Fishing is typically the underlying reason for my backpacking trips these days so I tend to take whatever might be needed to catch fish where I'm headed. While most of the locations involve small streams that are often not as wide as the rod is long, there are occasions when these little streams feed into high mountain lakes and the fish are just a bit too far from shore to access with the Japanese system of leader-only line arrangements (often made of horse hair with a short mono tippet on the end).

I typically take a 7' 3pc 3wt graphite rod, simple fly reel, box of flies, spool of tippet, tube of floatant, and a hemostat for hook removal. While I'm not about to compete with any of the top weight shavers here, the entire setup weighs less than one of my saltwater fly reels.