[Sandy Nelson]

So here's my main project for 2023.



These are the brand new Steffen Graphite blanks. I'm really excited about these. The originals were first made by the Steffen Brothers (more famous for their glass)  in the late 90's and were 3pc and had spigot ferrules. The original 8ft6" 3/4 is one of my all time favourites.
Wonderful rods to fish with medium actions, butter smooth and really sensitive. Like a lot of 90's carbon rods were, before the casting scene started to push things in in a stiffer direction.

 Shane Gray owns all the Steffen equipment these days , after the brothers retired and he has been updating the graphite range using the original mandrels, but with a modern IM6 cloth and resin combo. He has also changed the tapers slightly to allow for overfit ferrules and to make them a more contemporary 4pc format (he has done the 9ft 5wt in 5pc and is exploring 6pc too)
They are however true to the original actions, think Sage SLT but with a faster recovery and lot less swing weight. Pete Tyjas took one to Patagonia and that how he described it too. Very special for folk who enjoy a 'fishing' rod



I'll have Demos available in various sizes during the season, currently I'm building the 9ft 5wt and 8ft6" 4wt. Pete has bought the 9ft 4wt demo I sent him so I have to get another blank to build that one up (it was supposed to be my rod for the river this year) I have one of each size (except the 904) as they will be 8ft for 4wt, 8ft6" for 4 wt and 5wt's, 9ft for 4-7wt. I'll also be able to get the blanks for folk if they want to build one.



ps. the Troutsmiths NOMAD glass is also something i'm playing with this year and is also very promising in particular sizes.

pps. Adam Rawson has stepped back from rod building and I have acquired a lot of his Glass stock, mostly 6ft6" small stream stuff in 1wt and 2wt's with bags and glass tubes. so if anyone fancies having a go at building something fun, give me a shout, you can have these for what I paid for them, which was a bit of a bargain for top quality glass

[Mike Barrio]

Awesome - lots of nice toys in there Sandy 

[Sandy Nelson]

Some more glass yesterday to backfill the spaces in my own collection which I had dipped into to help out some customers over the winter. I’ve a few ideas for these 

[Sandy Nelson]

The 9’ rods are currently 4pc and Shane is working on a 6pc option. So you may well see one of those soon in a 907 config. It was already suggested to me it would be a good Iceland rod too.
I shall update when the blanks are available.
Provided he gets the format to configure the way he wants it

[Sandy Nelson]

Finally got the 905/5 demo completed.
Casting on the grass it’s just lovely, smooth and crisp, light and responsive and you would never know it was a 5pc. Kept it simple with black Pearl recoils and single colour silk, black pearls have silver tips so I tried to get a colour that tied in with the galactic style insert . Demo spec 

[Mike Barrio]

Looks great Sandy 

[James Laraway]

looks really nice, even though it's a dirty  carbon stick 

[Sandy Nelson]

Some folk like it dirty 

[Kerry Jordan]

Sage don’t like it dirty - from their Core Rod spiel -
“Increased purity of graphite provides even more reactivity and sensitivity, shifting energy further down the blank and into the handle”.
Whatever that means …

[Sandy Nelson]

 

Amazing the BS that marketing guys come up with, must have run out of superlatives that describe actions and fishing qualities.
I guess when you up the prices to over a grand for a trout rod, you need to justify it somehow.

[James Laraway]

yeah, they'll be paying some marketing company hundreds of thousands of $$$$s to come up with a load of nonsense -and then will have to add a few % onto the price of a rod as a consequence....

Why anyone would pay about £1000 for a mass produced rod just boggles my mind. Why would you do that when for half to 2/3rds of the price you could get someone to make a hand made custom rod to your own spec ? Madness..... ( unless you have so much money you don't really care of course - but even then id get a custom one made..)

[Sandy Nelson]

Have given the 905-5 a good workout with Nymphs, Dries and even articulated streamers on a fast sinking tip streamer line.
Extremely impressed. Smooth, controlled and bends nice and deep with a fish, a proper quality piece of kit.



The 864-4 is also a delightful dryfly rod, way better than lot of the rods that are heading towards double the price.
R&D can be a lot of fun

[James Laraway]

that's a lovely looking swimcoach......drool.....

( the rods ok too i guess)