Gregg's FH Paddock Lemon Drop

Gregg Barckholtz recently posted up a few photographs of his FH Paddock Lemon Drop Series four weight that were shot on a light box on the Fiberglass Flyrodders forum.  I thought that the photos really showed off the top notch craftsmanship of Fred's work and asked if he send along a bit of copy to go with his photographs to share on T.F.M..

Gregg wrote...  "What to say about Fred's rods?  I own all three of the FH Paddock series rods...the Brown, the Butterscotch rod, and now the Lemon Drop.  I almost hate to tell how I feel, because it sounds like a politicians speech, too good to be true, but I just love these rods.  It starts when you pull the rod from the tube, just look at this thing, it is eye candy for the fly fisher.  This has to be the equivalent of a huge diamond ring to a woman!  Every time I open the tube and begin to pull the rod from the sock I am amazed at the beauty.  Really, rods should not be this pretty!"   

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

"Then, every time I string one up, (any of them) I am amazed at the fact that I could cast just the leader!  Every strip of line seems to have the ability to lay a fly on the water with control.  Once about twenty foot of line is out from the Lemon Drop it's personality changes from the others.  It comes to life, load it up, and you really feel the change.  You know then that this is the big brother to the Brown line.  It is a powerful rod, tight loops, and pin point accuracy.  The rod seems to challenge you to shoot line and pick targets.  The Brown line is easy going and the Lemon Drop has an attitude.  Today I took it to the lake and fished it for the first time with a sinking line, a 200 grain Rio Density Compensated Sink Tip.  I was able to roll cast the entire sinking line with ease and shoot more line than I normally could handle with a much heavier rod.

Bottom line, if you want a rod you can put to the test, this is it.  I recently made the switch to glass from bamboo.  I was never really was a graphite guy, started there, but quickly went to bamboo, so I am not used to this kind of power.  I thought I was happy with the soft flex into the cork of the Paddock Brown line, but now I see what else is possible and I LIKE IT!  Actually I love them all...variety is the spice of life."

Fred Paddock has a knowledgeable sense for the tapers that he has worked to achieve and it has been exciting to see his fly rod series come together over the past two years.  

For more information check out the FH Paddock website.