Glass Rods

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mudfish marquand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Jul 2019 at 2:25pm
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The Echo River Glass #3 is not a long distance casting rod, and no doubt casting further would have perhaps produced a few more fish. But the little rod more than made up for it with the extra challenge. My idea of fly fishing is to have fun and the Echo certainly provided it. There is something very special about getting out in front of bow wave kahawai, making a cast, seeing the bow wave change direction, charge and swirl as the fish eats. Another thing is you have to keep a low profile and as the fish gets closer, so must your profile. I had refusals on normal pink clousers, but when I went to fluoro pink/white, the takes were furious. On one retrieve, one charging kahawai completely left the water, another had a go and missed, while a third nailed it. Fishing for these fish is world class fly fishing, right up there, especially on the lighter fly rods. Try it and you will find that like me, you will be the one that is hooked. Cheers
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FishMan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Jul 2019 at 3:49pm
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Sounds like great fishing Dick. Middle of winter and you've still got plenty of sight fishing going on
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (1) Likes(1)   Quote Mudfish marquand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Jul 2019 at 6:29pm
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5.0 pounds of kahawai from Matakana Island at the Bowentown entrance. The rod is a #3 Echo River Glass 369-3, the reel a Sage Click III.
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FishMan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Jul 2019 at 6:25am
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Lovely fish Great capture
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mudfish marquand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Jul 2019 at 6:57am
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That kahawai was a real bugger to land. It went so far into the backing, I thought that I was going to be spooled. I was using a 4 pound leader so that was a plus. If I had been using 3 pound, I'm sure that it would have busted me. Quite a strong current at the entrance and I was fishing from the hard but at least the tide was incoming. If it had been outgoing, again, I am sure it would have been a disaster. The biggest problem was at the end of the battle with the waves breaking onshore, not big, but enough to cause a monotonous give and take. There was no way I could ease it to the edge and it boiled down to a lucky shot with the net. I wasn't expecting a big kahawai because the wind limited casting distance to maybe four or five rod lengths and the water was swirled up with sand. Just a heap of lucky circumstances that all went my way. Cheers
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FishMan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Jul 2019 at 8:56am
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Good stuff! Nothing like that point of being so close to landing a good fish but not quite being there yet.

It reminds me of one of my first saltwater fly captures when I was 18 or 19. Used my cheap trout rod that was made out of some extra bendy kind of fibreglass. It had a 5wt rating, but probably was more like a 2wt. Hooked into a nine pound kahawai and spent the next two hours in the gentle surf trying to land it. Eventually the tide came in and started flowing up the river to help me out. I looked for a heavier rod after that
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mudfish marquand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Jul 2019 at 10:26am
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It's pretty special. It's all the hardships you encounter during the fight you crap yourself over that makes the taste of success so much sweeter when it finally comes. They are the fish you will always remember. Bit of a crappy day here but I gotta go to catch the last of the outgoing. Cheers
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote m.d.hoffman@xtra.co.nz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Jul 2019 at 9:34pm
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Great capture Mudfish - how's the Click reel handling all the salt and big fish?
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mudfish marquand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Jul 2019 at 10:22pm
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Good evening Wolfie. The Sage Click III is going really well. At this stage I am finding it a little more challenging than the conventional drag reels, but I'm always up for a challenge. It's a great fun reel and that's what fly fishing is all about. I really enjoy using my Billy Pate Trout reels, they are also a sweet piece of kit and balance the #4 Butter Stick nicely. I have a #5 Butter Stick arriving this month, one of the older yellow models and I'm really looking forward to that.. You'll have to think about another session on the Tauranga Harbour kahawai. Cheers
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mudfish marquand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jul 2019 at 3:52pm
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The sickness continues. Picked up another three glass rods this week, a gorgeous Redington  Butter Stick 580-3, a Leichi Ultra Glass 703-3 and a vintage yellow Fenwick FL102-7. I can't believe how fast the Ultra Glass rod is. The same rod is marketed as Maxcatch but is manufactured in China by Leichi. The Fenwick is interesting in yellow glass. Fenwick manufactured yellow glass blanks from the mid 60s to the mid 70s initially as one piece but later as two piece with the Feralite ferrule. They did this so their factory rods could not be confused with those made on their blanks amateur and professional rod builders. I will put the rods through their paces over the next couple of weeks. Cheers
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Troutzilla Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jul 2019 at 4:34pm
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Originally posted by Mudfish marquand Mudfish marquand wrote:

5.0 pounds of kahawai from Matakana Island at the Bowentown entrance. The rod is a #3 Echo River Glass 369-3, the reel a Sage Click III.
 
