IMHO, there's not really anything very special about streamer fishing with glass vs graphite vs cane - you might want to throw an extra line weight up in glass or cane relative to graphite but that's about it. I'm always surprised by how much fly I can throw with a 150 grain sinktip, and any decent 5 weight will toss that line a mile.

Intermediates might hinge less than a long sinktip, but that's about it. Of course besides sinking slower.

You're fishing the Morgan streamer rod, you should at least try the Morgan Twitch method with it.


To quote Tom, who was talking about his two favorite rods "I fished extensively with two glass rods. My favorite light trout rod for many years was an 8' #4 two-piece. I fished mostly small dry flies with this rod. I found it ideal for spring creek fishing along with fishing big rivers like the Missouri where a delicate presentation is required. The second rod was a special one I made just for streamer fishing. I have an unusual technique for fishing unweighted streamers on or near the surface using a floating line. One of the essential requirements is that the tip be very flexible so that you can impart a very small but rhythmic movement to the fly. The supple tip of a glass rod is ideal for this. My special streamer rod is 8' 3" in length and balances with a #6 line. To make the rod, I used a #6 butt and a #5 tip that happened to be rolled on the same mandrel so the ferrule fits perfectly. The rod balances perfectly at short to medium distances where I prefer to fish my streamer technique. In fact, despite what you might think would be an unbalanced rod, it is one of the smoothness casting rods I ever had the pleasure of using. If you are interested in reading about this unique and very effective fishing technique, you may go to our web site at:"

(This article used to be on Tom's site at http://www.troutrods.com/morgantwitch.html but the new owners must have removed it. It's also archived on the wayback machine The quote above comes from his article about the history of fiberglass rods during his time at Winston)

A slower, or at least more deep-flexing, rod might be better in some cases. Out of a drift boat you're not gonna be casting very far so a super-stiff graphite rod can be less enjoyable if there's not enough line out to load the rod. I haven't used a slower rod to fish streamers before but it's something I've wanted to experiment with for that exact reason.

The only big disadvantage I could see, apart from windy days, is that the slower rod would give you less time to set up and execute a quick cast. Sometimes that's the name of the game fishing from a drift boat, floating by at a moderate pace and putting quick, aggressive casts into tight spots.

I had one of those rods some time ago and sold it, With a WF line it will launch articulated streamers no problem at all, all day long