Fly Fishing is Expensive! Does it Have to be?
- Jason G. Freund
- Oct 5
- 8 min read
What you can / are willing to afford may not be what I or another person can / are able to afford. Some of us are "the Joneses", some try to keep up with them, others don't care to and many of us can't, even if we wanted to. By and large, yeah, fly fishing is expensive - but it is what you make of it.
I am certainly not the first to tackle the question, "Why is fly fishing so expensive?". However, the topic came up again when a friend posted an article, "Expensive fly rods are worth the money". For whom, I might ask?
Here are a few posts I have written on the economics of fly fishing.
Are fly rods really that expensive?
To get the conversation started, Spencer Durrant, the author of the aforementioned article, writes,
I did some digging and found an R.L. Winston catalog from 1975 online. It shows the company’s top rod (which was bamboo at the time) listed for $275. That same rod in 2025 dollars would set you back $1,611.80, per the CPI Inflation Calculator.
In 2013, you could buy a Sage ONE for $775, which is $1,053.94 in 2025 money. The ONE was Sage’s top rod, and the R8 CORE is the company’s flagship now, which sells for $1,050.
Not entirely apples to apples, I would say. And it sort of assumes that the bamboo rod in 1975 and the Sage ONE in 2013 was "worth it". That bamboo rod was built by hand - all of it. The value of that rod has increased over time - you could probably sell your 1975 Winston bamboo for $2,000 or more. Craftsmanship, scarcity, and nostalgia has value, and hopefully always will.
And inflation does not mean that the price of everything increases. Some things increase in price, some stay more or less the same over time, and some get less expensive. For example, we can buy computers many times faster and more powerful at a fraction of the cost of what a computer cost in the 1980's or 1990's. Top end home computers have cost about the same for the past several decades, and machines for the average user are better and cheaper than ever before. Maybe (probably) those economies of scale don't work for fly fishing gear? That the fly fishing industry is small is part of the reason that gear is relatively expensive.
I have no idea how many $1,000+ fly rod Sage, Scott, Winston, Orvis, GLoomis, and the others sell in a year, but I know it is relatively not many. I also know it is fewer than the number of sub-$500 rods that they and others sell in a year. And that number is several orders of magnitude less than the number of spinning and baitcast rods sold. About 7.6 million people fly fish, or 14% of the 54.4 million anglers in the U.S. (source). Thirty-six percent of fly anglers earned more than $100,000 a year, compared to 26% of freshwater anglers and 30% of saltwater anglers. About 8% of anglers fly fish only. In other words, there is your evidence that fly fishing is a pretty small part of the angling economy. But it is growing.
Maybe you can, if you care to, justify buying a $1,000+ fly rod. Those top of the line rods are also made in America. To many, that matters a lot. To me, it is easier to justify the price of a bamboo rod that will keep or even increase its value over time. A graphite rod is a bit like a new car, once it's out of the shop and fished, it is worth a decent bit less money. Of course, that only really matters if you are one of those that is changing your fly rod "inventory". I am generally not. I find a rod I like, and I cast well and am comfortable with, and I tend to fish it essentially forever. I am the guy that buys a used car and runs it into the ground, then replaces it; not the guy that is buying new every few years.
What I know is that I can not justify is spending anywhere near $1,000 on a pair of waders. As I write this, Simms most expensive pair is $1,000, Patagonia's is $800, and Grundens are $1,000. Maybe there are places where $1,000 waders make sense, but I know that place is not the Driftless Area. There is no way waders are lasting more than 3 years in the Driftless Area with as much as I use them. The $500 wading boots - Grundens is the only of the three not producing a $500 wading boot - make a tiny bit more sense to me. At least those, I am likely to get a few more years out of - but I'm still not going to spend that kind of money for wading boots. But to each their own...
Does Fly Fishing Have to be Expensive?
In a word, no. However, it is probably going to be more expensive than conventional (spinning / spincast) gear when you take away boats.
