The last time I wrote about my 4-weight rods was about a year and a half ago. You wouldn't think much would have changed in that short timeframe, but that's because you don't buy and sell fly rods with as much fervor as me! Few people do...
I love fly rods, and for some reason I have a deep yearning to try every brand of fly rod ever created. Or at least every fiberglass fly rod ever created! As I have mentioned before, I believe the fly rod is the coolest tool mankind has ever created, and if it's made out of fiberglass, it's coolness is multiplied by at least a billion. And if it's a fiberglass 4-weight, the coolness is beyond determination. I love me some glass fly rods!
Since 95% of my fishing is for trouts and sunfishes, 4-weight rods dominate my quiver. A good 4-weight can handle every sized fly I might ever find myself using while fishing for trouts and sunfish. Therefore, I own a large number of awesome 4-weight rods. All of my 4-weights are made out of fiberglass, and range in length from 6'9" to 8'8" in length. Some of my rods are the same as last year, so I won't go into great detail on those. Instead, if you want to read more about them, check out my previous 4-weight rundown HERE.
In order of length, going from shortest to longest, here are my current 4-weight rods:
6'9" Tiemco Fenwick DeLiar. This one literally just joined my arsenal. I have been wanting to get a Japanese Fenwick rod for a long time, but things didn't work out until now. This short 4-weight is super sweet, and a perfect rod for the tight brook trout creeks around here.
7' Vince Cummings Superlite. This is one sweet rod, that is surprisingly powerful for its size!
7' Steffen Bros. Green S-Glass. An extremely rare green Steffen glass rod. This casts as well as their more traditional reddish-brown rods.
7'2" Scientific Angler System 4. A classic, and as sweet a caster as everyone claims it is...
7'5" Chris Barclay 75P. I wasn't sure what I would think of this parabolic beauty, but I quickly became a big fan. Plus, with the ventilated grip, you can feel it flexing!
7'6" Scott F754/3. This rod is so sweet it hurts! It might be my favorite rod of all of them...
7'6" Sage SFL476. This is a fast and powerful glass rod. I recently heard that it was made to also throw a 5-weight line, and I believe it could do that easily...
7'6" Winston glass. As I have written about before, this belonged to one of my favorite customers at the fly shop I worked at, and I feel lucky to own it.
7'6" Hardy Sirrus Sintrix. These rods supposedly have some graphite in them, along with the fiberglass. Not sure, but it is a sweet caster!
7'6" Constable of Bromley Sceptre. This is a new acquisition for me. If you spend any time on the Fiberglass Flyrodders Forum you will hear glowing reviews of Sceptre rods. I have only had this out in the front yard so far, and it rocks. Not sure what I think of the bright yellow wraps, though...
7'7" Tiemco Glass Master. I got this last fall, and had the chance to fish it in October. It is smooth and crisp, and casts beautifully. Plus, the very first fish I caught on it was a big ol' slab of a rainbow, so that was fun.
7'9" Larry Kenney 794. This is another new acquisition. Larry was the first employee of the Scott Rod Co., and he brought all of his rod-making expertise to his own company several years ago. Just like all my Scott rods, this rod is awesome.
7'9" McFarland Dirty Martini. I am not sure if "Dirty Martini" is the name Mike McFarland gave these rods, or if it is a nickname given to them by the masses, but this rod is sweet. I acquired the blank early last year, and my friend Greg built it out for me (or, to be honest, his daughter did all the wraps). She did a great job!
7'10" Scott F794/4. I have a thing for Scott glass rods, and if they are maroon in color, it's more of a lust. There, I said it.
8' Unstructured Glass. Vlad Malenkovic made some truly awesome rods, and I was extremely fortunate to have this one fall into my lap a few years ago. Smooth, powerful, and beautiful, this rod is a favorite go-to for me.
8'6" Bozeman Reel Co. prototype. Made by Dusty Smith, now of Livingston Rod Co, this was an early prototype rod for the Bozeman Reel Company, which has now gone back to only selling reels and not rods. This thing is truly awesome. Light and crisp, and good looking too!
8'8" McFarland S-Glass. This is one of my most recent acquisitions. This rod comes with a great reputation, and when I took it out in the yard last week, I was booming casts all over the place. It is going to be sweet!
Those are the rods. My 4-weight reels have changed up a bit, too. I now have 6 of them, and my goal when putting together my reel selection was to have light, medium, and heavy reels, as far as the actual weight goes, so that I have at least one reel that balances with every rod. When rigged up, I like the balance point to be on the top half of the cork, or maybe just a little up the blank from the cork, and these reels allow that to happen on all the rods.
From lightest to heaviest, they are: Martin LM45(WF line), Martin LM45(DT line), Ross Evolution 1.5, Ross Rhythm 1.5, Lamson Radius R2, Hatch Finatic 3+.
Come back soon to see my lineup of 5-weight rods!