Great capture Dick! On a click reel too...
 
It aint no use if it aint chartreuse!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mudfish marquand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jul 2019 at 4:48pm
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Thanks Jeremy.
 
By the way, I heard that Epic may now be going with a Chinese glass rod blank manufacturer. Have you heard anything along this line?
 
Cheers
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Nice Fishing Mudfish,
Ive been having some great sport on the kahawai in my quiet shallow spot the last 2 months, but that's on the 8 weight, cant imagine how challenging a 3 weight would be.
 
looking like ill be out tomoro arvo, might set up the 6 weight.
funny about the pink colour, wonder why!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mudfish marquand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jul 2019 at 6:51pm
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Good evening FISHBYFLY. You should give the ultra light a go. It certainly gives an added thrill, especially on 3.0 pound and 4.0 pound leaders. The fight is far more challenging than a catching a legal king on a #8 outfit. I have found the fluorescent pinks and white flies to be deadly, especially clousers. I tied some clousers the other night, and at the end of the session, I realised that I had tied the colours the wrong way round. Made no difference whatsoever, they were eaten eagerly. Tight lines.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FishMan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jul 2019 at 5:16am
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Any chance of a pic of the fluoro pink clouser Dick? When you start looking at colours on fly tying sites you realise there are a lot of shades of pink out there. Ta
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mudfish marquand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jul 2019 at 5:48am
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Yeah sure Craig. I'll get my son onto it later. They certainly aren't works of art, but they get the eat. I always have them with all sizes of bead chain so that I am able to fish different depths with a variety of retrieves. I must tie and try sight fishing to kahawai using small crab flies. The main food item of kahawai in Tauranga Harbour is mud crabs, followed by snapping shrimps, then cockbullies. I quite often see the kahawai on hunting in the shallows. There is no shortage of food, and being an opportunist, they are a very successful species. The clouser can represent a variety of food items, shrimps, small fish and so on. It's not a fly to blind fish the channel bottoms here, unless you enjoy fighting foul hooked eagles. Cheers
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mudfish marquand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jul 2019 at 5:20pm
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Headed out to the channel this morning to catch the last of the outgoing. I was keen to try out the Leichi Ultra Glass 703-3 rod, Leichi LD reel and get a couple of kahawai for the evening meal. I used a Cortland 444 WF3F, 4 pound leader and a fluoro pink/white clouser. The 703-3, despite being a #3, is better suited to a #4 line, or even a #5. It is the most powerful light weight fly rod that I have ever cast. The LD reel performed smoothly. I picked up two nice kahawai, one contained three snapping shrimps and the other contained one mud crab, three snapping shrimps and nine small cockabullies. I'll try a #4 line on it tomorrow. Photo to follow.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mudfish marquand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jul 2019 at 5:29pm
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The Leichi Ultra Glass 703-3, Leichi LD reel and a couple of eaters.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Troutzilla Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jul 2019 at 5:35pm
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Originally posted by Mudfish marquand Mudfish marquand wrote:

Thanks Jeremy.
 
By the way, I heard that Epic may now be going with a Chinese glass rod blank manufacturer. Have you heard anything along this line?
 
Cheers

I think they are Korean.
It aint no use if it aint chartreuse!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mudfish marquand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jul 2019 at 7:31pm
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Had an interesting session at the channel edge this afternoon for the last of the outgoing. I was using my #3 Echo River Glass, a LeiChi LD reel, a WF3F, 3 pound leader and a plunger micro popper fly. I flipped the fly out a short distance and stripped fly line to prepare to do the first cast, but at that moment the popper fly was eaten off the top. What blew me away was that the kahawai took all the fly line, into the backing and leapt a good hundred metres from me. Unbelievably, the light leader held and after a tough fight, I landed a 4.5 pound kahawai. Cheers
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