On Quivers Full Of Fly Rods

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.

Needless to say, the CPX 8wt stays (and it's getting a sexy new accessory soon, too).

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:

West Coast gear meets East Coast tunes

Time/Date: 0135 PST, 09-Jul-11
Location: Somewhere in northern BC, next to a bunch of glaciers

My roommate did me a solid & picked up a package for me at the courier yesterday.

This might not seem like a big deal to most folks, but this particular courier allows parcel pickup for approximately 17 minutes, split into uneven intervals, each day between the hours of 5PM-5:45PM.

I'm sure it wasn't convenient for him.

But this post isn't about foolish parcel pickup counter hours.

It's about the package waiting for my inglorious return to the right coast (as opposed to the left coast. I'm not implying which coast is correct).

The package, shipped from Bainbridge Island, Washington, is...

...my new Redington Predator rod & Rise reel.

Matched with Rio's smallmouth taper fly line (6wt), this will be seven feet & ten inches of popper-, diver- & Clouser-chucking, bass-fighting goodness.

Why does this particular rod belong in the quiver?

After catching a decent number of smallies on both my 9' 5wt (TFO TiCr) and 9' 8wt (Redington CPX), I came to the following conclusions:

• The 5-weight is a blast once smallies are hooked, but casting big deerhair poppers & weighted flies with it are a challenge.
• The 8-weight definitely handles casting those bigger flies, but overpowers the fish (which wouldn't be an issue if I was a tournament angler but...I'm not).
• Nine feet of fly rod is tough to deal with on overgrown banks of rivers & streams in town.

Combining a fast action tip in a 7'10", 6-weight rod with the aggressive taper of Rio's smallmouth line, the Predator rod should be the ticket for casting those bigger flies in confined spaces.

Of course, with this setup being more for city than country, I decided to forego the typical gunmetal grey & smoke finishes of my Lamson & Redington reels. This called for some flash. A little bling-bling. I wanted a reel that shouted, "Here I am, fishy, and damn, I look fly! Now get on my hook!"

Enter the Rise reel. Can you say P-I-M-P?

I can't wait to get home & try it out...once I come down from this mountain...

Here's a fun summertime song for y'all. I'm sure my singing of it last night kept our curious grizzly bear a little further away from the project site than he's normally been.

(Don't forget, Joel Plaskett will be playing FredRock 2011 later this summer. Ticket info here.)

Tweet

Location, location, location

Time/Date: 1000AST, 21-Jun-11
Location: Fredericton, NB

Imagine a town with:

You could be fishing & living here...

• smallmouth bass fishing within walking distance.
• muskie fishing within walking distance.
• river-run striped bass fishing within walking distance.
• sea-run brook trout within biking distance and/or 25 minutes' drive.
• pickerel fishing within 20 minutes' drive
• world-class Atlantic salmon fishing within an hours' drive.
• striped bass in the salt in an hours' drive.
• brown trout in an hours' drive
• even more epic salmon & striped bass fishing within 4 hours' drive.

Add in decent (and growing) local music scene, a couple decent coffee shops, a few good pubs & clubs, reasonable rent & real estate...

And a pretty kick-ass local fly shop...

Where is this place?

I'm not telling. 

But if you can figure it out, you're more than welcome to visit.

(This is a basic IQ test: if you can't figure out what town this is, you're too dumb to be here. This is to prevent you getting elected to the provincial government.)

Here's some of that (sort of) local music I speak of. I say 'sort of' because, while not necessarily from here, he visits. Often. In fact, this summer, at FredRock.

Tweet