Epic epically expensive

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Any of you guys have experience with epic fiberglass? Are they really worth all the hubbub and money?

 

[moon1284]

I have no experience with an Epic. I have a 7' 3wt 3pc glass rod I built on a Fred Paddock Lemon Drop blank. This is by far my favorite glass rod. Other glass rods I own are a Lami yellow 703/3, a Scott F84 (old brown glass 8'4 5wt), and a Kabuto 805/3. I'll explain the connection between the Lemon Drop and the Epic below.

I don't know for sure, but I strongly suspect the Lemon Drop blank was designed by Fred P, and manufactured by CTS in NZ. Epic blanks are designed by Epic and manufactured by CTS in NZ.

My gut feeling is yes, the Epics are probably that good. I've never saw a bad review of an Epic (or any other blank manufactured by CTS).

 

[gfen]

 

[salvelinus]

I have the 7.5' 4 wt. built by Shane Gray. It is an exceptional rod. There are carbon and glass rods that cost more, just as there are carbon and glass rods that cost less. Does a $500 rod fish five times better than a $100 rod? No. But I appreciate the craftsmanship of a custom rod and the Epic does everything I want it to do. I would highly recommend Cameron Mortenson's rod loan program on The Fiberglass Manifesto. Plenty of high end rods to try out, only you can determine if they are worth the hype. All it costs is the postage to send it on.

http://www.thefiberglassmanifesto.blogspot.com/p/loan-program.html

 

[CPR]

Since I'm not a rep from either company I won't say in certain terms but it seems likely to me that Epic blanks are made by CTS. You can CTS blanks for less money but you don't get the "cool" factor that Epic has manufactured.

http://ctsfishing.com/

The CTS Fiberglass blanks are the Quartz series. I have built several and in fact the rod featured on the CTS site is one of my builds. (second image in the main slider).

 

[paragon]

I recently purchased a Blue Halo and fished it on Penns last weekend. I have to give my highest recommendation to them. It was probably the best customer service experience of my life, and the rod was awesome. I don't have a ton of glass experience, but it was everything I hoped for. The full flex on the rod made landing fish exciting. The recovery time was much quicker than I expected. This made it possible to throw big stonefly double nymph rigs with the same ease as a sz 16 rusty spinner. I could really feel every subtle tap on my fly and felt more connected with the fly than I ever have.

 

[whheff]

Take a look at Steffen brothers out of Flagstaff. I built an 8' 4/5wt on one of there glass blanks and I love it.

 

[turkey]

whheff wrote:
Take a look at Steffen brothers out of Flagstaff. I built an 8' 4/5wt on one of there glass blanks and I love it.

+1 to this. Mark designs and rolls all his blanks in house. Very nice tapers.



As far as Epic goes, does anyone know where their tapers come from? Are they stock CTS Quartz tapers? I honestly don't know. I do know that you can order any CTS blank to your exact specs and they'll save the order number for you. If you like the taper you can order the same exact thing later. The only shame is that it costs $40ish to ship to the US.

gfen, is that the Fonz? nice pic.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Was in at dream weaver custom rods in elizabethtown, he did some awesome restoration work for me, and he had 2 cts blanks. He is 100 percent positive they are made by the same place.

Nice blanks, nice looking, good feel but still kinda stiff for my taste.