Son of Rod Love: Steffen 7'6" 3-Weight

Have you heard of Steffen Fly Rods? No? I hadn't either, until I got deeper and deeper into the world of fiberglass rods. Steffen is a small company in Arizona that rolls their own glass blanks. They have the reputation of making some of the best casting rods in the business, so of course I made it a goal to try out some. The first Steffen rod I was lucky enough to acquire was this sweet 7'6" 2/3weight beauty.

It's listed as a 2 or a 3 weight, and I love it with a 3-weight Weight Forward line. In my opinion it is just about a perfect bluegill and brook trout rod. It can handle nymphs and small buggers easily, and it loves dry flies, poppers and foam bodied spiders. The rod loads terrifically in close, yet I can easily cast up to 50 feet with very good accuracy. As I say about most of the fly rods I own, this is one sweet rod!

 

Make sure you check out Steffen Fly Rods!

Rod Love: Baby Poop Edition

I really am not trying to brag when I say that a quick estimation of the past 10 years of my life shows that I have changed approximately 4 billion dirty diapers in that time span. Again, I am not trying to brag, I just want you to know that I am well qualified to know the color of baby poop, which is the exact color of this next rod in my Rod Love series, the Cortland Pro-Crest.

Vintage Cortland fiberglass rods are not what you would call high-end rods. But they do have a following in the fiberglass fly rod world. It seems as though the Cortland FR-2000 rods are most peoples' pick of the litter, but I prefer my Pro-Crest 7'6" 5/6wt rod. As soon as I made one cast with it in my yard I knew it was one of the smoothest rods I had ever held. And I don't care if it is the color of baby poop, it's beautiful in my eyes...

Early Pro-Crests came with a metal ferrule. Later on they came with a tip-over-butt fiberglass ferrule, which is what my rod has. Both versions came in the same color scheme, which some people find off-putting. I say who cares what a rod looks like, as long as it can cast!

Rod Love #4: Diamondglass

I don't know if I have adequately written this in my past blog posts: I love fiberglass fly rods. I love the way they flex. I love the way they cast. I love their inherent understudy lot in life: not as high-brow as bamboo and not as tech-savvy as graphite. I love the way they load a line. I love the disparaging looks I get from other fly fishers when I talk openly about my love for fiberglass. And I love the fact that my casting stroke doesn't have to have pinpoint accuracy to get them to cast well, even though it does have pinpoint accuracy...

That brings me to yet another post in my Rod Love series. In this one I will rave about my Diamondback Diamondglass 805/3, which holds all of the attributes that I discussed above.

Diamondglass rods, especially the older black rods, have picked up a sort of cult following within the already cult-like world of fiberglass rod aficionados. Made for a few years in the early 2000s, it can be extremely difficult to find somebody who is willing to part with one. And for good reason. They are wonderful casting tools that are smooth yet surprisingly powerful. They don't feel soft and whippy like some glass rods, but they also aren't extra stiff like most graphites. They are some of the best glass rods ever built.

A lot of people believe that the best rod in the Diamondglass lineup was an 8' 4wt. I hope to cast one of those some day, but for now my only Diamondglass is the 8' 5wt. I wanted a high-quality 5wt rod that was packable, and boy did I get one. This thing is so smooth I can't even describe it. Usually I would say it is buttery smooth, but butter doesn't do this Diamondglass justice. Maybe super-pureed liquid butter... However you want to describe it, it's one of the nicest casting rods I have ever owned. And its looks exude class. Kind of like it's wearing the fly rod equivalent of a tuxedo. And the thread wraps are its dark red cumberbund...

Since it's such an attractive fly rod, let's look at some pics, shall we?

Rod Love the Third: Old School Sage Glass

A couple of days ago I read through a thread on one of my favorite fiberglass fly rod forums, in which people were answering the question "What one rod would you choose if you could only have one rod?" That question got me to thinking about fly rods, specifically my fly rods, and I quickly came up with an answer. It was good that my answer came quickly, because if I had thought about it for much longer I might have changed my mind about 5 or 20 times... The one rod that I own that can handle pretty much any situation I put it in is my beloved Sage 476SFL, a beautiful old school glass rod that is as sweet as can be!

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 40 years, you should know that Sage is probably the leader in technologically advanced graphite fly rods. Their current rods probably are more technologically sound than my smartphone, and anglers across the globe love them. That's all good and fine, but I prefer their older rods, especially their LL series of graphite rods from the early 90s, and their SFL series of fiberglass rods from the 1980s.

That brings me to this edition of Rod Love. My Sage 476SFL is an awesome casting tool. 4-weight rods are probably the perfect trout fishing rod, and my 7'6" Sage glass rod is no exception. It has the finesse to cast a small fly at short distances, yet it has the power to launch streamers and big nymphs on large water. It loads and unloads smoothly, and somehow my fly always ends up right where I want it. Or at least as close as someone with my casting skill can get it... It's not noodly like some other glass rods, and not too stiff like most of the newer graphite stuff. It's pretty much perfect!

