[Dutchfly]

Hi all,

Anyone know of a 10 ft 3 wt, 4 pce blank with a medium fast action (as far as fast goes with this line and length...)?
Thusfar the only one I've found is a rod by Ken Sawada, but that's a 2 pce (well, 9'8" #3, the KS AC Imago).

CU

Jeroen

[Hamish Young]

Quite a few #4wts around Jeroen but #3 a wee bit scarce 

I'll see what I can find, but Sandy & Mike might be able to turn up something 

[Mike Barrio]

Hi Jeroen

That is a very interesting request

I'm curious ......... what do you want to use the rod for Jeroen? What fishing situations, or tactics?

The reason for asking is, as you know, I have spent a lot of time experimenting with what might be considered "longer than usual" lightweight 3 to 5wt fly rods

By far the best that we have managed to produce from our research and development is the current Barrio 9ft 4pce 3wt. "The best" being that this rod is superb for the river and small stillwater dry fly, spider and small nymph tactics that we were looking for.

BUT: We have built other prototypes and some of these are very nice fly rods. Although these prototypes did not turn out to be better than our current rod for the situations and tactics that we were looking for, some of them would make grand fly rods for other applications

Tell me more about what you are looking for
Best wishes
Mike Barrio

[Sandy Nelson]

hi Jeroen

As Mike says we've pretty much exhausted the world as far as lightweight blanks go.
I haven't come up with a 4pc 10ft 3wt, We did try a 10ft6" 4/5 wt that was 4 piece, it was great with a DT4, the two blanks we got to play with i have just built up as complete rods and will be offered for sale soon, See Mike if you are interested. Its very light and pretty quick for such a long rod, Really nice to fish with especially off a boat (the reason for trying it) we might keep it up our sleeve for the future.
The demand for the 9ft 3wt is keeping me too busy to build additional rods at the moment, unless they are Bamboo Then i can get some real fun.

A long time ago Bruce and Walkers made a few rods for Geoff Bucknall, i think they were 10ft 2/3 wts not sure how many pieces, i tried to get one to try a while ago and was told it was not available to the general public.

cheers

Sandy

[Hamish Young]

I had a thought on my way into work...... Snowbee ZR2.
Don't think it's a four piece though, 3 piece I think  and getting your hands on a blank could prove 'tricky' but if my recollection is sound then it does come as a 3/4 weight ten footer, only reason I thought of it was I quite fancied one myself at one point 
Only note of caution is the ZR2 is/was the replacement for the (coughs loudly) "fragile" Zircon series 

[Dutchfly]

Thanks guys!

We'll be fishing the lochs in Sutherland again next year (Rhiconich Hotel). Last time we were there, some days we had all the weathertypes Scotland has to offer: bright sunshine and 24 degrees celcius, followed by rains and storm and then back to the sun again, all within 2 hours or so. In those calm conditions I felt there was no need for my more or less standard outfit 10 ft 7 wt. A 5 weight will do in those conditions, but I think a 3 weight will bring the best out of those small but strong trout.

Now, the rod I use in the Dutch polders is an Orvis Western 9 ft 3 wt I build back in the middleages (1989 or so). It can cast a decent line, is sensitive enough on small fish (in the polder I love fishing for rudd on a dry fly; we call them poldertrout) yet it has the backbone to land a carp within the hour

But it's 2 piece, so not very handy to bring to Scotland in a plane or to make long hikes with. Plus, 9 ft is nice, but sometimes just that little extra reach is handy because in the polders there's usually a lot of weed where you don't want your fish to go into.

So that's the story behind a 4 pc 10 ft 3 wt rod. I'll use it for my standard polderfishing and, in the right conditions, 'extreme loch style.'

Now the biggest challenge is finding one!!!

CU

Jeroen


PS I know there are a lot of 4 weights out there, but for some reason, I always fish with odd lineweights. Hmm, that could be a new thread right there

PS2: Thanks for the tip, Hamish!

[Mike Barrio]

Hi Jeroen

That's what I thought you might say

If you haven't found something before you come over, you'll have to try one of our 10ft 6" prototypes ........ I think you will like them

Best wishes
Mike

[Dutchfly]

Hi Mike,

I must admit I'm curious! Not sure though if we'll have the time to test the rod, given that's a long drive from Aberdeen to Rhiconich...
But there's still a lot of time to figure something out.

CU

Jeroen

[Mike Barrio]

Hi Jeroen

Will send you a PM

Best wishes
Mike

[Iain Cameron]

I had a thought on my way into work...... Snowbee ZR2.
Don't think it's a four piece though, 3 piece I think  and getting your hands on a blank could prove 'tricky' but if my recollection is sound then it does come as a 3/4 weight ten footer, only reason I thought of it was I quite fancied one myself at one point 
Only note of caution is the ZR2 is/was the replacement for the (coughs loudly) "fragile" Zircon series 

Hamish is correct, the snowbee ZR2 is a 3-piece, 3/4#wt, 10ft.
I have the ZR2 model. it's very soft and slow, so isn't ideal for longer, precise casting (at least, not it my hands it isn't...)  -- however, it's a great river rod for czech nymphing style, or for unorthodox casts in awkward places, eg flipping line upstream using the current's drag to bend the rod, or for roll casting. THe extra length also helps when mending the line, or keeping the line off of the surface. 

