Time for another product review! Our friends at Risen Fly recently gave me the opportunity to test out their new prototype rod the ITB. It is a 9ft 5wt rod that is listed as a mid flex rod. I have a great deal of respect for Ryan and the company he has created so I was super excited to get this rod in my hands and see what it truly offered. I was pleasantly surprised to find it packed away in a cool triangle rod to prevent it from rolling around when your in route to water. I was also impressed with the price point of this rod priced at $140 including the rod tube and a lifetime warranty it puts it in very comparable to a lot of the Temple Fork rods that never offer the tube with the rod.
The rod is a nice graphite in a bold burnt orange color with brown/orange wrappings that give it a very unique and cool look! Well after finally getting it lined up with some Risen Fly Alpha line and pairing it up with the Risen Fly Ichthus fly reel it was ready to hit the water. Colder temps being in the area I figured my best chance to get the rod into some fish was on the Elk River.
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| Elk River Brown |
I put it in some different situations to see how it would cast and handle flies and from nymphs, to streamers, and even dries it did great. The browns even enjoyed the buggers we were swinging by them. The rod casts very smoothly. It truly feels like a nice midflex rod with good action with some good sensitivity I am a fan of rods with a lot of action and full flex I was impressed with the action of this rod it felt noodly enough to where I like it but yet gave enough back bone to lay out a good cast and handle some weight with streamers or nymphs. Casts in the 30 range are a breeze and munch longer are not bad either the rod handles all situations! Having had it out several times I am pleased with how the rod handles with all types of conditions and ready to put it to work on some bass and blue gill action. For the price of this and the warranty as well as the type of people they are at Risen Fly you can no go wrong with the price tag and value of this rod! Check them out online at RisenFly.com they also offer some awesome reels, fly line, and boxes all at great prices.
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| Photo from RisenFly.com |
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| Photo from RisenFly.com |
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| Check out our good friends at risenfly.com |
