As of a month or so ago, I had the following in my quiver of fly rods:
- 3wt, 7'3" custom build rod + (unknown brand) reel
- TFO TiCr 5wt, 9' + Lamson Konic reel
- Redington Predator 6wt, 7'10" + Redington Rise reel
- Loop XACT 7wt, 9' + Hardy Ultralite 7000DD reel
- Cabela's Stowaway 8wt, 9'-5pc + Cabela's RLS reel
- Cabela's CGR 7/8wt, 7'6" fiberglass + spare spool for Hardy Ultralite reel
- Redington CPX 8wt, 9' + Lamson Litespeed reel & spare spool
- Shakespeare 8wt, 9' fiberglass rod (my dad's from 30 years ago)
- Redington CPX 10wt, 9' + Redington Delta reel + spare spool
- TFO TiCrX 12wt, 9' + Hardy Zane Saltwater reel
It turns out that a few of those rods don't see much action over the course of the season, so it got me thinking about trimming down a bit.
Two years ago, I was more than content with using my 3wt on 10-12" trout 99% of the time, and I'd haul out that Cabela's Stowaway 8wt for the occasional salmon trip to the Miramichi River...but
things change. Oh, how they ever
change...
Last year, my 3wt didn't see water. Nor did the Stowaway (the Stowaway was what I used in
Louisiana, fyi). Luckily for me, they had a good home awaiting them, in exchange for a wonderful pedal-driven steed that will see a lot of action (& hopefully not much water) this coming year.
That leaves eight rods. I know of some folks that may have double or triple that number. Possibly entirely of bamboo, too...but that's a whole other level of sickness that will not be addresses in this post.
The Redington Predator & the Cabela's CGR glass rod will be my go-to bass rods, both by choice and by regulations: when I fish the local tournaments this summer, I'm not permitted to use rods over eight feet in length.
My dad's Shakespeare glass rod is staying put, end of story.
The Loop 7wt is my practice rod for the CCI exam, and will morph into my Atlantic salmon rod when necessary. I have a little twinge of buyer's remorse over this, as I don't necessarily love the medium-fast action on this rod & sometimes wish I would have went with a TFO TiCr, TiCrX or Axiom. But it is what it is, so I'll cope (for now).
UPDATE: I've decided to pull the trigger on swapping the Loop rod for a TFO Axiom 7wt. The Loop rod has only been grass-casted a few times and, due to employee discounts, I should be able to recover the sufficient cash to cover off the cost of the Axiom. There's no sense in casting a rod you don't enjoy casting...
My Redington CPX 8wt is...well, let's pretend I was a Jedi. The 8wt CPX would be my lightsaber. I like this rod. A lot. I had someone in Idaho look at the cork & say, "Wow, you've had that a while, haven't you?" and I replied, "Ahh, about 5 months." His reply was along the lines of "Holy f**k, how much do you fish?!?!"
I like the feel, the balance, the weight, the action...I just like it. In fact, I love it as much as a person could love a mass-produced inanimate object. I caught my first smallmouth, first striped bass, first salmon and first (baby) tarpon with this rod. I would've caught that chinook salmon & bull trout with it, too, if Derek the guide hadn't arrived with his Redington rod completely rigged up already.
The Redington CPX 10wt is/will be the standby muskie/striper/tarpon/permit/cuda rod. It has seen some action, but is yet to get some fish stank on it yet. It will be seeing a lot of action this summer due to the boat arriving on the scene; there's some fish with teeth that need to be caught with a fly rod in the Saint John River.
I think the 10wt CPX is up for the challunge, both this summer as well as in Belize in September. So it stays.
See what I did there? Challunge = CHAllenge + MuskeLLUNGE. Yeah, it's kind of a pun/play on words. I'm clever. You could say I am a cunning linguist. And did you see what I did there? Say "cunning linguist" fast...but not in front of your kids. I'm friggin' hilarious.
That leaves the TFO TiCrX 12wt, with the reel I referred to as a 'heirloom' reel: the Hardy Zane Saltwater. It saw two partial days of action, and went one for one for catching Pacific sailfish. And I can't, in any foreseeable future I can imagine, see myself using this again soon.
So unfortunately, I decided it's time for that setup to go to a more well-deserving home. A home that doesn't require 26 hours of driving or a full day of flying in order to regularly use it. So it's currently listed on eBay.
(Note: it's currently April 7th, the auction ends April 12th at 1620 EST...just in case I forget to come back & update this post. The rod's eBay Item # is 170819743479; the reel's Item # is 170819730439...if you're interested in looking at them...)
With the departure of the 3wt & the 5pc 8wt, and (hopefully) the coming departure of the 12wt rod & reel, that knocks things down to a manageable & (somewhat) sensible seven rods:
- 5wt for trout
- 6wt for smallies
- 7wt for CCI exam & Atlantic salmon
- 7/8wt glass for smallies
- 8wt for salt
- 8wt glass for shits, giggles, nostalgia
- 10wt for salt/muskie
See? That makes sense...doesn't it?
This was a long-winded post about fly rods & my (lame-ass) attempt to live simplistic lifestyle while having a small fly shop's worth of gear in my basement, so you definitely deserve some music if you've made it this far.
Here are a few tracks that have popped into my head recently, hope you enjoy them:
