Master Class Monday: How Much Stress Can Your Fly-Fishing Gear Handle?


People often worry about catching big trout on light fly rods. In this great video, Dave Jensen shows just how much pressure you can put on a 5-weight fly rod, a 4X tippet, and a size 14 dry fly. Dave is one of our field testers, and you can see that he puts our prototypes through the paces! (When he says, “Sorry, Shawn. Sorry, Sam,” he’s talking to our rod designers.)

Watch for further installments of Master Class Monday every week here at Orvis News, in the Advanced Tactics playlist our You Tube Channel, and on the new Advanced section (coming soon) of our Orvis Fly Fishing Learning Center.

8 thoughts on “Master Class Monday: How Much Stress Can Your Fly-Fishing Gear Handle?”

      1. Jeez Tom Baker, all the great stuff Orvis and Phil provide us and you gotta get a little snarky???
        And it’s the Holiday Season! Come on Man, lighten up!
        I hope Santa brings you a change of disposition…

  1. A good rod will tolerate a tremendous amount of stress. Good rod handling skills play a big part in this. My No.1 trout rod is a H2 10′ 3wt that I use mainly for nymphing and dry fly fishing. I have landed many 20+ inch fish with this rod and I have broken it once (operator error while fighting a fish). With a good light rod and the right tippet you have plenty of shock absorption. The H2 3wt in a ten footer has plenty of ass once the rod starts bending toward the cork just don’t high stick and pull back if the fish runs at you. The up side is that the rod makes the prettiest snapping sound when they break.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *