Rigging Fly Fishing Equipment: Assembling the Rod

Once you have decided on and purchased a suitable set of basic fly fishing equipment, you will have to put it all together before you can head out and catch a fish. It is crucial to rig your fly fishing equipment up correctly – otherwise you’ll end up with nothing but tangles and frustrations on the river bank!

The tackle shop where you buy your fly fishing equipment will put your fly line (and backing) onto your reel for you; there’s no need to worry about completing this procedure yourself.

But you’ll have to do everything else on your own, without the help of a shop as¬sistant. ‘Everything else’ means assembling your rod, screwing your reel onto the rod, threading the fly line from the reel through the ferrules of the rod, attaching a trace to the end of your fly line, and attaching a fly to the end of your trace.

The Standard Rig - Click on image to view full-size.

The good news is that once you’ve learnt how to do all this, it becomes second nature, and you’ll be able to rig up your fly fishing equipment within a matter of minutes – and dismantle it quickly as well when you want to drive to a new spot or pack up at the end of the day.

Assembling a Fly Fishing Rod

What follows here is advice about how to successfully assemble your fly fishing rod. You can then go on to master the remainder of the assembly process with detailed guidance on attaching the rest of your fly fishing equipment. This includes adding the reel to your rod, threading your fly line through the rod’s ferrules and attaching trace to your fly line.

Most fly anglers opt for a ‘two-piece’ rod. A two-piece fly rod comes apart half way along its length. To assemble a two-piece rod you simply slip the top end of the bottom half into the bottom end of the top half of the rod, then push until the two halves are firmly joined. Be careful not to push the two halves together too hard, as this may damage the rod.

Some fly rods come in three or four pieces. But even with a rod that has more than two pieces, it will be quite obvious how the whole thing is supposed to fit together.

In fact, because fly rods are tapered, it is really not possible to put a multi-piece rod together in the wrong way. If you try to put the rod together incorrectly, you will quickly discover your mistake, because you’ll find yourself trying to slide one piece of rod into a hole in another piece of rod that is either much too big or much too small.

Important Point:

When assembling a fly fishing rod, a common mistake is failing to properly line up the ferrules of the rod. The ferrules are the circle-shaped ‘guides’ attached to the rod that carry the line all the way along between the reel and the tip of the rod.

Click on image to view full-size.

If you don’t make sure that all the rod’s ferrules are properly lined up, your casting distance will be severely impaired, because your fly line will not be able to travel freely in a dead-straight line from the reel to the tip of the rod.

To make sure that all the ferrules line up properly, you need to actually line them up before you push the sections of your rod together. Trying to twist the sections of rod around after they have been pushed together is never a good idea.

Line the ferrules up as much as you can, then gently push the sections of rod together. If you make a mistake, pull the sections apart and try again until you get it right!

Once you’ve assembled your fly fishing rod, you’re ready to move on to adding the rest of your fly fishing equipment.

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