Glorious morning, cooler and drier outside than in - a rare treat for s. Texas mid-July, but didn't last long.
Got out to Cibolo at 7:30 and home at 10a. When I hiked the ridge back to my truck it was already in the 90s - but dry.
The dinosaur tracks at the trailhead

I went the wrong way, heading first up the creek to fish back down.
The creek is way down, only a few cfs, and Herff Springs was dry.
The wide, deep log jams were tepid and horrible with hair algae.
That pinned my up-creek trek, and I stepped in to fish a few slow bowls.

Here was a spot where the rod shined, Long casts into tight overhang.

Chris, if fishing close is your goat, look for that Airflo in 6-wt - it's still a little fast with the 5 until you get some line out, and close roll-casting was not good, though it picked right up with 10' of line out.
Didn't even try the BPS 10-m DT5 - already knew it wasn't going to work.
Caught a few green sunfish, and not sure why my camera decided on a long exposure here - it was flashing everywhere else - oops

So I busted out and hiked way down past dry Herff Springs, to get to the flagstone runs at the bottom.
Here was where the rod was a joy - 40' roll casts, continuously into the structure on either bank - a little A-strain endemic bass followed it in once.
The flagstone was loaded with schools of fingerling endemic bass - it's just their parents weren't here.
This water fishes great at 15 cfs or more.

I should have begun here, because by the time I got here, the park was crowded.


At the very bottom, where a mesh fence blocks even casting, finally saw my quarry - 3 really nice endemic bass ran from the last flagstone shelf into the cover of No Trespassing.
It's OK, the guy who lives there donated a half-mile of creek, all the Boerne City Parks, and a 1500-acre wildlife preserve.
Here's what I was hoping to catch, A-strain endemic bass.
But it was a good outing with the rod, and that finishing stroll down the flagstone with long roll casts made my day, anyway.

It's only 22 mi from my drive to Cibolo, and is the best fit nearby for this rod.
Other places where the little rod would shine are the Sabinal/Frio confluence, and the Guadalupe forks in Hunt, but either of those are a 100-mi drive and most fun when you can make an outing with a few friends, eat lunch at Hermann Son's Steakhouse in Hondo, or Mamacita's in Kerrville.
Normally, I would pick the water for the flow and weather, and the rod for the water - this was a case of picking the water for the rod.

I'll also add here that haul was very important on this rod - it was the only way to feel the rod load.
And the coast air came back in this morning, but it was still nice getting out on the bike at 73 degrees.

Radding, good question. IDK. Maybe someone here does. Here is what I've noticed. All of the factory built/wrapped rods end with an "R", at least up to the 1956 catalog and likely longer. All of the Blank rods end with a "B" and all of the Kit rods end with a "K". Various accessories model numbers end with their initials; Ferules "F", Grip Accessories "GA", Reel Seats "RS", etc. Why did they not print the "R" on factory built rods at some point, even when the catalog listed an "R" after the model number. My best guess is, at some point, they just stopped printing the "R" on the rod because it was not needed, but it is the same rod listed with an "R" after the SN. Again, just my guess. And, I'm not sure what the "R" stands for.

Sandman

Ron, below are the fly rod pages from the 1955 catalog. The 645 was the shortest fly taper they offered. Relative to Radding's question, note the R, B and K suffixes.

Sandman

Thanks Sandman. Now I know that he considered my rod as "dry fly".

Did Gladding use Harrington mandrels, or resin recipes, Harrington made machines, or did they just use the name? To me the Gladding rods don't show any "Harnell" at all. But then I've only seen pictures of them.