.

Recommendations on the best fly rod and reel combo

The following products have been selected based on skill level, price point, type of water, type of fly fishing with my ultimate favourite fly rod and reel combo at the end.

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