Guide Hacks for Transporting Fly Rods

Guide Hacks for Transporting Fly Rods

Here’s a slick little hack from my friend Steve “Mac” McFarland, an instructor at The School of Trout, for keeping multiple strung rods from turning into a bird’s nest of tangles.

I first met Mac years ago while teaching photography on the Henry’s Fork, and since then, I’ve been lucky enough to cross paths with him regularly on destination travel trips and fly-fishing courses.

This past spring, while we were shuttling back to our rooms at the Chico Hot Springs Resort in Paradise Valley (near Livingston, MT), he showed me a rod storage method so simple, I felt silly for not knowing it.

Whether you’re walking the bank or jamming a pile of rods through the back of a truck window, this trick keeps your lines from tangling.

Here’s how Mac does it (the video below shows another version too):

1. Pull out enough fly line to hook your fly on a guide halfway up the rod.
2. Loop the line down around the reel seat, then bring the fly back up to that middle guide.
3. Leave a touch of slack–don’t crank it tight.
4. Wrap the slack around the rod (Mac goes clockwise), about a half-dozen turns.
5. Snug the slack onto the reel.
6. To undo, peel off a little slack, shake the rod to loosen the line, then unwrap counter-clockwise until it’s free.

It’s simple and works like magic.

Here’s a second version when you “break-down” a fly rod, but still keep your entire rig intact–reducing the length of your fly rod by half to fit in smaller spaces.

Here are the basic steps:

1. Reel your fly to the top of your fly rod, but leave a little bit of sack–just a couple inches or so.
2. Find the middle fly rod ferrule and take the two sections apart–this means for four-piece rods, you’ll have two sections.
3. Fold the tip of the fly rod down towards the butt section.
4. Reel in any slack line, but leave enough for your fly to wrap around the bottom of the reel and hook back into the cork (tightly holding both pieces together).
5. Double check and make sure the tip of the fly rod is above the bottom of the butt end of the rod, protecting it from breakage. If not, simply unhook the fly and reel in a little of the top section, then re-hook the fly in the cork.

This is an easy, “fairly safe” way to fit fully-rigged fly rods into smaller spaces–give it a try on your next fishing adventure.