A few weeks ago, I posted a write-up from Shane Gray of Graywolf Rods on his Rodmaker 24/7 Glass Spey blanks and soon after, I received an email from Mark Erickson who passed along that he had built one of these blanks up and would follow-up soon to share a short review and photographs of his experience.
If your interest is perked on this glass two-hander blank, then read Mark's review below...
Mark wrote... "Here's a quick-and-dirty write up on the Rodmaker 24/7 11' 5/6-weight Glass Spey fly rod I built up and finally got on the river for some angling. I purchased it last fall and took my time pulling together parts and completing the build. I'm an ok-not-great rod builder and went with a minimalist design for the rod. I got the blank in matte clear and built it with a full metal reel seat, off-the-shelf switch grip, and snake guides, all sourced from Proof Fly Fishing. The built-up weight of my rod is 8 oz, which sits in between the 10'8" 3wt and 11'10" 6wt Echo glass Spey rods, which weigh 6.5oz and 9.2oz, respectively. To me, it feels denser/heavier than the two Echos. After I completed it, I did a little lawn casting to check out the balance. I found my Hardy St Aidan reel to be a little too light, so I went with a a Hardy Marquis Salmon 1 reel."
"A few weeks later I got it on the water for a couple of sessions on my annual trip to the McCloud River. I mostly use two-hand rods to throw streamers with Skagit setups, so I went with a 330 grain Airflo Skagit Scout head, 10 foot T-8 tip, and a mid-sized Skulpzilla. This setup is on the lighter end of the grain range that Shane publishes for the rod, but it's what I have so I went with it. I’m no great shakes as a caster, but I had easy time getting this setup to load and fire with Double Spey and Snap-T casts. The rod and reel combo do feel on the heavier side, but the balance feels good to me. A friend who is a much more experienced two-hand caster than me tried it out and said he liked it and thought it would be a good Klamath rod.
On the McCloud, I swung the Sculpzilla through a run that has a deep section up against a rock wall on the far side and I had no trouble bouncing the Skulpzilla off of the wall. I got a couple of grabs and landed a bass of all things. I swung through another run with similar results - a couple of good tugs and something big that I hooked and fought for a while but came off before I got a look at it. There aren’t too many glass trout Spey options out there and the price point of this blank makes it the budget option. I put my rod together for probably about $300 including shipping costs - less than the cost of competing blanks. As a five piece rod, it’s also uniquely packable. I’m looking forward to finding more places to use it, possibly on the Trinity at the end of September skating dry flies or riffle-hitched muddlers for summer Steelhead."
Visit the Graywolf Rods and Rodmaker 24/7 websites to learn more about the Spey Glass blanks and remember to use discount code "TFM15" for 15% off your online order on either site.
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