cheers
iain

[Sandy Nelson]

Out of interest

I came across this today while following a thread elsewhere.

shop.siman.cz/

Check out the Maxia range of rods, there is a 10ft 4pc 2wt   i bet its rather soft though, some other interesting configurations on there too.
Czech nymph specialists

Sandy

[Andy Wren]

hi Jeroen

As Mike says we've pretty much exhausted the world as far as lightweight blanks go.
I haven't come up with a 4pc 10ft 3wt, We did try a 10ft6" 4/5 wt that was 4 piece, it was great with a DT4, the two blanks we got to play with i have just built up as complete rods and will be offered for sale soon, See Mike if you are interested. Its very light and pretty quick for such a long rod, Really nice to fish with especially off a boat (the reason for trying it) we might keep it up our sleeve for the future.
The demand for the 9ft 3wt is keeping me too busy to build additional rods at the moment, unless they are Bamboo Then i can get some real fun.

A long time ago Bruce and Walkers made a few rods for Geoff Bucknall, i think they were 10ft 2/3 wts not sure how many pieces, i tried to get one to try a while ago and was told it was not available to the general public.

cheers

Sandy

Sandy those Bucknall rods are called britewater .
I have the 8 ft version ,my regular chalk stream rod especially grayling .
Geoff does nhold a stock of these blanks in various lenghts ,contacting him could be hard as the phone number I had no longer works !

[Sandy Nelson]

Cheers ACW

Whats the rod like? I've read about them and they dont sound quite my cup of tea
But the thinking behind then is exactly my thing, thats why i was always interested in finding out what it was like, 9ft is about my limit though, i'm not comfortable with much longer although i can see the worth to some folk

Sandy

[Jim Doyle]

for sale on the completefisher forum at the moment are 2 10t 4wt sceirras for £99.99 each.  jim

[Sandy Nelson]

I had one of them for a while

Great rod with a WF3F but i already had a better one (9ft 3wt), so it never got used

Went to a good home though

Sandy

[Sandy Nelson]

I found another 10ft 3wt when i was in Norway

Guideline do a 10ft 3wt Le-cie, i believe it may be new for 2008 in Scandanavia but may reach these shores
I also came across a Loop Greyline 11ft 4wt another interesting rod and very different to the ranges you see in the UK.

I noticed they have a lot of lightweight trout rods across the sea, but then they dont have a rainbow culture and much of the fishing is in hill lochs and smallish rivers for trout (the bigger rivers are very much salmon orientated), the flies in the flyboxes for sale were different too, more like what i would find in my own box or what many of you fish. Mostly small dark imitative patterns.
Lots of cool materials but thats another thread

Sandy

[Dutchfly]

Cheers Sandy. Any experience with the Streamflex rods by Greys? I noticed they have a 10 ft 3 wt out this year. None of my local tackleshops have the rod though so no idea what to make of it..

CU

Jeroen

[Hamish Young]

I've used one and it's a very nice rod indeed, A+ 

[Sandy Nelson]

Hi Jeroen

I had a wee go with the Streamflex 10ft 4wt last year.
It was a nice 3wt ,from memory. I found the streamflex range to be a little too soft for my liking (lacking a bit of backbone), but well made and a very nice product. I would say Try one first (might be tough from what you're saying), I cant comment on the 3wt i havn't tried one.
Somers in Aberdeen do them, when you are over here

Not much help i'm afraid

Sandy

[Dutchfly]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Hopefully I can try one at Flyfair, next week. Cortland also has a 10 ft 3 wt and they will be there.

CU

Jeroen

[Hamish Young]

So what you end up getting then Jeroen 

[Dutchfly]

Well.... nothing yet, really . The Greys rod is not my cup of tea and I haven't had a change to test the Cortland rod. One thing I've found out however is that I don't really like 10 ft rods. From now on, I'll stick with 9 ft. And as for using a 3 wt on the lochs, I did bring one when we were over a couple of weeks ago, but it never left the hotelroom... The 5 weight was my go-to rod, although I had to use the MSJ Sandy build me (7 wt) a couple of times, because of heavy winds.

CU

Jeroen

[Sandy Nelson]

One thing I've found out however is that I don't really like 10 ft rods. From now on, I'll stick with 9 ft.

Me too , i much prefer 9ft rods, i have yet to find the advantage of 10ft for the style of fishing i do.
I found no benefit on a boat either, certainly the control a 9ft'r affords is worth far more than any extra dibble,anyway i can always raise my arm

Sandy

[Andy Wren]

Sandy , re Britewater blanks !
Geoff Bucknall is now residing some where in Teesdale .
Someone round there might help you contact him .
Last time I spoke to him he still had a stock of blanks .
Several mates have had the 10 footers and are very happy ,one of them is a champion multiplier caster so hard to please !

[Rob Brownfield]

Now thats interesting, coz I have found a 10 footer to be an advantage when deep wading..but then again, I am using heavy outfits and the back cast can drop towards the end of the day when i am getting tired.

I did have an 11 foot 4/5 weight that I bought some 20 years ago for a trip to Leven..but it was sooooo windy in never got used for dibbling. I did use it for fishing the roadside bank at Saugh as it allowed me to back cast over the top of a high fence

Having said that, my favourite rod of all time was only 6 foot long