Hi Jason, I would like to thank you for all the help and advice you gave when I approached you re building a new dry fly rod targeted at use on small moorland streams.

The brief was:

• 8'6" 3wt Blank
• Up locking reel seat
• Forgiving tip section
• Full build to weigh below 65g

As you know, the genesis of this build followed from fishing trips to the moors in Devon and finding the “breeze” challenging for my 7’6” 2wt Redington Classic Trout. I did try using a 10’ #3 rod, but it simply didn’t feel right for me. Your solution was to base the build on a Gatti G5 8’6” 3wt blank, and it has turned out to be spot on. I had done a fair bit of research on off-the-shelf solutions, but nothing, apart from a Hardy NSX Ultralite, really came close to what I wanted. I may have gone for the Hardy had it not been a six piece rod. But I could not overcome my prejudice against a standard rod being made of six sections. To be perfectly honest, the ticket price was a bit scary as well.

Picking the components was relatively straight forward. I wanted a tool, not a showy work of art. So, every components was considered on the basis of weight, I even discarded the keeper ring at the last minute to keep the weight down. It has REC recoil single foot guides, REC Cercoil stripper, a Struble U20 reel seat and a premium grade reverse half wells grip. A few of things stood out for me with this project. In my build of a 10’6” FRC Union rod in 2024, I used a high build epoxy. I found it unforgiving and led to a fair bit of anxiety, as the epoxy would cure so quickly. On your advice, with this build I went for a low build Gen 4 epoxy. Again, following your recommendation, I added 1ml of IPA, to 3ml of both resin and hardener for the first coat. In fact I only mixed 0.6ml of IPA to 2ml of both resin and hardener. This initial coat was so easy to apply, as it soaked into the tunnels on the guides without any issues and the cure time was a little longer than the 30 mins for a pure resin/hardener mix. In addition, I could render a relatively thin first coat to the thread element with very fine control. The second coat was a straight 50:50 mix and this time I took the epoxy over the edge of the thread to create the bond with the rod. I again kept this application relatively thin, so the overall finish was quite delicate. On both layers I used a metal spatula to apply the epoxy.

The transformation from the thread colour, Gudebrod Sunburst, to the final application colour was striking. As you indicated, it gave a beautiful translucent dark brown finish, reminiscent of older style rods. It very much met my personal preference for a less showy build and a more traditional vintage finish. The only compromise on weight that I allowed was one of your superb maple reel seat inserts. I felt the Gatti blank and the thread deserved that one piece of understated bling. The final weight came in at 59.5g, under my target by a long way and very comparable with the Hardy. I’ve only used the rod on the Itchen on a couple of occasions, but have been blown away with its performance.

As I like to land fish on the reel with a disc drag engaged, I have married the rod up with a Vision XLV Nymph. It is very slightly heavier than a perfect balance might demand, but I’ve found it to be very comfortable for my style of casting. It casts a 3wt line perfectly and has handled fish up to 18” with ease. I had wondered how the rod would perform from a recovery perspective, as it’s such a fine blank, but have been very pleasantly surprised.

All in all I think this rod is now my most favoured rod to use, even on the Itchen where I usually use 10’ rods to help overcome drag. I can’t say that I’ve tried all the comparable premium branded rods, but I could imagine this Gatti 8’6” blank rivalling their performance and the overall build cost is a fraction of their price. It’s simply a lovely rod to use, a pleasure to own and, to my eyes, a beautiful work of art.

Best regards,

Grant