Massimo Magliocco is an Italian professional fly fishing instructor and author of authoritative DVDs and fly fishing books and TV shows, well known in Italy and in the fly-fishing community in Italy as well as abroad.

He is also the technical director of a non-profit National Sporting Association which is also a complete Fly-fishing School: http://www.flyfishingmasters.it (FFM).

I spoke to Massimo - whom I met briefly in Sansepolcro, Tuscany, Italy - during my rod making school and he kindly gave me the permission to translate for you some advices about fly fishing equipment and techniques taken from the FFM website articles. (Any mistakes are due to my misunderstanding or NOT understanding.)

Fly fishing rods and reel:

• When buying a new fly-fishing rod you should be able to TRY THE ROD WITH A LINE INSERTED and cast it. It’s the only way you can have to get an idea about the ACTION of the rod and ultimately if you like it or not. Any respected dealer should have demo rods at disposal for you to try.
• Beginners should try with a shorter rod which is easier to cast than a longer one. It’s always easier to start learning the casting technique with a shorter rod and then try with a longer one. So train constantly on short rod with fast action.
• The fly fishing technique using a dry fly aims at getting the fly SUDDENLY within the viewing area of the trout WITHOUT showing the whirls of the line in the air.
• Now, the choice of rod depends on what kind of river and environment you fish in. For instance, in a narrow Alpine stream the normal choice would be a short progressive rod with fast action which helps us to have a precise cast with just one movement. In a wider downstream river instead, a longer rod with a more powerful action which allows us to cast with few movements for an easier and longer shooting is more appropriate.
• “RAPIDITY or SPEED”, “POWER”, “ACTION” of a rod are the three main attributes that any fisherman should understand.
  • RAPIDITY or SPEED: it’s the vitality or the “energy” of the rod. It’s the actual flexing movements in relation to TIME that the rod makes. Rapidity is the TIME the rod takes to get back to a still-stand after an impulse has been applied. The shortest this time the “faster” or more rapid is the rod.
  • POWER: it’s the “strength” of the rod, that is, how much weight( line + leader + fly) it can cast. In other words it’s the amount of energy it can accumulate and give back.
  • ACTION: it’s how the rod flexes and it’s the result of the TAPER of the rod which tries to combine the concepts of rapidity (or speed) and power. The action of a rod determine its rapidity (or speed) and power. So a parabolic or a “belly” flexing rod cannot be a fast action, while a tip-only flexing rod is not necessarily a powerful rod.
  • I think I good place where to understand the role of taper design and “action of a rod” is Bjarne Fries’ webpage:

    http://www.fries-rods.dk/lang/uk/rods_action.htm.
    
    

    

• So the action of a rod is what most matter. It's the personal "ID" of a fly fishing rod, so to say. But similarly to going to a tailor and asking for a "comfortable, evening suit" there is a huge variation in types of "slow action middle sized rivers" rods that you might be looking for. A slow action rod can be designed to be also very powerful and long, or ,on the contrary, very short and not so powerful. With all the variations inbetween.
• Finally, the action of a rod, your casting style and the line you use, all these three elements should help you make up your mind for the best rod for you: for instance a short and rapid rod, with optimal action, say a 7'6'' long rod with a 4 or 5 line should help you fish with the approriate casting style.





• I understood that there are differences between fly fishing rods from the USA and Italy because the environment differ in many ways as you might see: large landscapes with wide rivers are quite common in the USA while reduced streams and rivers in narrow alpine valleys are more common in Italy and probably in many places here in Europe. The casting style also differs because of these differences and hence the rod producers adapt to the local fishing styles and needs.

Above is my son fly fishing in the Breggia gorge near home. Well, perhaps it's a little bit extreme but, this is the stream we have around the corner... (by the way, the Breggia gorge is otherwise very beautiful and it's actually a geological park (sorry the website is only in Italian).

There are larger streams and rivers in the Alps, but the general freshwater scenery is rather narrow....



Now we can enter the other big world of FLY FISHING REELS. Which one is the right reel for you, how do I put the line in it, what is the "backing" for...Clicke here!

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