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-

The last couple weeks

So, once again absent without an excuse, man life has been busy, paints been dryin, and fish been dyin.. ( but mostly swimming away) 3 home improvement projects with fishing trips interjected bettween, I have no words.. just these pictures-

Back to my roots..

Ive been fishing quite a bit in the last week, and basicly doing rather poorly. 3-12, I would prefer numbers in the 7-12 range maybe even 10-12, but not likely. In the last week the rivers have blown out, its snowed 8 inches, I was late to a fishing trip and Ive turned down 3 offers to go fishing and had high muddy fast water to deal with. I sat in my man-cave thinking of my week of fishing and trying to figure out why I haven't really had fun on most of my trips this year. Glancing to the corner of the room my eye's spied my RPL, adorned with a very sexy Ross CLA covered in dust, sad and feeling scorned.. it seemed to say... my grandfather was with you when you couldn't even hook a steelhead, and now this...why? I tipped my glass and waxed my lips with Jameson and stated matter of factly that the water this year was for the most part too high and mean to even land a fish if I managed to hook one. It turned and faced the wall again, and muttered.....the 30 year old Riverkeeper would have rather seen his sister in a whorehouse than his brother holding a spin rod....pussy So I threw the rod in the truck at 2 in the afternoon yesterday drove it 50 miles, and took it on a 5 mile bike ride behind a locked gate and into some of the best sight fishing Ive had all winter.... The 40 year old Riverkeeper is not a pussy, I think its time the spin rod collects a little dust-

How not to work a steelhead...

I can't believe this guy posted this video, but im glad he did. Often I am asked by new steelheaders how to, or what to do when they get a fish, well this video contains the best examples of what NOT to do. 1. on the strike he did a perfect hook set, then he lays the wood to the fish 2 more times, with an uphill hit with the fisherman below the fish this fish probably hooked himself as good as it was gonna get. 2. The angler then proceeds to "attack" the fish in the very first minutes of the fight, this fish spins on the surface soley becouse of how hard the angler is pulling up on it.. this fish should have been allowed to pull, without having the boots put to him. 3. NEVER put your hands on the blank of your rod, if there is not cork on it, then its not a place for your hands, this guy actually grabs the rod at the ferrule with a hot fish that is still green... the fish was nowhere near being ready to land without a net. must be an ugly stick.. becouse a loomis would be laying on the ground in 3 pieces. 4. You will only be able to tail about 1 out of 3 fish bare handed.. 1 out of 10 that are still as hot as this fish was when he tried to land it, and 1 out of 20 when the fish is a dink like this one, there is no girth to the tail, its simply gonna scoot righ through your grip like a bar of soap... a glove will improve the success rate of this dramaticly, he is wearing nitril gloves, but that is about as bad as a bare hand. but this fish was too hot to land anyway. 5. I don't understand why guys set themselves up for failure.. no net, from a rock ledge, across the river was a perfect drift with an exellent bank he could land a fish on, or chase a fish.. if this fish had run down through the tailout how was he gonna chase it? he started himself out already behind the 8 ball. I think my favorite part is how he kinda punks like he just let the fish go, when it clearly made a fool of him. But, in closing I will admit it was a sweet hook-up and he did at least touch it, myself I subscribe to the belief a hook-up on the first cast is bad luck for the rest of the day... but then I guess you don't need luck when you already got one in the first 3 minutes of the trip. Man I hope this Oregon flood ends soon... im starting to get cranky- Good fishing

Steelhead limit on glass...

