The blank is Gary Loomis Classic 9’ 4 piece, Fast, 6wt.
Reel seat is aluminum, repurposed from a broke rod.
CFX Full Wells and CFX Ice rod Butt
Guides are Black REC Ceracoil strippers and REC Snake runners.
Picked up a TFO NTR to tie it all together.
Haven’t done anything with other a few yard casts in some fairly stiff wind, but it seems to carry good loops and was getting out about 60’ with my clouser test fly. I’ll get it out on the water one day this week hopefully and see how it does in the real world.
Sweet rod! My brother built me that exact rod this spring - try it with a 7 wt line…it is a bit of a cannon! I liked it better with a 7wt bonefish line than a 6. Right now it is lined with a 6wt Rio Outbound short and casts really well also. Oh, and the matte grey finish is just cool!
@MikeCockman - how hard was it to get that reel seat off of that broken rod? I have a great reel seat on a broken G Loomis rod that can’t be salvaged. Would hate to throw that seat away.
@MaverickMA it really depends on build quality, and what materials were used for the arbors. What I usually do is stick em in boiling water for few minutes, to soften things up a bit. I’ve had some come right apart and I’ve destroyed others. This one being aluminum wasn’t to bad.
@nehrke & @Smackdaddy53
Thanks for tips. I’ve currently got a BTT 6wt short on it which is about 1/2 size heavy, I guess, at 173g. It seems to like it, but again I’ve only yard casted it a few shots. It’s definitely a fast tip though, with a stiff mid.
The review. For those not interested in reading a lot.. I’ll summarize with, It’s bada$$.
Ive got a short head BTT 6wt line on it,(177 grain I belive) with a 9’ leader. 30/20/15lb Ande mono. The fly is a #2 hook Weightless shrimp.
It’s a rocket.
No wind, it was reaching the 70’ neighborhood, possibly more, but I forgot to mark the line so I’m estimating based on the distance I was seeing with my marked 8wt.
Throwing into the wind, roughly 8mph, it easily got out about 60’. Side winds were tough on it though. The accuracy really suffered because the wind just had its way with the fly, but that’s to be expected.
It’s accurate, carries tight loops, light as heck and gives good feedback. I don’t recall dropping any loops, and never got a “wind knot”, other than the sideways wind casts. Still no knots, just lost its steam.
The Recoil (Cera coils) still give that vibration squeal on retrieve same as the regular Recoils do.. Unfortunately. I had really hoped the inserts would quite that down.
This is my first Carbon grip fly rod, so I didn’t know what to expect, but I have a few casting rods with Carbon split grips, and I really like em. So I went with it. On this rod, they do give a good feel, but sound hollow. Not a big deal, they just don’t offer that cushion felling, both on sound and feel, that cork gives.
The reel, although not a tibor/atlas ect.. Handled the little Red just fine. For an under $200 machined reel, with a LT warranty it’ll do just fine. I don’t foresee me having a reel sell and converting everything over though.
Overall the blank is.. to quote today’s youth..fire..
The only thing I might would do differently is skip the inserts and go with regular Recoils. I would also like to try single foot guides as opposed to snake guides, just to simplify the build process, but the snakes function just fine.
Guide sizes are as follows.
First Stripper is a 16 which is a 12mm inside diameter,
Second is a 12 which is a 10mm ID.
Snakes are #1s
Overall I’m extremely happy with it, and would not hesitate to recommend the blank to anyone.
Would you put cork on it after using that carbon grip? I tried one w carbon one time and I didn’t like the feel, but maybe because I’ve been using cork for 50 years!
Idk. It’s 50/50, I reckon. I don’t dislike it.
But Overall, I think I like Cork on the fly a little better, maybe.
I love the Carbon on my casting rods, but cork just feels more pure on a fly rod. If that makes sense.
I’ve got the carbon handle and seat on a 6wt I built, and I love it. I don’t know if it is lighter, but it feels lighter in the hand and the difference between the carbon fiber and cork is noticeable. It may be a bit stiffer, now that you bring it up. I like it better for heavier wt rods and I intend to build an 8wt using it.
@KeithS yes. Definitely stiffer than any other grip. Weight wise, I’d say lighter than cork, not sure vs EVA. But possibly.
I love em on my Casting rods, and it’s not that I don’t like it on my fly rod, it just feels kinda idk.. modern may be the word I’m looking for. Hard to describe..lol..
Spent a good amount casting this lil 6wt today. This little rod is badass. My first trip out, I didn’t mark my line, so my distances were guesstimates. But I remedied that.
So here are the results with a marked line.
Small lightly weighted Shrimp fly on a 9’ leader, with a short head BTT 6wt line.
With No wind I was seeing 85-90’ tight looped shots. Accuracy was pretty spot on, even at those distances. Had to work a little bit to get out 90’, but 70-80’ was easy peasy. Decided to see what I could do without adding in any hauls. 60’ was the norm with a few reaching 70’, however accuracy wasn’t that great and the loops weren’t super tight, without that extra hand on the line, but man what great lil rod.
I was more or less just throwing it to see what it’d do, and getting a little more aquatinted with it.
Overall I’m beyond impressed with the performance of this blank, I just wish their the customer service was better.