It can be hard to find old school Sage glass rods, but I would suggest you keep on the lookout. If you can find one I am sure you will love it. I also have heard rumors that Sage may be coming out with a new line of glass rods...That should be interesting, if it actually happens... As I mentioned earlier, Sage is at the forefront of graphite rod technology. It will be fun to see how they use that technology with fiberglass.

Rod Love Jr.: Scott F803/3

This is the second in my Rod Love series of blog posts. Again, just like on the first post, don't let the name Rod Love turn you into a dirty bird. This is about one of my awesome fly rods, not some sicko perv story, okay? Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about fly rods!

Actually, just one fly rod, my Scott F803/3. This beautiful rod was built for the Sansui Company's 100th anniversary. I know that because it says so right on the rod. Sansui is a Japanese company that used to make audio components and now sells televisions. I am not sure why Scott made a rod to celebrate the Sansui Company, but in the long run, who really cares?

This rod is sweet! I wanted a longer 3-weight than I had, in order to help keep my backcasts out of the weeds when I fish in small, overgrown brook trout streams late in the season. And so I can make some longer casts while fishing for panfish in any of the thousands of lakes around here. It does both of those things perfectly, and it also throws a beautiful tight loop, just like all my other Scott rods. If you have never had the chance to cast a Scott glass rod, get up off of your davenport right now and go find one! They are some of the sweetest casting tools you will ever lay your hands on.

It's also good looking! Scott has made glass rods in several colors over the years, including yellow, brown, and black, but this is the only model I have ever seen in this deep burgundy color. Maybe they only made these for the Japanese market? I don't know...

Scotts are some of my favorite glass rods, and this F803/3 is a wonderful addition to my arsenal. I Love this Rod!

Favorite Creek

The Trout Season has been open around here in one form or another for almost 9 whole months, and in all that time I hadn't gotten over to my favorite stream yet this year. I really did not want to have to go into the winter without doing so, so I took the day off of work yesterday and hit it. My plan was to hit my fave first, and then head to a nearby brook trout stream in the afternoon. I wasn't sure what to expect since we have gotten quite a bit of rain in the past couple of weeks, but I was cautiously optimistic that the water would be in good shape. When I got to the first stream it was obvious that it had been up and out of its banks recently, but now just had a slight tinge of color in it. In other words, perfect!

My favorite stream...

Action shot!

There are not many reliable insect hatches on this stream, so I figured I would be fishing subsurface all day. The night before I had tied up a bunch of my Mushroom & Swiss Buggers and devised a new caddis pupae thingy with a CDC hackle. I love adding CDC to my nymphs, as I have written about before both here and in Fly Tyer magazine, but I had never done a caddis nymph with CDC. I was excited to see what the trouts thought of it.

CDC Caddis thingy...

A nice brown on the new caddis pupa thingy

I started the day with my new caddis imitation, and it didn't take long to see that the fish really, really liked it. I caught about a dozen in the first 45 minutes, all browns ranging in size from 6-12". After that first hour the water started to rise and get a little dirtier. The fishing turned off for a while.

A beautiful, brand new Mushroom & Swiss Bugger, ready to get chewed to bits.

This fish kept swimming up on the wet bank after I tried to release him. He should have followed the arrow, but he's a fish...

An old guy strolled by and watched me catch this modestly sized brown, then he insisted on taking my photo. At least I look good...

I was just about to call it quits and head over to the other creek to fish for brookies when I decided to switch to the Mushroom & Swiss. Right off the bat I hooked a nice brown, and then another and another and another. And a dark and fat brook trout. All the fish seemed to be in a hurry to fatten up. Maybe they were getting ready for winter or the spawning season or they hadn't eaten much when the water had been high and muddy, or maybe they have trouble pushing themselves away from the buffet, like me... Whatever the case, the fishing was so good I never did make it over to the brook trout stream. I am not much of a fish counter, which is good because that means there is no way for you to contradict my claims, but I would say I caught upwards of 60 trout throughout the day. All browns with the exception of the one brook trout and 2 chubs. And all of my Mushroom & Swiss Buggers were either lost or got completely chewed up.  I guess it's time to tie up some more!

Last fish of the day.

My last Mushroom & Swiss Bugger at the end of the day... It was a good run!

Gear Used: Unstructured Glass 804-4 fiberglass rod, Lamson LP-1.5 Lite reel, unnamed green biot-bodied CDC-hackled bead-head nymph size 12, and Mushroom & Swiss Buggers size 8.

Rod Love, Part 1: Unstructured Glass

I guess, if you think about it, Rod Love could be a good name for a porn star, but I am not a dirty bird like you, so that never crossed my mind... Instead, I think it's a good name for a blog post about an awesome fly rod. As I have often said and written, fly rods are the coolest tools ever invented by man, so I might as well write about them, huh? The first rod in this series is an awesome 8' 4-weight Unstructured Glass beauty.

