Robert's Build #100 Dispatch

Last week Robert Tucker, the most fortunate winner of the Graywolf Rods Build #100 Giveaway, sent along a note and photos from his first trip out with his new fly rod.

Robert wrote...  "Thanks again for putting together the Graywolf#100 giveaway.  The package was waiting on my doorstep when I got home on Friday, August 17th and I took it fishing two days later on Virginia’s Smith River tailwater.  The Smith River is notorious for slow, flat, clear water and it's persnickety wild brown trout.

 

I matched the rod with an older CFO III and WF5 Wonderline and the handsome blued sliding band on the Lemke reel seat was a tight fit.  I began fishing in a light rain under overcast sky with waves of mist rolling by.  The rod is smooth and I could cast a #12 foam beetle on target against the bank with authority.  The browns lived up to their snooty reputation, and I hooked three and landed two in about two and a half hours.

 

That changed suddenly when the water became dingy from tributary run-off, and a steady hatch of small olive mayflies rang the dinner bell.  I tied on a #22 olive foam post emerger and life was good for the next two hours when I landed more than a dozen browns and missed another half dozen.  The Graywolf Rods Build #100 was delicate enough to land the fly softly and accurately in feeding lanes and protected 7x tippet without fail.  And it may be the most fun rod I’ve used to play and land trout in the 7 to 14 inch range.  I have no doubt it could handle bigger flies and bigger fish as well. I’ll leave that for next time out.  As Bogey said in Casablanca, I think this is beginning of a beautiful friendship."

 

Robert...a beautiful friendship indeed.  Continue to enjoy, and fish often, Build #100.