Greetings,

I know that Dan Craft's FT in 8'6" 4 piece, 3 wt is 1.6 oz.

Does anyone have the weight of Dan's 8'4" 3/4 wt and 8'9" 4wt?

Thanks in advance,
Mo

I have built and fished all 3 of those rods but have never weighed any of them. However, both of the Sig. V models feel very noticeably lighter than the FT. I'm sure Dan or John Launstein (Rocky Mountain) can weight them for you if you ask them to. If you look at the wall thickness of the FT versus the Sig. V blanks, that tells most of the story I think. The Sig. V rods are designed for cutting edge lighness and crispness and they push the limit in the same way the Loomis GLX does. In fact, Dan used to say as much in his literature that accompanied his Sig. V blanks. That was the basis for his recommendation on guide spacing and length of ferrule reinforcement wraps.

Not very dang much! I have the 8'4 3/4.....Man is it light! Way light! Oh...and incredible, too.

Keith

Steve,

I'm thinking of building a rod on one of these 3 blanks for panfish, shad and ocassional smallmouth. Usually fish the Potomac upstream of DC. (Already have a 6 weight, that I really like, that I usually use for smallmouth). The rod will probably be used on small trout streams on relatively rare ocassions.

I'm tending to the FT for it's versality.

Which one do you recommend?

Thanks,

David

David, of the 3 mentioned in the original post, for versatility and durability, I would go with the FT863-4 and you can expect it to handle 4-7 wt. lines well and with ease. Plus, I feel it will be more resistant to the occasional hit from a Clouser minnow. I will suggest something that makes the rod even more versatile. After you build the rod, search for a piece of scrap blank that you can build a second, shorter handle section on. That way, when you do want to fish small trout streams, like Morgan Run or the Patuxent, you can use the shorter version with 3-5wt. lines. I've done this, not just theorizing, and it works great.

If you knew you were going to fish a 4wt. line all the time, and not with big weighted flies like Clousers, then one of the Sig. V models would be my choice.

1.24 ounces for 844-3 Sig V -- I built one up recently that tipped out at 1.98oz!

1.49 ounces for 905-3 Sig V -- Makes a great big trout rod or smallmouth rod.

I haven't weighed an 894-3, sorry, I'd guess around 1.40-1.45 oz...

I fished shad on the Potomac at Little Falls most of the spring with an 908-4 FT. Since I hooked about as many Americans as Hickories, and also some little stripers mixed in, I could not imagine doing that type of fishing with the 844-3V, especially if you're anywhere where there is a good current. I fished a 905-3V a couple of times right at the falls and still felt undergunned.

That said, on Deer Creek for Hickories, the 844-3 would be nice...I did it with a 793-2 AmTak Matrix and had a blast.

I'm new to the area and this was my first spring out there. I had nothing to go by so I just studied the habits of the spin and net fishermen. I also figured if a shad were to go up the falls, it'd have to hop from eddy to eddy all the way to the top. This led to me doing a lot of fishing right at the base and alongside the falls in very small side eddies and rips. If a shad was going up, it'd pretty much have to swim by the fly. Not pretty, but it worked well.

I also tried a type VI 10' polyleader on an intermediate line, which got down quick enough for hickories in the flats below the bridge.