So I made it out to a little known casting pond this evening to finally put this rod thru it’s paces.
With company curiously looking on, I tried various rigs that I’ll be using for trout later this summer, including royal wulffs with a nymph dropper, a Chubby Chernobyl- dropper combo, size 10 BH woolly buggers and lastly just for fun some warm water poppers.
In summary, this 3 wt rod handled all of the above really well.
The wind was a little gusty at times and the gusts would certainly interfere with the casting because, well, it’s a 3 wt, but aside from the wind this rod handles everything impressively well.
When the wind was still, 30-50 ft casts were pretty easy and felt good even with a chubby chernobyl - BH hares ear dropper.
It seemed to like it best when I let the backcast extend ALL the way out and then accelerate smoothly at first and then more quickly to the sudden stop with a little haul thrown in on the forward stroke. Nice extension of the line in the air with a 5-6 ft leader and then a nice soft landing on the surface.
All in all, this is a beautifully tapered blank and I’m looking forward to using it to go after trout.
I highly recommend trying one out for yourself.
Ben, if you’re out there checking in from Holland, thanks for building a fantastic blank buddy.
* Even the little guys put a really nice bend in this blank.