On reading the common cents chart, I see that the Pac Bay rods come very close to their rating. For example, a 6 wt. Traditional has an ERN of 6.35. Am I reading this correctly in that the 6 wt. comes as close to being a true 6 wt. as possible? So where would one find the difference between an SCV blank of the same weight rating. Incendently, I like products from both companies.

Maybe I should build one of each and find out for myself. I could always give one to my children as a gift. I don't have money to burn but I save by packing a lunch for work everyday and staying over at work when my boss asks me to.

Cheers, Ellis

Ellis,

I can hear tom thinking it now:

"There is no such thing as a 'true' 6 wt. About any rod will cast a 6 wt line at some distance. An ERN of 6.35 would tell you that an average caster will find a 6 wt line to be pretty favorable on that rod from 20-40".

And he is totally right. However, if you look at the AFTMA ratings, 30' of a 6 wt line should load a 6 wt rod. Under the CCS system, 30' of an X wt line should load a rod with an ERN of X.5. Personally, I call it a 'true' rating when I'm taking to fly fishers because most are set in their ways about rods are their ratings. If they want to know how I come to that conclusion, then I will go into the CCS system and what it is all about.

My Pac bay tradition is an awesome rod rated perfectly accurately for me. It is the 8'6" 5 wt 2 pc and rates roughly 5.5/64 or so. I forget the actual numbers, but they are really close to that. There are some St Croix SCV blanks in the datebase, but from casting them I think you'll find that they are much faster action (close to 70), under rated a bit (like a 6 wt is an ERN 7.0-ish) and more crisp than the tradition.

Thanks,
Rick

Rick, Thanks for your answer. A Pac Bay 5 wt. is what I have in mind for small bass and bream. I almost bought a St. Croix but I will order the St. Croix in a higher weight for the salt. I believe I will build on the SCIV as an 8 wt. I have an SCIII which I will give as a Xmas present to my favorite nephew.

Cheers, Ellis

PS Richard thanks you. I will order the SCIV from him.

There is no such thing as a true 6-weight, or any other weight for that matter, because no such standards have been set. A true 6-weight is any rod that says "6-weight" on the label.

Of course, because there no standards, that same "6-weight" label only means what the manufacturer intended. And you may not know what that is.

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