Wright & McGill Medium Drifter 8-12 Review

length 9'6 Line wt 8-12 Power Medium Action Fast Reel Shimano Symetre 4000FJ Target Winter steelhead Ive thought alot about this review, Mostly becouse I am so conflicted as what to say about this rod.. How to describe my true opinion after 52 hours of fishing and 16 steelhead ranging from 6 to 15 lbs. Here it is... a Porche with a Ford paint job and Walmart tires. At 9'6 this rod is a perfect length for throwing spinners and spoons which is how I fished exclusively, the butt is shorter than other rods from Lamiglas and St Croix in its class.. sheer brilliance from the eye of a spin fisherman who is tired of overly long butt sections on similar "over built" rods. The tip flips spoons incredibly easy, and the sensetivity to strikes and bottom contact resonates like a crisp bell, its very easy to feel the difference between a rock and a fish. Now the not so polite points.... this rod is finished and built horribly. At $100 bucks, which is what this fool paid for it I expected more qaulity. Ive since seen the rod on sale for as low as $59... its real value in my book. The clear coat is literaly globbed on around the guides, to the point of feeling sharp when the fingers are ran over it, I noticed this in the store but chose to overlook it based on the overseas build and the price point. No matter how much clear coat they globbed on it still didn't stop the coating from cracking at most of the guides after a 20 minute battle with a 15lb chromer.. that also caused two of the liners of the guides to pop out. I think what bothers me most is Wright&McGills sensless pandering to a younger crowd, while its been decades of fishing rod manufactures designing rods for fishermen, not fishing, I had hoped the only glass spin rod on the market wouldn't do it.. they did, the grip is rubber with an exposed blank butt with a tarpon ball styled end cap.. Is this a bass rod? real men want their hands on cork, this grip and reel seat is extremely cold with a bare hand and miles of hiking banks and setting the rod down to re-rig or work with a fish has resulted in the finish chipping all over the exposed blank. The paint job is trendy and lame, something I also chose to overlook just to get a Modern glass spin rod.. I overlooked too much at the time of purchase just to have something I wanted, I would not buy this rod again. I sat the rod next to my $65 Penn spin rod with over 4 years of fishing time on it and the Wright&McGill looks twice as old already. Now, the sweet thing is the rod has a great warranty, a warranty I will not be using. I plan to take the rod to a builder and have it stripped and built into the best glass rod ever

, becouse they did build the best glass spin rod blank I have ever fished- Good fishing-