One Rod to Fish Them All: Hardy Ultralight LL 9'9" Four Weight

For the past three or four weeks, I've been going back and forth on getting one rod that could replace as many trout rods in my collection as possible. I wanted a rod that could handle dries, dry droppers, indy nymph rigs, tightline nymphing, and even smaller streamers. I want one rod that is not the best at any one style of fishing, but can handle all fairly well. Historically, this has been your nine-foot five weight rod. But lately, the industry has been tinkering with that formula and finding new lengths, weights, and tapers to fit the need for a versatile rod.

After much hemming and hawing, I ended up going with the Hardy Ultralight LL 9'9" in a four weight. Let's get into how I made this decision.

The Waters I Fish

The closest trout water I have consistent access to is considered by many to be one of the toughest tailwaters in the southeastern United States. While the river has stumped me for a lot of years, I don't think it's as tough as its reputation suggests. That said, it is tougher than every other tailwater I've fished in the area. The water in the river is gin clear. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen it anything else. It is fairly slow moving and shallow, and there are not a lot of obstacles that break the surface. There are large stretches where the water is glass-like. Because it is a tailwater, the fish are very well fed and can afford to be picky. While the other tailwaters I fish are not as tough as this one, they share many of the same characteristics: medium to large rivers with selective, large fish.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, I fish small streams in the southern Appalachians. Here, we find smaller streams with smaller fish. They are not particularly selective as to flies, but they are wild fish with centuries of survival instincts bred into them. Presentations must be well executed, and stealth is required. Casting room is limited by thick rhododendron and low-hanging canopies. The water is incredibly complex, and often very rough and fast, with many seams moving at different speeds. The pools can be very deep and often cut off access to the far bank.

Why a 9'9" (or 10') Rod Length?

Look at this cool nonconformist guy over here. 9'6"? 10'? Nooo sir, can't do that; it's gotta be 9'9". When asked to rank things on a scale of 1-10, I don't go 9 or 10, or even 9.5. I gotta have those .25 increments.

I targeted a ten foot rod mainly for reach. Whether it's getting a bit more distance on a tightline cast, or highsticking over some troublesome current, that extra length matters. And an important thing to note is I'm not actually getting 9 more inches of reach; I'm actually getting exponentially more reach for reasons I don't quite understand, but has to do something with geometry, the weight and nature of fly line and leaders, and some other mysticism known as physics and math.

Other considerations included casting power, important for cutting through heavy wind on my wide open tailwaters, as well as firing dries into brushy areas in the mountain streams. Longer rods also tend to mend and roll cast a little better, two techniques that I lean on heavily.

Why a Four Weight?

This one I probably went back and forth on the most. When I began asking around about rod choices in my area, the responses were pretty much split equally for people not using the typical nine foot five weight. In one camp, nymph-oriented crowd turned to their ten foot three weights for general use. In the other, four weights in anything from 8'6" to ten foot.

I didn't have access to many ten foot four weights, but I did get to cast a number of ten foot three weights. While there weren't many options in my area, the few I did cast seemed more tailored toward tight-line nymphing. While it is something I want to learn, I want as many options first and foremost, and I felt the slower, deeper action of the three weights would be too much of a compromise when fishing with fly line or other presentation styles.

Ultimately, the decision was a bit of a leap of faith. Thankfully, a lot of the Troutbitten crew had similar demands of their rods, and they seemed to also gravitate toward four weights in an article discussing some of their favorites.

Why the Hardy?

There were two resources that were helpful in making the decision to go with the Hardy Ultralight LL. The first was Devin Olson's comparison video on the series of rods. The second was a video series from Nate at Red's Fly Shop showcasing the Hardy as a versatile wader's fly rod, which is exactly the use case I was looking for.

Nate's video was so helpful that I ended up ordering my rod from his shop. It's also worth mentioning that, at the time of this article's publishing, Red's Fly Shop is currently running a promotion where they will include a free fly line with the purchase of any rod over $595.

In the near future, I'll be writing up an article on how I have the rod set up, how I switch between various styles of fishing, and initial thoughts.