Pointless gear reviews: Cabela's Custom Glass Rod 5'9" 3 weight. (insignificantly updated 9/18)

Hi there!

Well, I was pretty enticed by the other end of the the CGR line, the 5'9" 3wt. I didn't have a very practical use for it, but fuck it, I truly do expect them to be limited availability, so I pulled the trigger a couple weeks ago. Not that I had a chance to use it, nor do I know when I will, but sometimes I do dumb shit.

So, with that said, even though I've only taken it out for some lawn casting and about 15 minutes in a very limited test on the water, I've got opinions (fuck yeah, do I ever!) on the baby of the CGR line.

An introduction to the casual vacation shore fly fisher: Part 2, stupid exercises in tackle excess.

Many failures, some successes.

I remember the year after I picked up spin fishing the surf, I decided I'd pick up a fly rod and give it a go. Shit, I was practically swimming in croaker, and the thought of blues or stripers was pretty intense. Furthermore, I'd chartered a guide for a four hour jaunt into the back bays of Cape May, and I wanted to go with my own gear.


So, I went to our local Cabela's, walked into the Fly Cave, or whatever the fuck its called, and said, "I'm gonna fly fish for stripers on the Jersey Shore."


They handed me a 10wt Cabela's branded broomstick called an XST and their big shiny XSS reel to go with. WTF did I know about this, all I knew is it was all on sale  and seemed like a no brainer. They also sold me on a mighty costly intermediate sinking striper taper line and out the door I went.


This was about as far from the moderate action 4wt and WFF lines I'd been used to. In fact, I had no fucking clue what I was doing. A good friend and awesome caster came down and helped me out a bit, and with practice I was able to consistently hit about 60'.


I went out, proud and prepared to do battle with the mighty striped bass of late August.


Those of you with my then-level of experience don't realize why everyone else is laughing at us.

Trout Unlimited, still not just coffee and doughnuts; also Cabela's CGR review.

People are slobs.

I think we've exhausted the not just TU thing? No? Good. Because there was official TU coffee and doughnuts provided yesterday.

Well, munchkins, at least. Although I'm pro-munchkin, I'd have clubbed baby seals for a boston cream, dig?

Anyways. Monocacy Chapter sponsered their stream clean up yesterday, and the weather was rather uncooperative starting our day with torrential downpour... didn't stop multiple TU members from stepping up, along with a host of community service minded folks. We split up into sub groups, then were dispatched out by our fearless leader to various portions from rt512 down to, I think, Union Boulevard. Once the rain broke, it wasn't bad. I had one of the community services guys fall into place beside me, and we had a nice time walking, talking, and cleaning up.

George, if you should ever read this, I'm up to take you out for your intro to fly fishing, duder.

Pointless gear reviews!

So then, it ended up being a pretty nice day, with a fresh burst of rain to the stream to bring it up, only so it could fall back again. The rain broke, the sky was gently overcast and I bet fishin'' would've kicked ass.

So I went shopping, instead.

I'm being forced to visit FL in a few days, and my luggage won't accomodate my chosen lighter rod, and I needed a new one. Enter the Cabela's CGR, the Custom Glass Rod, a nice, and weird, thing to show up in a big box store. I like glass, I don't like Cabela's branded gear, but fuck it, sometimes you make your choices and pay your money.

But, is it really a custom rod if its off an assembly line like everyone else's?

Knotted, tapered leaders. An excercise in minuetae.

Amazingly, not all from Stackpole.

When I first started, I used the extruded mono leaders. I mostly made a mess of things, and didn't have a clue. Someone, somewhere, talked about furled leaders and I bought a Blue Sky furled leader.

It was awesome. I was sold. I rocked the piss out of those for quite some time, last year learning how to handfurl my own in a much simpler method. Someday I'll explain that.

However, I wanted to perfect them, and to perfect them I wanted to understand leader design better. To do that, you have to delve into the world of hand tied leaders.

So, after a trip to the store, I was ready to start.