Awesome New Fly Rod

[Ryan Miloshewski]

I love my Echo 3 wt. Have a Redington Rise on it and SA line. Thing casts and handles well for $150. But, with fly fishing, if you have good line you can get away with less-than-stellar rod/reel.

[tjm]

16 hours ago, Flysmallie said:

Maybe glass is the way to go for that. 

I've fished fiberglass since the '70s (interspersed with a few graphite now and then) and think you might find a 7'6" #6-7wt more useful.

In fiberglass the good stuff was made in the '60s-'70s at the end of the 'glass heyday, ideal 'glass rod weights for fresh water were 5-8wts  in lengths of 6'6"- 8'6". Rods shorter than 6'6" make line handling after the cast difficult and 'glass rods longer than 8'6" tend to be heavy. Of the ~20 fly rods I own most are 6-7 wts.  'glass that I often fish with DT5F lines and my favorite lengths are 7'6" & 8', although I have 6'6" #6 that is a lot of fun on the small streams. Those vintage 'glass rods aren't line picky and most will fish pretty well with two weights under or a weight over the guessed at rod line  rating. (there never has been an accepted way to rate rods for line weights) I have favorites made by Phillipson, Fenwick, Heddon and Wright&McGill. I've also had a CGR, Asian Eagle Claw and a couple other offshore 'glass rods that I don't recall being very memorable.

There are some very good modern 'glass that I want to try (Chris Barclay, Shane Gray, Mike McFarland, Epic etc) but they are all  small production and therefor higher priced than I want to pay, and the Asian production 'glass just isn't as nice as the US production rods of the 1950s. 

[Flysmallie]

47 minutes ago, Ryan Miloshewski said:

I love my Echo 3 wt. 

I have one of those. But it's currently a 5 piece. 

[Ryan Miloshewski]

5 minutes ago, Flysmallie said:

I have one of those. But it's currently a 5 piece. 

Ha! I broke the second section of my Echo 6 wt a couple weekends ago. The warranty process was super easy and I already have a replacement for $50 with shipping. Great experience working with them. 

[Flysmallie]

1 minute ago, Ryan Miloshewski said:

Ha! I broke the second section of my Echo 6 wt a couple weekends ago. The warranty process was super easy and I already have a replacement for $50 with shipping. Great experience working with them. 

Yep, it's usually a pretty easy process with Echo. They have great customer service. I've had the same experience with Scott. 

[tjm]

1 hour ago, kjackson said:

a 7'6" Orvis Fullflex glass rod for a 5 weight.

Is that a yellow rod or brown/amber?

I believe  that Orvis "Fullflex", "Fullflex II" and earlier "Powerflex" were Phillipson rods up to (I think '74) when they started in house 'glass and graphite rod production. The Orvis made 'glass then was "Fullflex A" (amber/brown color rather than the painted yellow of the previous Phillipson sourced Fullflex) said to be "faster" than the "Fullflex". But I've not owned a Fullflex and all my Orvis rods have been  graphite.

[kjackson]

3 hours ago, tjm said:

Is that a yellow rod or brown/amber?

I believe  that Orvis "Fullflex", "Fullflex II" and earlier "Powerflex" were Phillipson rods up to (I think '74) when they started in house 'glass and graphite rod production. The Orvis made 'glass then was "Fullflex A" (amber/brown color rather than the painted yellow of the previous Phillipson sourced Fullflex) said to be "faster" than the "Fullflex". But I've not owned a Fullflex and all my Orvis rods have been  graphite.

It's a golden yellow, painted finish, late 60s or very early 70s vintage. After I built it, I put away the Fenwick rod (8' for a 7 wt) I was using even when I was fishing heavy water in the Clark Fork.  

[tjm]

That's Phillipson blank then, very nice rods in my opinion. I have a 7'6", 6'6" & 8'6" of the Phillipson that vintage and like all of them better than the equivalent Fenwick. 

[Brian K. Shaffer]

7'6" 4pc