The FF85 is a great fly rod.
Mine works well with the Barrio Mallard DT8F line.

Thanks for posting that Russ Chatham interview; it never gets stale. He reminds me of one of the grumpy old men in the balcony on the Muppet Show, and that is just one of many reasons I admire him.

Although I no longer own a heavier-weight FF85, I really enjoyed casting it with a DT7. It would huck a muddler minnow clear across the windy North Umpqua canyons with ease. Made me feel like a much better caster than I was.

Thanks, Bud, for the interesting Chatham interview; I ended up watching the whole series. And thanks to everyone who shared their experiences with the rod and their line preferences.

When I'm going to do some test-casting in the yard, I string up my rod outside the garage doors, then walk into the back yard. As I'm walking, I false cast the few feet of fly line that's outside the tip to keep the leader from dragging on the driveway.

My very first impression of the FF85 was that it was heavy in the hand, but there was something interesting about the way that little bit of line was aggressively zipping back and forth... I was just casually waving the rod and it was driving tight loops in that short line, like it was chomping at the bit to cut loose with some long casts. Turns out it was! :-)

I'm going to try it out in the boat tomorrow, fishing for bass on a local lake. I have a feeling that I won't be too enamored with the weight of the rod. What I'm really looking forward to is trying it out on the striped bass on Cape Cod. On last year's trip, I caught a LOT of fish but the vast majority of them were larger schoolies. I would have loved to have put down the graphite nine-weight and fished a fiberglass eight. I'll have that option next spring.

Thanks again for all the input,
Bob

FF 85

I spent the afternoon and evening out on the lake with the FF85 and was happy to find that the rod's weight was not an issue. I landed several nice largemouths, got bit off by two pike, and lost the largest fish of the day just as I was putting it on the reel. (The southern end of Lake Champlain is very muddy and I couldn't tell what I had on... I only knew it was a very large fish that needed to go on the reel. It spit the hook. It could have been a big channel cat, pike, bowfin, freshwater drum... I'll never know.)

I have a new favorite bass rod!

Tight lines,
Bob

My rod is an "H" marked "7-8-9" and "4 1/8 oz." I haven't tried it with a 9wt line, but I have tried a WF7F and WF8F and prefer the 8wt line so far.

I think the rod is a lot of fun to fish. It almost feels like a graphite rod in the way it shoots line. With a fish on, it definitely feels like glass. The way it casts vs. the way it fights seems almost paradoxical to me. It's a favorite of mine, for sure... one of those rods that makes me smile.

If the lighter, 3 3/4oz 6-7 version performs similarly, I'll be on the lookout for one.

Tight lines,
Bob