Today four-piece fly rods are by far the most popular, while one-piece casting and spinning rods enjoy increasing popularity. Is this because fly fishermen and their rods travel to distant fishing spots more often, or because one piece casting and spinning rods are much better at casting than multi-piece rods, which is not true of fly rods?

Phil

I doubt it is the impact of ferrules. A well designed and made ferrule is a ferrule regardless of whether it is on a fly, or spin, or bait cast.

More probably it is the ease of storage and transportation. Always high risk to assume one's experience is typical of others. Nonetheless, my spin and bait casters live in the garage or the boat fully assembled. The only time they are broken down is for a cleaning and re-lining a couple times each year. The fly rods live in the house in their bags and tubes. A three or four piece fly rod is so much easier to toss into the back of the Jeep than even a 2 piece, 9' rod.

The advent of multi-piece rods, say 3 and 4-piece models, largely came about due to the propensity of fly anglers to travel more extensively to various fishing locations. Not to mention that fly rods are typically longer than most spinning and casting rods, which also meant that at least 2 sections were required for almost any travel, including such close to home.

................

I wonder if breakage is an issue in the rise of popularity of one piece rods?

Two piece rods hav been the nomal in salmon and steelhead rods over a considerable amount of time, only recently with the addition of built in locking rod storage and more boats being stored in garages have we seen the one piece rod of 8 ft and a bit longer become popular.

Multi-piece rods actually fail less often than single piece rods primarily due to the fact that single piece rods are more prone to being shut in car windows, stuck into ceiling fans, pushed into objects, etc.

A multi-piece rod is certainly not in any less strong or durable than a single piece rod - they're simply easier to transport and store without damage.

............

I sure wouldn't mind finding an 8ft 1 piece blank that would quick load around a 9 weight for short accurate cast with big flies from a kayak for bass and red drum.

David, Mud Hole has a one piece 9' 10 wt for sale. Could remove some from the butt to transform it into a 9 wt. with a slightly slower action. Do a CCS analysis mocking different lengths to determine where you need to cut. For the price it makes it worth a try.
[www.mudhole.com]
Norm

Popping, Hot Shot, and many other blanks can be made into one or two piece shorter fly rods successfully.

Spencer: I heartily agree. Years ago I built an 8.5' 2-piece hot-shot blank into a fly rod. It's a cannon with an 11wt. line.

Finding a 1 piece 8 ft popping rod blank has been tough but I did see Hydra makes a 7'10" which is close enough. Might find something at the ICRBE. Figured a rod labeled up to 1/2 oz lure mod fast action should work.

A rod built for 1/2 oz. lures should work with an 8 wt. line.