Continuing our series on the best fly rods, today we take a closer look at Orvis fly rods.

Orvis is obviously a household name to outdoorsmen across the country.

The oldest mail order company in the U.S., already known for its waders and outdoor apparel, has also made a name for itself in terms of world record breaking fly rods -- landing 23 world records in the 2009 International Game Fish Association's World Record Game Fishes book.

There's no doubt the future is now for Orvis and the ZG Zero Gravity Helios fly rod series, named "Best of the Best" by Field & Stream magazine the past two years ... Read more about Orvis fly rods.

GEAR REVIEW TIME: Calling all outdoors and fly fishing product manufacturers. We're currently planning our holiday gear guides and product review lists. Email me if you'd like your product tested and reviewed in time for the holidays.

Helio photo courtesy Orvis

The International Game Fish Association has granted 42 new world records this month, including nine in fly rod categories as noted in the latest edition of International Angler magazine:

• Peter Binaski caught a 2-pound, 12-ounce barracuda off Todos Santos Island, Ensenada, Mexico, on April 22 that is the new 6-pound tippet record.
• Bo Nelson also landed a record barracuda, a 5-pound, 6-ounce fish that's the new 8-pound tippet record. He caught the fish in Camalu, Baja California, Mexico on April 1. No joke!
• Larry Kurosaki landed a record largemouth bass, a 16-pound, 12-ounce fish on 8-pound tippet at Castaic Lagoon in Castaic, Calif., on Feb. 26.
• The new white bass record in the 6-pound class is a 3-pound, 1-ounce liner caught by Stephen Matt on April 20 in Table Rock Lake, Arkansas.
• Two bowfin records were set by Jim Spencer on the same day (May 2) at Okefenokee Swamp in Folkstom, Georgia. He caught an 8-pounder to set the 8-pound mark along with a 7-pound, 12-ouncer to set the 16 pound mark.
• The new dolphinfish record in the 4-pound class is a 32-pound, 7-ounce fish landed by Rick Gunion on Jan. 18 in Andros, Bahamas.
• The new black drum mark in the 8-pound class is a 59-pound, 8-ounce fish landed March 14 by Bud Rowland in South Bay, Port Isabel, Texas.
• Rounding out the world records announced in November was George Mann's 9-pound musky, caught on 6-pound test May 26 in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.

Continuing our series on the best fly rods, today we take a closer look at Sage Fly Rods.

With 75 world records, as listed in the 2007 International Game Fish Association's World Record Game Fishes book, Sage Fly Fishing has more than three times as many fly rod records as the next closest competitor.

And while many fly rod manufactures talk the talk when it comes to conservation, Sage walks the walk.

Sage is at the forefront of conservation, whether it's teaming up with RIO and Redington to fight the Pebble Mine in the Bristol Bay Region of Alaska, or downsizing its print catalog to focus its resources on its website -- where you can find a new rod along with helpful resources like a nifty cast analyzer ... Read more about Sage Fly Fishing.

GEAR REVIEW TIME: Calling all outdoors and fly fishing product manufacturers. We're currently planning our holiday gear guides and product review lists. Email me if you'd like your product tested and reviewed in time for the holidays.

A lot was made of The American Museum of Fly Fishing's invitation to former vice president Dick Cheney to speak at the Anglers All Presentation at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC, on Thursday, but I have yet to hear any reaction following the event.

If anyone attended the event or knows of any links to follow-ups, please email me or tweet @aboutflyfishing.

Other speakers included Alan Simpson, Tucker Carlson, and Senator Mike Enzi.

An auction was also held. Here was the schedule of the event, which caused an uproar across the fly fishing community earlier this year.

The fishing has been so tough of late it seems like I've been doing nothing but update Facebook statuses and send out Tweets about my lack of fly fishing success.

My latest status update/social report: "My daughter and I got skunked at Santa Margarita Lake, Calif., over the weekend. Didn't even hear or see a fish all morning, but it was fun to get out on the water nonetheless. "

I'm not a crazy social networking geek, but this site is attracting a decent crowd in the virtual fly fishing community. So if you find following Tweets easier than bookmarking this page,  follow About's Fly Fishing site on Twitter at twitter.com/aboutflyfishing.

