Just beautiful Fred!
-Steve

Looks fantastic Fred. Love the gray agate.

What will they retail for ?

Very nice!

so pretty, with a no-nonsense look. the bar is raised again. btw unlike many, i love fishing a six weight! and my favorite blank color too. built on mcfarland glass?

Nice, style and class in that build.

I can't tell you what it's like, but it is not slow.

It is a 6 wt that has a nice but significant swing weight. It is similar to other general purpose rods of Fred's. I have a Lemondrop 4wt which can cast a 5wt well but fishes a 4wt well. I have a butterscotch (or is it brown) 4wt that is what Fred would call a "Wrister" which is for close in fishing for tight quarters East Coast streams. I will let Fred describe what water he would fish the 6wt on, but I would guess the Au Sable and Delaware. Bigger water, bigger flies and bigger fish.

In my opinion, Fred's rods aren't meant to be lawn cast but fished. They perform great on the water.

Fred, thanks for commenting.

I prefer a heavier swing weight in a fishing rod, so I like that you dialed that into the design. Truth is I am not familiar with Dickerson 8014 and I know squat about taper design. The thing that strikes me though, is the 4.5 tip. On a rod of this length and line weight I would have expected more like a 5.5 or so tip. Maybe just me showing my ignorance of tapers...

Sounds like a very versatile rod and I hope to someday give one a try.

Excellent job man... I like your hardware so much !

Paolo

I cast all of Fred's signed series last year and fell for the 7'0" 5 wt 2pc immediately and bought one. It is easy to figure out what all his rods want to do very quickly. One reason is because each one is very close to rated line weight. So many rods aren't. Even the good designers call it close enough at half a line weight away. Fred's tapers are spot on. I know because I also tried some of them with half weights up and down and in all of those cases, the rods were closer to the rated weight than the half weights. Also Fred's new rods just work the way you want them too. You get the feel right away like you've used them before. The rods also cast up close with a foot of line out and out to about as far as you can cast because they still feel like there is something left in them when your casting breaks down. There may be individual rods from different craftsmen that are as good as one of Fred's rods. There may even be one you might even prefer over one of Fred's rods but ALL of Fred's new signed series rods are keepers. If you were to have a fiberglass fly rod shootout in each weight and length configuration that Fred offers, his rod would come out in the top three every time and he'd get votes for first from somebody every time. For instance, his 7'0" 5wt is the best 7ft 5wt I've ever put in my hands, but I still prefer my 8'0" 4/5 3pc. Steffen over his 8'0" 5wt (but not by much). The point is this. You can just buy the length and line weight of a Paddock signed series that you want, and I mean any one of them, and you won't be disappointed. The only thing I don't like about my Paddock 7'0" 5wt 2pc is that it's white. It should be brown dammit! And to add to the anguish, he's now come out with a nice yellow color. I think he did it to spite me. Ah well, maybe someone that loves white will trade with me.

As long as I'm off on a tangent, might as well shoot for escape velocity. I plan to fish this one mainly with a Cortland DT7 Peach. Any suggestions as to reel for the Paddock?

I use a Pflueger Medalist 1494 (pre-war with drag plate) for the 867-3, but I use a WF-7-F line. A DT-7-F may require a little more capacity...