I Can Cast! I Can Cast!
Another one of my silly threads. Aren't you glad I came to this forum?
I don't know if you remember (or care) I was going to fish streamers all the time. I think I made a thread about it, but I don't remember if it was this forum. (senior moment)
Anyway, I had bought a DVD by Kelly Galloup on fishing streamers for trophy trout. It was pretty interesting and pretty appealing to me in a non traditional way of fishing. I guess deep down I still want to catch fish Big fish! Sorry for my weakness.In the DVD Kelly mentions he uses a St Croix Legend 9'6wt rod. So, of course I had to find one on ebay and win the auction. I always win, even win I don't want to. Anyway, I found one that was fished one time for less than half price of a new one.
Then I got guilty and decided to fish small streams with dry flies. Just like the old days. Although I think they used wet flies in the old days. Whatever. Meanwhile the rod shows up today, and my plan was to just sell it while I waited for my little 3wt Winston. That was the plan anyway. When I took the Legend out of the case I wasn't impressed. Compared to the Winstons and Scotts i've owned the St Croix was just average looking. I wasn't impressed with the fit of the sections either. I didn't even think they would hold they were so short and didn't fit that tight.
I said what the hell. I might as well cast it. I paid for it. I don't have a 6wt line. I put a Wulff TT 5wt on the reel and headed for the park. Right away I could feel it was much stiffer than anything I had cast so far. Even the the Scott S3. However the line was zooming out there in nice tight loops. Whoa! Who's casting this rod? It can't be me. The most i've ever cast before was about 45 ft. I was casting the legend 70 ft with what seemed like no effort. It was like I was just flicking it out there. What I really liked was the line was straightening all the way out and landing soft. Up until now my cast would land in a clump with the fly not much further than the end of the line. I tried short casts and the same thing. Right on target with the line straightened out. I could never do that with Winston BIIX, WT, Scott G, or Scott S3. In different weights and lengths. Even though I don't feel the Legend load at a short distance. It still goes on my target and lands soft better than the softer rods for me.
I bought what I thought was a streamer rod, and it seems better than all the other rods that should be better at shorter casts. Can I use a 6wt rod as an all around rod? I can tell it will blow the other rods away in the wind. It should better for streamers and larger fish. Dries and nymphs?? Will it work? I got this same impression with the S3, but it was no where near as good as the Legend. I wish the Legend was a more high end rod so it looked better, but it casts so nice for me, that i'm looking past it. It's also so cheap I can buy a couple of backups.
What do you guys think? Can I use this as an all around rod, and what will it feel like with a 6wt line? It sure feels good with a 5wt.
Geez, i'm a blabber mouth. Sorry..
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