NEW ROD AND REEL

As a Christmas present this year my mom and dad got me a new rod and reel.  It is almost the same as the one I put on my wish list a while back.  My parents gave it to me in sections, mom handed me a rod tube that said Redington in white letters.  After I had put it together and started waving it around mom tossed me a box.  It felt like a reel box and when I took the wrapping paper off, it was the reel I was planning on pairing with this very rod.  So there it was the basic rod and reel I wanted for months now.

If you go the the wish list and look at what I wanted I also had a fly line picked out.  The same day I got the rod and reel my brother, dad and I went to Bass Pro where I used some Christmas gift card money to get the exact line I had been reading about.  In one afternoon I went from having a self built combo on paper, to actually having it in my hands.  There is nothing like getting a new rod and reel, it is an amazing feeling to hold a new outfit and dream of all the trout it will land.   This combo will be landing many wild and native trout because it is a 3wt, and will stay on smaller waters most of the time.

Now the day after all this excitement I took it on a little test fishing trip.  The waters were all cold and aside from a couple skittish brook trout and some suckers they had no fish in them.  I really just wanted to test the line and rod as a pair.  The cast was very smooth, and the line lifted off the water very easy.  These two worked amazing together for all kinds of casts, false casts, roll casts, and even a shot cast I use in tight spots.

The rod is a Redington Pursuit 3wt.  The rod I was looking at in my wish list was an 8 footer, but this one is a 7 foot 6 inch which in hind sight is probably better because of how many small streams I tend to fish.  Also the shorter one is a 4 piece where the 8 footer is a 2 piece rod.  The 4 piece rod is better because most of these small streams are back country and require a hike.  Now about these 4 pieces, when they are not put together casting and catching fish they are tucked away in a smartly made rod tube.  This tube has a built in divider which keeps all 4 pieces from rubbing and hitting each other.  The whole thing is a nice little package and it will travel very well in all kinds of traveling situations. 

Now for why Redington, well it is a simple story and it only took 8 or 9 years till I owned my own.  Somewhere around 8 or 9 years ago in upstate PA my family was on vacation with my uncle and aunt.  We were spending a morning fishing a lake  that my uncle said had been stocked with trout earlier in the week.  I took my fly rod, and fished all morning with not so much as a missed hook set.  Sitting on the bank I watched only one person land any trout, and it was an old man who was fly fishing.  I went to the truck for a snack and he was at his van with his fly rod.  Much like I would now I went up to him and started a conversation.  He drove an old Chevy van that he took the back seat out of and replaced it with a couple drawers.  He opened the bottom drawer and he had six fly rods lined up in it, and then showed me the 5 drawers above it and all were lined with rods.  Among these rods was a Redington he spoke very highly of, comparing it to some of his bamboo rods.  He let me cast that rod and I missed a fish or two on a swimming nymph pattern he later gave me.  Ever since that day I have been reading about the company and its products.  I am thrilled to now have my own and I am excited to land that first trout on it.

Now I can not remember what reels this old man had in his van, but reels never really had my attention.  That being said you can not have a rod without a reel.  I have always been a fan of a simple look to my reel.  In a search for something simple but built well and made with quality materials I turned to G Loomis.  G Loomis is known for their rods much like Redington, but both make reel.  Their reels have never been the standout, but from everything I have read they are as high a quality as the rods these companies make.  I looked at Redington, most are mid arbor reels but I wanted this rod to look much more simple.  A couple years back my brother bought a G Loomis Venture 5 it is a simple look, but has some edge to it.  It is a gold reel and looks very simple.  The Venture series is simple in all respects there are three reels in the series.  The Venture 3, 5 and 7 each number corresponds with the line weight it can hold.  So I got the G Loomis Venture 3 and it is a perfect fit to my rod.  The weight and balance of the rod and reel is amazing.

This just leaves the line, and I am not a line tech guy so I went out on a limb with why I picked this one.  Lots of reading and asking questions lead me to Rio Lines, and once I was there I was steered to Rio's Trout TL.  This line is made for "delicate presentations" as their ads says, and all the science talk to back it up.  As I fished the empty waters near my town I decided to put a dry fly on to see if I could see a difference in lifting a dry fly off the water.  These are all things that this line is clammed to do better then the next line, and you know what, it does a wonderful job.  The difference is not something that someone who does not fly fish would notice but I saw it and hope it makes a difference when a finicky trout is checking out the presentation.   





 My new outfit has me very excited and as soon as I get my CT license I will be finding a small stream to fish.  The last picture is one of the rod on its first trip, I hit up two streams and caught no fish.  This trip was a success for the simple reasons that I got a chance to test the rod and line on the water.  Thanks for reading along and check me out again later to see what else I came home with from my parents house.





-Bruce