Sorry to all who tried to read the post I deleted, The post was all scrambled when it appeared on the site, so I deleted it- Saturday was the only day available for me to fish this week, I typicaly don't fish the weekends due to the high pressure, but Ive been wanting to hook a steelhead to the business end of two new glass rods, so I went.... and it turned out pretty good for weekend fishing. I fished my new Wright&McGill S-Curve medium drifter spin rod.. landed 3 and kept 1 clear finned chromer, one was a pretty decent high finner around 30 inches. The second half of the day I fished my Cabelas C.G.R classic glass 7/8 wt... 3 fish all in the 6-8 lb range, once again retained a stunning clear finned chromer, both were nice hard fighting hens, and both rods performed exellent, I plan on doing full posts on both rods performances soon. I had been hoping a new reel was coming in the mail so I could introduce a whole new angle on hammering steel on the blog... soon perhaps.. Sorry about all the Fiberglassmanifesto content in the photos, ive been trying to get a good shot to enter in the T.F.M spotting contest.. can always use a new rod! Anyway this post was way better the first time I wrote it but now have lost heart in it so enjoy the Fish porn... Im going fishing again tomorrow, in a big snowstorm.. maybe that post will be more eloquent and more interesting- Good fishin-

Invasive species..

Somewhere around 13,000 years ago man made his first appearance in North America, and has been screwing it up ever since. Todays post is a retort to a comment left on "windknots and Tangled lines" regarding a very large ( 32" 10 pound ) German brown trout that was senslesly destroyed in 2007 in the Madison river of Montana for just its skin ( meat from real skin mounts is almost never saved and eaten ) to be stretched over a piece of plastic for bragging rights. Most shocking of all was the statements made that the German brown is an invasive species so it basicly had it coming, I guess in hopes of making Montanas crown Jewel fishery better.. lets talk about what the German brown has done for Montana. On February 24th 1883 the first eggs of a German brown made first landfall on the shores of North America. Many purist were quite concerned with the dangers of this voracious carnivor trout, it would possibly decimate the native trouts of the rivers it would be planted in. In 1872 Yellowstone Park was created, at the time 40% of the parks waters were barren of fish, only 17 of 150 lakes contained populations of fish, while some were sterile by nature, many had been decimated by man. In 1913 Theodore Gordon a pioneer of North American fly fishing stated in Forest and stream magazine " many of us remember how poor our sport was before the German brown came in" The German brown trout is now one the most prevelent species of trout in the Madison river, one of its running partners the Rainbow trout is also an invasive species, but it seems whirling disease has been making short work of them. The cutthroat trout is the only native trout to this region, Rainbows prior to the McCloud strain transplants only existed in bodies of water in which Native Steelhead runs existed. The native Brook trout of the eastern portion of North America were virtualy destroyed by logging, dams, commercial harvest and a great deal in part by civil war soldiers who slaughtered them for food by the hundreds daily. In 1879 it was estimated that the fishers of that time would be the last Brook trout fishermen... German browns were introduced and thrived in the higher water temps that the Brookies were doing very poorly in. You cannot undo most of what man has done, Bass, Perch, Carp, and so many others are invasive species in most of the waters they inhabit, and they are here to stay. Same with German browns, Rainbows, and Brook trout, cuttbows, hatchery salmon and steelhead and humans, we are all parts of an enviromental disaster that started 13,000 years ago.. and continues to this day. Next time you see a photo of a human being standing in a Montana river holding a ten pound German brown or Rainbow, try to see if you can spot the most dangerous invasive species- If you can't be with the one you love...... love the one your with-

Now the project slows..

With the bottom completely off and a full inspection of the hull Im happy to say the show will go on. No rot in the side panels.. whew. It will take some time and possibly a trip to Seattle to produce a marine grade piece of plywood that is long enough for the bottom, but I will most likely have to scarf two 4x8 sheets together, wish me luck. The project will slow down considerably also due to the fact I have to do my taxes, put a new top and computer in my jeep tj, and finish the steel shop with a loft im building, and hopefuly get in on some of the ridiculously good steel fishing going on all around me. I hope to have her back together by the time the fish hit the clack and sandy in the big February pushes. Grace my 2.5 year old daughter and fishing companion has been sick with a fever for 3 days now, I hope she gets better soon- Good Fishin-