Two Practical Ways to Carry Your Fly Rod Around the City

When street fishing, there are two common methods fly fishers use to carry their fly rods around the city.

Transport Method #1

This method is perfect for when you are taking public transportation, riding bikes, scooters, or skateboards, driving in a vehicle, or walking along crowded sidewalks and want your fly rod assembled but in a compact, portable configuration.

Here's how to set it up:

1. Fully assemble your fly rod.

   1. Connect the rod sections together, attach the reel, string the fly line through the guides, and connect a leader onto the fly line.

   2. If you need help on how to do this, check out this video on setting up your fly rod.

2. Tie a fly onto the end of your leader.

   1. Need help on which knot to use? Read this article about 5 Useful Knots for Fly Fishing.

3. Attach the fly to either the hook keeper or one of the guides on your fly rod.

   1. Some fly rods have a hook keeper which is a small metal loop near the cork handle that is angled perpendicular to the ring guides.

      

      
      

   2. Note- The larger guides on a fly rod are called stripping guides.

      1. When pinning your fly to the stripping guide, attach the fly to the metal frame instead of placing the hook inside the large ring. Stripping guides often have a ceramic ring which will get scratched and crack if you pin the hook inside the ring (and then those scratches/cracks damage your fly line as the line passes through the stripping guide).

         
   
   

4. Reel up any slack in the line.

5. Disconnect the fly rod in the middle.

   1. If your fly rod is a four-piece rod, then you'll disconnect sections 2 and 3.

6. Fold the tip section of the rod to the side until the tip of the rod is laying against the cork handle. Reel up any extra slack.

   

   
   

7. Take a rubber band, hair tie, or something similar and loop it around both pieces of the fly rod.

   1. Use one of the guides to help keep the rubber band in place.

      

Your fly rod is now assembled but in a compact configuration that is half the original length of the rod. This makes it much easier to take onto a city bus, store in the trunk of a car, or keep stashed in a closet, locker, or bedroom corner. When you're ready to start fishing, simply take the rubber band off and connect the two pieces back together.

Transport Method #2

This method is great for when you are moving from spot to spot along the water and want to be able to quickly get back into fishing when you encounter a fish.

Here's how to set it up:

1. Fully assemble your fly rod.

   1. Connect the rod sections together, attach the reel, string the fly line through the guides, and connect a leader onto the fly line.

2. Tie a fly onto the end of your leader.

3. Attach the fly to one of the first three guides that are closer to the cork handle. Note- Fly rods have both stripping guides and snake guides.

   1. A stripping guide is the largest guide (ring) closest to the cork handle. Some fly rods have two stripping guides.

      1. When pinning your fly to the stripping guide, attach the fly to the metal frame instead of placing the hook inside the large ring. Stripping guides often have a ceramic ring which will get scratched and crack if you pin the hook inside the ring (and then those scratches/cracks damage your fly line as the line passes through the stripping guide).

   2. The smaller wire guides are called snake guides.

      1. It is fine to pin the fly directly on to the snake guides.

   3. If your fly rod has a hook keeper, don't pin the fly to it (we'll see why in a minute).

      

4. Grab and hold onto the leader and reel up any slack until you feel the line go tight in your hand.

   1. If you reel with your left-hand (i.e., the reel handle is on the left), then you'll hold onto the leader with your left hand while reeling in slack. (It'll be the opposite if you reel with your right hand.) Watch the video below for a visual on how to do this.

5. Once you feel slight tension in your hand, pull the leader over the butt-end of the rod and lay it onto the other side of the reel.

   1. If there is a slight bend in the rod, pull a small amount of line off the reel.

   2. The reason why you pull the leader over the butt-end of the rod is to prevent the leader from sliding through the gap on the reel that is between the frame and the spool.

      https://video.wixstatic.com/video/53b3b3_31c5a6ca7f1e4116b1ed68c6639a600f/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

The important thing is to see if the end of the fly line is still outside of the rod tip. In other words, make sure the fly line-to-leader connection is not inside the guides. If it is, then move the fly up another guide in step #3 above. Keeping the end of the fly line outside the rod tip helps you to quickly get back into casting when you spot a fish. If the fly line is inside the guides, then you'll have to waste time pulling the end of the fly line back outside the rod tip. This is why anglers usually won't pin the fly to the hook keeper because the end of the fly line more often ends up inside the guides.

  Now the fly rod is packaged up and you can move along without worrying to much about the line getting snagged and caught on obstacles.

When you are ready to get back into casting:

1. First, grab and move the leader over the butt-end of the rod.

   1. If you reel left-handed, then the leader should be hanging off the left side of the rod.

2. Keep the rod tip low and let go of the leader.

3. Then, unpin the fly.

4. Now you can make a short roll cast to get the fly in the water. Or, strip line off the reel and begin false casting to make a longer distance cast.