Hi guys! Just here to follow up:
Im finished (for now) with my Steffen 8056-4 rolled by Shane. Im very impressed not only with the blank but also with how Shane runs his buisness. Very professional, very fast. Thanks Shane!
Im not very pleased with how the wraps turned out, I think Ill probably re-wrap it this winter. For now its time to fish!
The rod is built out with a Lemke LC10 downlocker, a hand turned grip that I made to mimic a 2 digit fenwick, snake guides and size A nylon Fuji ultra poly in color 007, and spar varnish. If I rewrap the threads Ill go back in Fuji color 011 (garnet) and keep black trim wraps to a minimum. Im much happier with the cork work on this rod than my iconoglass 4wt build. The biggest improvement was sanding the front face of the grip back at an angle to produce a nice crisp line between the front face and the barrel of the grip. It will never matter in hand, but it looks clean to me.
The rod balances very well with my cabelas cahill one and throws extremely tight loops with a rio gold wf6 out to about 25 ft. It would easily present a fly with only a few feet of line out. The rod is light in hand , and I would consider it medium medium fast. Its has the makings of a great dry fly rod for everything from hoppers to standard dries and smaller, but I can also feel that it should be happy to move a little bit of weight..
It does go a little mushy around 30' with the rio gold 6wt. It will happily shoot to to 40' but doesnt seem to want to carry the line overhead. Im very confident this isnt a rod issue though. Ill try to get my hands on a good dt6. In the meanwhile, the rod will fish geat with the rio gold. Does anyone have any line advice?
Im excited to get it out one the water. It should get a chance to do some pond bass fishing any day now, and trout fishing as quick as I can get away with. Ill be sure to keep you guys up to speed. Im very sure this rod and the FF70-4 will make a great do it all pair, and I think getting them to agree on a line will be easy.