Thanks guys!
We'll be fishing the lochs in Sutherland again next year (Rhiconich Hotel). Last time we were there, some days we had all the weathertypes Scotland has to offer: bright sunshine and 24 degrees celcius, followed by rains and storm and then back to the sun again, all within 2 hours or so. In those calm conditions I felt there was no need for my more or less standard outfit 10 ft 7 wt. A 5 weight will do in those conditions, but I think a 3 weight will bring the best out of those small but strong trout.
Now, the rod I use in the Dutch polders is an Orvis Western 9 ft 3 wt I build back in the middleages (1989 or so). It can cast a decent line, is sensitive enough on small fish (in the polder I love fishing for rudd on a dry fly; we call them poldertrout) yet it has the backbone to land a carp within the hour
But it's 2 piece, so not very handy to bring to Scotland in a plane or to make long hikes with. Plus, 9 ft is nice, but sometimes just that little extra reach is handy because in the polders there's usually a lot of weed where you don't want your fish to go into.
So that's the story behind a 4 pc 10 ft 3 wt rod. I'll use it for my standard polderfishing and, in the right conditions, 'extreme loch style.'
Now the biggest challenge is finding one!!!
CU
Jeroen
PS I know there are a lot of 4 weights out there, but for some reason, I always fish with odd lineweights. Hmm, that could be a new thread right there
PS2: Thanks for the tip, Hamish!
