I just purchased a light weight 6' 6" Eagle Claw fly rod which is for 3/4 weight line. I have an old refurbished 1954 Heddon 8 foot glass rod with 5 wt DT line by Cortland. My other rods are graphite with 5 and 6 wf floating lines. I decided to trek back to my home waters in New England and try some small stream fishing for native brook trout. I have also had good luck with SA lines or is there something even better. I am a bit out of my league as all of my fly fishing for 40 plus years has been with nymphs, wets and some occasional dry flies. Time to try something different.

Hello and welcome to the forum!

I fished an Eagle Claw Featherlight 6’6” 5 wt for years all over New England and upstate NY. I only ever used true to weight 5wt wf lines. It always felt great with SA’s AirCel line. Rio Gold, which is slightly heavier, also worked well, and SA’s mastery trout gave it a bit of a snappier feel. The 406 lines are great and would most likely suit that rod well.

I’d suggest starting with a true-to-weight 4wt line and then adjusting from there depending on the feel you like or payloads you’ll be casting.

Whatever you choose, have fun and enjoy that rod!

Eagle Claw Featherlight 6’6” I have fished one for years for both trout and pan fish. The rod is not to fussy about line and that is the nice thing about fiberglass i have used 4, 5 & 6 wt on the eagle claw my pick for line would 5wt DT. Brand of fly line, I feel it is important. I have used a ton of cheap fly over the years most have end up in dumpster. So my feelings are that you should use a good fly line the big 3 SA, Rio & Cortland all produce some inexpensive fly line that are good stuff. Hope this help you

Thanks for the help. When the rod arrives next week I will put the reel from my Heddon glass rod with peach DT5 and give it a try.

First off congratulations on purchasing one of the funnest glass rods ever made. I picked one of these up shortly after getting back into fly fishing a few years ago. I bought a Bass Proshop 5wt and it is a great combo that I have caught a lot of 8-12 inch pond largemouths that feel like a Goliath grouper on it. I’m not a great caster but this rod gave me the confidence to keep fly fishing and I’ve become proficient to a point where I do not feel like I am embarrassing myself out on the water and I credit this rod for a lot of that. Now it gets a lot of use by the kids and they have no complaints either. Eagle Claw gets a bad rap if you ask me and I now own a few Sweathearts, Featherlights and two Crafted Glass rods. I am a huge fan of the crafted glass series and fish the 3WT with a Cortland Peach DT 4wt and the 5wt with a Cortland Tropic 444 6 wt. both rods could easily go up one more line weight. I grab them for fishing the ponds around my house which is 75% of the fishing I do. You could put a really expensive line on your Eagle Claw but I’d check out Brass Pro Shops <$30 fly lines and then upgrade to a 406 or Cortland if you decide to stick with it.

Classic combo well done. I’m sure that 5wt will work great for you.

I have that EC rod and was just looking at the 4wt lines I had on some reels that I use with it. I had some mid-range older Cabela's lines on a few and was measuring them out on a digital scale, then converting grams to grains, and they were all measuring almost a whole line higher than they were marked. I think it will work fine with a 5wt line as others have stated and will be nice with a 4wt DT line too. I used the rod a week ago on a small brook here in central MA to bring some native brook trout to the net and it was a blast.

I have used that rod for trout in ponds and brooks and fishing for perch and bluegills in ponds. It's not going to win any beauty contests, or have people envious of your equipment, but that is part of the charm, at least for me. I just ordered the 7' 5/6 last night on a whim and already have the 8' 5/6 that really is a 6+ wt rod that would be good for a 7wt line. I bet that Heddon would be a fun one to break out as well on the streams and brooks here too.

I use a wf3 tri-taper on my 7’ Orvis glass , and it performs nicely , started also switching around with the Wulff Longbellies , and equally well with the Orvis , also great with the Livingstons

Sweet rod sock your wife created for you! I had my Dad sew me up some out of some flannel years ago and was considering getting my girlfriend's daughter to sew me up some for my Eagle Claw rods (have three).

Funny, I used to go to Manchester and go to the bargain basement and picked up a few of those cases, as well as lines, a rod and other accessories - also about 25 years ago.

I have that Martin Caddis Creek on my EC 6’6 and it is a piece of junk. Screw fell out and it gets all tangled up and caught between spool and housing. You are right about the QC on these … there is none. But my daughter stole this rig from me and she doesn’t seem to care …