Supplimental Info
Good stuff, Mike.
To fill the gap, here's what didn't work well.
Anderson 1265: 375 grains on the 1265 Anderson was not enough to load the rod and 450 Skagit was too much.
News Flash! Here's an email from Gary in response to my asking his opinion: Ron,
I am glad that you like the rod. It was one of my personal favorites. There is quite a bit of middle ground between a mid length CND and a Rio skagit. If you want to use real 15' sink tips then a 400 grain skagit would work for me. If however you just want to use sinking poly leaders I would use a 400 gr. Beulah or a 400 gr. New ACR Steel Head line. that will be out in about two weeks. I am gone right now doing a show in Bellevue WA. If you want to talk more please call me at my shop after Feb. 10th. All Good Things, Gary.
ARC steelhead line? Sounds like Gary may have a line coming out in a couple of weeks.
ARC 1287: WindCutter 7/8/9 was a bit heavy, overpowering the rod when casting for distince, but castable with a slower, modified stroke, just not very pretty.
ARC 1308: WindCutter 7/8/9 casts admirably. However, heavy/bulky flies are work to cast. Also, you can throw away the sink tip compensator tip 2 in the Versitip pack. It goes out, but it goes out ugly and way too much work. Not a good option in my opinion. At least on this rod. But all the sink tips work great, as does the floating tip, as long as the fly has a profile with little resistance in its design.
The TFO switch is a beautiul looking rod. I can't believe the quality of work that goes into it. Handwritten rod info on the blank and a cork grip that looked like a custom lathed job to me. Really striking. And RIO's AFS shooting head on this rod is like casting air. Using a slow easy cast more similar to a skagit stroke than long belly stroke, a laser beam cast is generated that pierced the headwind we were casting in.
Sage 6126: This is a top-heavy feeling rod. I would not want to cast it all day. A nice caster, but I'm certain there's better choices in a much lighter feeling rod. The Z-Axis of similar specs was much lighter feeling.
A big thank you to Mike and Ryan for meeting me at Sailor's Bar to test out rods/lines. Lots of fun and good info learned and exchanged between us.
Hope this helps out anyone having similar interest.
Ron
Last edited by WinterrunRon; 02-09-2009 at 12:11 PM.
fly: Very light artificial fly fishing lure of which there are two types: the dry fly which isn't supposed to sink the way it just did; and the wet fly, which shouldn't be floating up on the surface like that. An Angler's Dictionary.
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