Each person is free to do as they see fit and can afford. Fly fishing does not have to be that expensive - but it certainly can be. And to a point, it is more expensive than traditional angling. Two-hundred dollars is about the entry point for a fly rod - though there are certainly less expensive options out there. The Echo Traverse that Kelly Galloup talks about in the video above comes packaged with a rod, reel, line, and case for $300. That same money in traditional angling is getting you pretty close to top of the line equipment. So it does not have to be expensive, but it is not cheap either.
Conventional fishing can be quite expensive too. I would have a lot of gear for the $40,000 or more that many spend on a bass boat. Ranger's top of the line fiberglass bass boats start at $100,000 and you can add options on top of that. You are probably pulling that with a big ass truck. That truck, new, starts at $40,000 and moves upwards of $100,000 depending upon how fancy you go. Of course, most conventional anglers are spending nowhere near that much. As with any hobby, the cost is what you make of it.
If you spend a little time online and on YouTube, you will see that mid-priced rods are generally about $300 on the low end to $600 to $700. And I just watched a video on mid-priced reels that are between $250 to $400. So a mid-priced set up, without a fly line - another $30 to $100+ - is $550 to $1,100. But, again, of course, you can grab that $300 Echo Traverse and be perfectly happy with it. Or a MaxCatch combo for less than $100.
Does it Matter to You?
This is a question that only you can answer. First, the feel of a fly rod is largely a matter of individual taste and experience. The rod that you really like may not work as well for me. Maybe you really like a rod that is rather inexpensive and not highly rated. Or maybe you really love how a particular high-end rod feels and that allows you to justify / don't mind spending big money on a rod. After all, you may well fish that rod for the next couple of decades. A thousand dollar rod, amortized over 20 years is $50 a year. Certainly you blow $50 a year on any number of other things that bring you less joy. On the flip side, you are largely a small stream angler like I am and just don't see the need to spend $1,000+ for a rod you are going to cast within 30 feet most of the time.
We each deal with these types of decisions in our own ways. Maybe you are one that wants to keep up with the Joneses or simply enjoy trying the latest and greatest equipment? Let's face it, that gaudy white patch on an Orvis Helios fly rod doesn't make it cast better, it is so others can see what you are fishing with. Sometimes it is about showing off. Each year, we are making the newest "greatest rod ever made" with dampening technologies, new stronger and lighter guides, improved tapers, nano resins, higher modulus graphite, and laser beams that increase your accuracy. OK, maybe not that one...
I don't think I will keep the header I had written below when I outlined this post - "How much of it is gimmicky bullshit?" but yeah, certainly a lot of it is. But they have to keep innovating, even if the improvements are smaller and smaller each year. Manufacturers are not going to say, "Damn, we made a good rod, let's keep selling that for the next decade or so!". Your decade or two old fly rod works perfectly fine, if you know what you are doing with it. You probably don't need a new fly rod - but it is a hobby, what does need really have to do with it? As I have written previously, most anglers would benefit more from more practice, a casting session with an instructor, or a guided trip with a guide willing to work on your fly casting than they would a fly rod upgrade.
My Recommendations
Do what makes you happy, buy what you like, what you can afford. New rods, in many ways, are better than ever. Unless manufacturers want to start sending me new fly rods to review*, my best opportunity to keep up with the latest and greatest rods is to cast them at fly shows, the Driftless Drive-in, or my friend's rods. It is fun, and I've been tempted by a rod or two, but haven't been able / willing to pull the trigger. Though, I do have my eyes on an 8 weight that I had the chance to cast in a friend's boat last summer that would replace my 25-year-old Sage SP. However, that old Sage is still getting the job done.
*This blog has only ever cost me money, I have received nothing for free (at least not that anyone else has not received for free). Â
The age-old recommendations are to cast before buying, save your money on the reel - it is just a line holder, and buy a good fly line. I largely agree, but I have generally bought better reels. Because of that, I have not bought a reel in a number of years. That is one of the trade-offs with buying good gear.
Again, I am not the first person to write on this topic. We fly anglers like to write - and make YouTube videos - about what our hobby costs. Here are some links and, below that, some AI generated summaries.