Eatfood wrote:
I am pretty interested in the 5 piece for a pack rod....
In the fly shop's reviews linked above (which I thought were very frank and useful for a shop that carries the product line), it seems that, except for the "specific purpose" of backpacking, he (and seemingly everyone else in the shop) really favors the F663-4 on the 3wts. For backpacking, I've always paid attention to section length, and the F723-5 should have a broken-down section length of about 17.5", and the F663-4 should be 19.5". Although the total rod length of 7'2" could certainly be useful over the 6'6", I noticed the description of the F724-4 was pretty complimentary, and it should be 21.5". On my packs, any tube less than 24" is stowable in a way that is really going to stay out of trailside trouble, the rods all seem viable for backpacking, and I'd want to give some time to all three before I chose the FF723-5, and then would really want to be convinced it was the best choice over the others. Especially reading between the lines in the review, if I wanted a new pack rod in the 7'2" length in Scott's glass line, I suspect I'd end up with the F724-4, although one caveat on that is that, although I have several nice 3 wts., I'm sliding towards 4 wts, even when planning on a day of small dries, as just the more versatile choice.
I do wish makers who market a rod for backpacking would provide the length of the tube in their specs; sometimes there's a little unnecessary space in the tube, and it seems like that is just an afterthought to them.