You may not have heard of Unstructured Glass rods. They are built by a terrific rod builder/educator/music composer/blogger in Boston named Vladan Milenkovic. Vlad builds rods made out of fiberglass, graphite, and even a fiberglass/bamboo combination. His rods are innovative, to say the least. My 8' 4-weight rod is unlike any other glass rod I own. It is more powerful than any other 4-weight rod I know of, yet the tip is surprisingly supple, so short casts can be made with a deft touch. When I recently took it to a glass rod casting session that was put on by my local Trout Unlimited chapter, it got more raves than any other rod I brought. Several people could not believe it was glass, and others could not believe it was a 4-weight. It is truly unique, and awesome.

Beautiful thread wraps.

Here is what Vlad wrote about this exact rod on his blog: "This was a demo rod for The Fiberglass Manifesto loan program. It is in remarkable shape. While the rod cloth has few small stains, the rod almost looks unfished. This series of rods really went "under the radar." A true 4wt medium fast taper, blonde glass. Exceptionally nice quality flor cork handle, burgundy micarta seat w/bright hardware (tapered ring), and hand-painted "brookie spots" artwork by my signature wraps. Matching color guide wraps with red single turn thread inlays. Guides are original Belmar-style Mildrum stripper and Snake Brand snakes and tip top."

The awesome Brookie Spots above the cork, and Vlad's signature wraps.

The super cool linen micarta reel seat insert. Don't feel bad, I had to look up what micarta is too...

If you would like to check out some of Vlad's other work, head over to his blog at https://rodcatalog.blogspot.com/. It sounds like he won't be selling his Unstructured line of glass rods any more, but he has tons of other cool stuff to read about.

New Vs. New

I am a fan of fiberglass fly rods, at least in some line weights. Once you get up to a 7-weight or bigger I think graphite is superior, but for 6-weight and under, I prefer glass. I like it's buttery smooth feeling and the way you can actually feel it loading and unloading, unlike some of the new super-fast graphite rods. I am a glass junkie!

I got my start in glass with vintage rods, for two reasons. First, because when I got into glass there weren't many rod makers building glass rods. And second, the older rods could be had fairly cheaply. My first glass rod was an old 5'6" 5-weight Eagle Claw rod that cost me under $20. It was short, but boy, could it cast. After that Eagle Claw I got old rods from Fenwick, Garcia, Heddon, and many others. Within a short time more and more modern rod companies started offering glass rods. And, in the last few years there have been a bunch of low-cost modern rods showing up on the market. Most of these rods are made in China or other foreign lands, but hey, a fly rod is a fly rod, so who cares where it was made. Am I right?

UltraGlass 8' 5WT 3-piece

Aventik 8'1" 5WT 4-piece

I have been especially intrigued by a couple of rod brands that have popped up: UltraGlass and Aventik. Both are readily available on ebay, are made in China, and cost somewhere around $100 or thereabouts, including shipping. I felt as though I was in need of a 5-weight pack rod, although I probably didn't actually need one, but since both UltraGlass and Aventik make one of those, I decided to try them both and see which one I like the best. Both arrived this week, so let's do some casting!

To start my tests, I used the exact same reel (a Lamson LP-2) and the exact same line (a brand new 5-weight WF line from Maxcatch) on each of these two rods. And the rods are set up similarly, as well, the only difference being the Aventik is an inch longer (8'1" vs. 8').  I took them out in the yard next to my office and gave them a go. I should state that the yard next to my office is always windy, as there is very little shelter around and the wind comes howling off the wide open soybean field across the road. That was the case today when I did the testing.

The first thing I can say is that these two rods have very different actions! The UltraGlass is very fast for glass, possibly the fastest glass rod I have ever cast. And it has some power! I was casting 60' casts fairly effortlessly with minimal exertion. Most of my casts while fishing are under 40', though, and the UltraGlass did not seem all that capable of making the shorter casts with any delicacy. It was quite difficult to make shorter casts at all... The less line I had out the more the rod felt like a broomstick. Maybe that would be solved by moving up a line weight to a 6, but since it's labeled as a 5, I wanted to use a 5.

The Aventik rod had a much more fluid and slow action to it; it was an action that I preferred. You could feel it flexing and loading, like most other glass rods. And it loaded easily with 15-20' of line out. I could still cast for distance, like with the UltraGlass, but the closer casts felt much better with the Aventik rod.

As far as aesthetics go, both rods were finished very nicely, and come with quality accoutrements. High quality cork grips, nice wood reel seats, and neat guides and thread wraps came on both. The Aventik comes with single-foot guides, which aren't my favorite, but they serve their purpose so I will try not to complain too much. Both rods come with nice, sectioned rod bags and cordura-covered rod tubes with carrying straps. It's pretty amazing to me that these nice touches are included on such inexpensive rods...

All in all, I like both the UltraGlass and the Aventik rods, you know, because they are fly rods and all fly rods are awesome. But for my taste I would rate the Aventik higher on the castability scale. The UltraGlass feels a little too much like graphite for my taste. If I was looking for a nice 6-weight rod, I would think the UltraGlass might be perfect, but I am not, so I would choose the Aventik. If you have a chance to try either of these rods, let me know what you think!