I'm up to 1,457 followers as of this post. If you haven't followed us yet, please do. Let's get it to 1,500 by the end of the month!

To prevent fly fishing withdrawals through the winter months, be sure to bookmark this page, subscribe to our fly fishing newsletter, the fly fishing RSS feed, fly fishing widget, and follow us at facebook.com/aboutflyfishing and twitter.com/aboutflyfishing.

"Who makes the best fly rod?"

That's probably the No. 1 question I get here on About -- a question that seems to come up a lot this time of year, when people are gearing up for the holidays.

I try to be as objective as possible here, so I point them to a list I compiled from the International Game Fish Association's World Record Game Fishes book. The proof is in the numbers, and with 75 world records a couple years back, Sage Fly Rods appear to be the favorite among the record holders.

Here's a list of the other top fly rod companies in terms of world records, in case you're interested in landing some world-record fish over the holidays.

That list includes the likes of G Loomis, Thomas and Thomas, Orvis, Redington, Albright, R.L. Winston, Cabelas and Temple Fork, all of which are great manufactures that you can't go wrong with.

GEAR REVIEW TIME: Calling all outdoors and fly fishing product manufacturers. We're currently planning our holiday gear guides and product review lists. Email me if you'd like your product tested and reviewed in time for the holidays.

Continuing our series on the best fly rods, today we take a closer look at G. Loomis Fishing Rods.

With 24 fly fishing world records, as listed in the 2007 International Game Fish Association's World Record Game Fishes book, only one fly rod company has more (Sage with 75).

And G. Loomis has another world record that even Sage can't touch, the world casting record of 243 feet ... Read more about G. Loomis Fishing Rods.

GEAR REVIEW TIME: Calling all outdoors and fly fishing product manufacturers. We're currently planning our holiday gear guides and product review lists. Email me if you'd like your product tested and reviewed in time for the holidays.

Even on the West Coast, where things are a little warmer in the fall and winter months, we sometimes struggle to find the motivation to get out fly fish.

Things are starting to cool off and, before long, it will seem like the fish get more sluggish as well.

But now isn't the time to put your fly rod into hibernation.

In fact, the fall and winter months are ideal for surfperch and other saltwater surf-zone species as noted in our piece about fly fishing for barred surfperch.

Barred surfperch photo by Brian Milne

The National Fly Fishing Championships were held in the State College, Penn., area Oct. 24-26, 2009, with anglers from around the country vying for a spot on the U.S. world championship team scheduled to compete in Poland next June.

Despite difficult conditions stemming from fall downpours, the 10 teams made up of 50 anglers landed more than 420 trout on the Little Juniata River, Penns Creek, Spring Creek and Fishing Creek.

Local pro George Daniel took home the individual gold medal, followed by Utah's Lance Egan and New Mexico's Norman Maktima. They will be joined on Team USA by Devin Olsen, Mike Sexton, Anthony Naranja, Pete Erickson and Josh Stephens.

For complete results from all 50 competitors, along with reaction from the anglers, read our in-depth article on the 2009 U.S. National Fly Fishing Championships.

Want to know what it's like to compete in the World Championships? Check out our Q&As with Egan following the 2008 and 2009 World Fly Fishing Championships.

It's no secret athletes like to fly fish. I've written about fishing jocks, and coaches, a handful of times on About.com. (See: Ken Griffey Jr., Nnamdi Asomugha, Ted Williams, Bob Knight and Ryan Newman.)

But I haven't written about many NBA players who enjoy fly fishing in their down time.

That was until I heard Cleveland Cavaliers general manager and former player Danny Ferry enjoys the push and pull of the fly line.

In a recent Q&A on Cleveland.com, Ferry says if he had a day all to himself, he'd spend it fly fishing. In fact, Cleveland has more fly fishing options than you might think.