Anticipation

I’ve got a new fly rod on order. It’s expected to be here tomorrow. The anticipation, the excitement, this is even better than Christmas. I had been mulling over the thought of getting a new rod for a few months now. Ever since I saw that Redington was redoing a couple of their rod lines as well as introducing a new rod and reel, my interest was piqued. To keep it fair, I looked at a bunch of rods from other manufacturers and compared them. I looked at 9 weight rods either 9 or 10 feet in length. I was steering more towards a fast action, since I already own a medium action 8/9wt Redington RedStart. I ended up ordering the Redington RedFly2 9′ 9wt rod. I bought a two-piece rod since compactness will not be an issue when using this rod. This rod will probably be fished from a boat quite often, and mainly used for walleye, pike, and the occasional muskie. This rod should also have a little more backbone than the RedStart.
I decided on the RedFly2 due to the fact that it has a limited lifetime warranty. The blank is a blend of 51 and 42 million modulus graphite. It has an anodized aluminum reel seat, AAA grade cork handle, and comes with PacBay aluminum oxide stripping guides. These features are commonly found on rods over $250. I found this rod for under $100! You’d be hard pressed finding a better deal for the money.
I’m excited to fish this rod. I’ll most likely fish the rod with either a 9 wt Rio Clouser line, or a Mastery Wet Tip, Type V sink. There’ll be a lot of monster flies being cast with this rod, many in the 8-12”+ range. This 9wt might be overkill for the walleye, but would be a blast to fight if I tied into a big toothy pike, or even a muskie. This rod might even be the ticket for catching carp, drum, channel cats, and monster buffalo.