it was 30 inches at least (notice the rod butt section to 1st stripper guide! thats 30 inches!!!) and thick as hell(notice my hand) with some huge teeth!! revived it good and then decided to start fishing for smallies but got no takers. I did see 3 or 4 tho so they are there! once i got nothing forawhile I hit up the pond for a half hour and got 2 largemouths and a gill. the biggest largemouth i caught was hooked a lil deep and was bleeding a lil but nothing fatal so i went to wash it off for a pic but he got away. here is the pix I got tho. sorry for letting the big fish get away without pix. he was 3 times the size of the bass pictured… seen a beaver or muskrat also in the pond and a few turtles also. the steel came on oregon cheese glo egg and the bass and gill on a white minnow this guy gave me on the river! looked like a clouser but has marabou instead of bucktail and estaz for the body and also some hackle on the front with dumbbell eyes and flash longer than the body to look like a tail
the fly the guy gave me that worked on largemouth and gills and he said works also on smallies and steelies. when wet it have a great baitfish shape.
How do you like that Echo rod? IS it a fast action or what? I am thinking of getting one myself but I am not real familiar with them as I am kind of new to this sport and all of my stuff is low end.
Nice fish! Sounds like you had a great day! 
do not own the echo model but was thinking of getting one at one time. that rod pictured is a 7 wt american tackle matrix blank with a custom aw-12 matrix window seat with fighting butt and orvis battenkill mid arbor IV with some other custom options. got it built by my good buddy steve clark from www.midwestcustomflyrods.com if you want to get a rod tell steve I sent you! he is a member of my forum www.glfishingforum.com and he creates awesome builds that are custom and afforable! I will vouch for him anyday!!! here is some pix of my rod
and thanks for the info. I will definitley try to give him a call as a friend of mine and I are both wanting a fast action 5wt. Again, thanks and God bless.
no problem man!
I want to fish with you, those sre some nice fish and I would love to catch a Stelly, but I live in VA and the best biggest thing here is BAss, I have caught a 21" on a 5 wt Orvis Zero G. God it was fun.
thing we have down here are alligator gar, but I am not sure how to catch the big ones on a fly. The big ones usually get up around 100 to 150 pounds. Maybe it takes a 14wt, I dont know, haha. Would love to catch gar on the fly though.