I just got back from a T.U. banquet where I picked up the above mentioned rod in a bucket raffle. I had been following the thread on the Three Forks 7’6" 3wt for small stream brookies, now I’m obviously going to give the Cortland a try. I was wondering if anyone had used this rod and had any experience with it. I am probably going to be in fishing mostly streamers (#6-12) for native brookies in a coastal stream with alot of brush etc. I will be going to a good local flyshop to test drive some 3 an d 4 wt lines. I am thinking 4wt 444 peach DT might be best to load the rod in tight quarters, but I have a GRF 1000xp 9/10 that was definitely a 9 for me so I figured I’d ask… I also won a Reddington Redstart fly reel 8/9/10 that I’m going to put on the old Cortland 9/10 for my son to use for stripers. I see the catalogs don’t list it anymore, anyone know what they went for?
backbeach, lol, i won that same rod in a club drawing,used peach line and it worked fine ,only fished it in the smokey mountains on small streams.mine seemed to work better with 4 wf.biggest fly was size 16.
I would suggest a #4, either 444SL or 444 Lazer line. I have a friend that has the 6 1/2 CL Cortland rod. Casts really, really nice; however, it doesn’t roll cast worth a hoot - at least for me. Therefore, since you can’t rollcast the thing you’ll be making a lot of short “real” casts. The 4 wgt will load better than the 3 and SL or Lazer line, being stiffer, will shoot MUCH better than the peach line. You can also use a “water load” and shoot line much better with the stiffer line.
Thanks for the replies. I think I’ll go with the 4wt to load it better on the short casts I plan on using it for. A friend who fishes the waters I’m planning on using it on brought up a good point that I might want to cut back on the rear portion of the flyline to put some “insurance” backing on rather than a whole flyline on a 6’ rod that will never cast it all (by me anyway). That makes the WF a no brainer over the DT… Sometimes those creeks produce a big feisty salter brookie and I don’t want to “run out of string”.