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I promised that I would post a review of the CTS 763-3 after taking this rod out over the summer. First, I should say that a 3-weight is a specialty rod in my quiver, and the rod got most of its use on smaller streams and headwaters here in Montana. I fished it on feeders to the Clark Fork, the Yellowstone, the Bitterroot, and probably one or two more I'm forgetting, but it isn't my go-to line-weight (I usually fish the 4-6 weight range). For me, it works very well as a western-U.S. 3-weight, and I like it a lot in that role.
In my hands, the rod has a very smooth, moderate action. I have no issues casting in close with the rod, especially at the 15-20' range. That said, I do prefer my glass on the faster side, especially since I do nearly all my fishing out west. When I said earlier in this thread that it casts well at distance, I did mean distance for a 3-weight, in ideal casting-lawn conditions (no wind, no obstructions, etc.). In those cases, I could get 50-55 feet in distance, without too much in the way of accuracy though. Really, 15-40' is my range of use for this rod. In normal fishing conditions, I find that it's got to backbone to push out medium-size chubbies (i.e., size 10), but it's also progressive enough that it loads well when casting in close. What matters most to me is the versatility because, in a few hours, I can go from windy, more open spaces to brushy tight spots, all on the same stream. It does all those things well, but if I were fishing more on the closer end of that spectrum, or didn't have to worry as much about wind, I might consider other tools more suited to that specialty. It will certainly handle those conditions well, but probably not quite as well as some others would. That's probably true for fishing smaller flies too. It is more than up to the task of tricos, BWOs, midges, etc., but there may be slightly better tools if those are your primary flies.
I've been fishing this rod with a Rio Gold in the 3-weight. The Gold is 30% heavier than the standard difference between a 3-weight and 4-weight, so it's slightly heavy but not overly so. The long belly of the line is also helpful--at 45 feet, I only get into the running line on the casting lawn with ideal conditions. It fishes very much like a double-taper line at those distances. I haven't tried it with any other lines yet (I had the Gold prior to building the rod); though, if I could buy any line for it, I'd want to compare it with a 406 DT or another true-to-weight line. That said, I wouldn't want to go heavier, and I do enjoy fishing it with the Rio Gold. It's a good match for what I use it for, and, being perfectly honest, I wonder if a true-to-weight line might not be a tad too light for this rod in close. I took it to the Montana Clave this year, and some of the guys from the forum (apologies--I'm forgetting names now) asked to cast the rod, and they really liked it a lot too.
For what I want out of a western 3-weight, it's really, really good. I'm not sure how closely that matches others' conditions, but I'm very pleased with what it does for me.
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Posted: 03 Nov 2017, 07:23 • 
