.....completely different. My go to rods at the moment for 90% of my river fishing are a Grey's GR70 Streamflex 9' #4 and a Wychwood River & Stream 10' #4. Both are good all rounders, with the Wychwood suitable for a bit of nymphing if that's what floats your boat, although when it comes to flies I'm never too far away from an Adams ( traditional or parachute ) or a Black Pennell for subsurface. A few years ago I was priviliged to have a Wychwood Sharpshooter 10' #6/7 passed down to me. This rod, as far as I can see, went out of production in the 90s, but it's a blast on the reservoirs and I tend now to favour it over my 8 weights.
Like most anglers, I can't resist the occasional new toy. I've previously mentioned the Tenkara rod, which still gets an airing, but haven't talked about my retirement present to myself which was a Hardy glass rod. I'd never used a glass rod before, but I saw the rod at half price in a sale and thought it would cut a dash on the river - good for the snob image, don't you know. Mind you, if that's the effect I'm after, I'll have to do something about my beat up old chest waders and fly vest. Hardy made several rods in the range, but this one was marketed as "The Trout Fisher" and was an 8' #5. As you'd expect from Hardy, the rod is finished to a high standard in an attractive dark green with quality cork. I quickly discovered, however, that glass rods are an acquired taste, because the word which came to mind on first picking the rod up was - "noodle". It took me a while to get the measure of the thing, but learning to slow the cast down is half the battle and I find it a good choice when I want to fish dries exclusively in low, clear conditions with spooky fish. But, as for distance, I need to resort to another rod.
There are some stretches of the river near my house which hold good trout but are spanned by low branches which make landing a fish problematic on anything but the shortest rods. To overcome this I invested in a little Shakespeare Agility Rise 6' #3. I always found Shakeys honest, unpretentious, value for money rods ( everyone owns a Shakey ), and this one was no exception. The only problem I had was a Maxcatch WF #3 line which didn't load the rod to my liking. Fortunately, I had an old #4 line lying about - Problem solved. As you'd expect, this isn't a distance tool, but for the places it's intended you're not trying to cast far anyway. Out of curiosity, I You Tubed people using short fly rods to see if I could learn some casting tips and discovered a post with this chap putting out 100 feet of line on a 6 foot rod! Now, what dark magic could he be using? Sacrifices to the river gods, perhaps?
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