3-weight Echo Glass Switch Rod

The 3-weight Echo Glass Switch rod arrived Monday in perfect condition. While I haven't yet had a chance to fish with it, I set it up and have experimented casting several different lines on the lawn. Since I plan to use it exclusively for single-hand and two-handed overhead casting, I didn't try any spey lines or scandi and Skagit heads. My other switch rods cast best with lines one or two AFTMA weights above the designated rod weight, and this one is no exception. It casts both weight forward and double taper 4-weight lines well, but for my style of casting and the rivers I will be fishing, I liked a double taper 5-weight best. The rod doesn't feel over loaded and produces long, tight-loop casts with little effort.

Although the overall rod weight doesn't seem much heavier than an equivalent graphite rod, the glass construction distributes the weight closer to the tip, and the rod balances best with a somewhat heavier reel than I might use on a graphite rod. The same is true of my Echo Glass 12'4" 6-weight spey rod, which balances best with a fairly heavy reel of around 13oz. That rod casts extremely well for me with a Rio 390 grain scandi head, a 10' AirFlo Slow Sink poly leader and 5 feet of tippet, and I have caught several good trout with it.

I am very satisfied with both my Echo Glass switch and spey rods and will use them frequently for trout here in Colorado. They are a great value for the price with excellent workmanship and cosmetics. The indexing marks on the sections and addition of a fly-keeper are two minor features missing on many more expensive rods that I particularly appreciate. The only suggestion I would make to Echo is that a down-locking rather than up-locking reel seat would help counteract the forward weight bias inherent in glass rods of this length, allowing them to balance better with lighter reels.



Thanks to you and the others at Gorge Fly Shop for the excellent service,

Brit

"Fly Fish the World with Us"