Back the Brookie/Brush Rod Design - Please Give Your Opinion

[JackM]

What is the best house for a family? One family needs a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, another family only a 2 bedroom, 2 bath. Some prefer a two story, some prefer a ranch. But what do people who invest in rental real estate purchase? They buy a 3 bedroom, 2 bath split-level. I would recommend applying the same principle of building a rod that can be used by the majority and represent the smallest compromise possible to those with particular interests. The result in my mind is a 7'-7'6", (7'3" would be perfect), 3-4 weight Medium action rod. Use a 3-weight line and have a medium fast action, a 4-weight line for a slower action. Some people love banded reel seats, some hate them. No one complains about a standard wood insert seat-- choose one of those. Uplocking/downlocking, not a big deal to most anglers, choose the style that is least expensive to maximize the profit for the donation. There is my 2 cents. Good luck with the project.

 

[troutbert]

Ohio,

It's great you are doing this. If you are going to do just one rod, I recommend a 7 1/2 ft, 4 wt, fast action. I think that's the most versatile brookie fishing rod, i.e. the best to have if you are going to have just one.

It's short enough to fish in tight places, but has enough punch to make long casts in the longer pools. And you do get some long pools on brookie streams.

And you can fish anything from small dries to big bulky dries and weighted streamers.

I cast a 7 ft, 3 wt St. Croix that had good punch to make long casts and throw big dries and streamers. But I think that's about the limit for a versatile, all around small stream rod. Anything lighter, shorter than that isn't very versatile IMHO, and becomes a highly specialized rod. Not that a 6 ft, 2 wt wouldn't be fun to fish sometimes and a nice addition to the arsenal, if you already had something like a 7 1/2 ft, 4 wt.

BTW, where did you take that picture?

 

[JoeE]

I don’t know much about the tiger-eye blanks. However, 5’ 3” to 6’ is a good length for small streams. One or Two-piece rods are fine I don’t have much need for too many 3 piece rods unless that rod does a lot of packing trips (but with that length 2 is still good). I would stay in the 3 to 5 wt line weight. The action is okay moderate to moderate slow that’s okay for plastic. On short rods I like cap and ring or sliding bands (blued or black hardware) and cork or wood insert.

PS. FamerDave, Never did find the nodes on a graphite plant myself, so it must be easier to split, taper and glue I guess.


Joe E