It was a beautiful day today in the chicago area so I decided to go out and test a couple of rods I've made in the last few weeks. I just finished a Batson 904-4 RX7 for a friend of mine, and before I give it to him I decided to do a side by side comparison to a Pac Bay Rainforest II 904-4 that I had built for myself a month or so ago. I used the same reel on both rods wich had 4 wt Scientific anglers mastery GPX wf line. After testing them both for about 45 minutes I have to say I was completely impressed with both rods. They both shot line very very well (easy 50 or 60 feet) with barely an effort. Short distances they both performed like a charm. VERY VERY Impressed. The problem was that I could not tell the difference between either rod they were so similar in feel and peformance, so i decided to throw them on the rack for a common cents test. It was unreal how similar these two rods tested out. heres the info. First off the both tested to an exact AA of 68. This should tell me that they are both Fast actions as opposed to the moderate and medium fast actions they advertise. Even at testing this fast Both rods were absolutely smooth in long and short casting. I would recomend them even to the most novice of casters. The ERNs tested very very close as well The Rainforest II tested at 5.35 while the Rainshadow RX7 tested at about 5.20. Both had slightly "above" 4wt backbone but had no adverse affects on me feeling the line load in either case. Again VERY VERY smooth in both cases. Then I decided to take my test even one step farther. I measured exactly half the length down from the tip tops to 54" to see if there was any difference in deflection there. Again very very close the Rainforest II deflected 1 3/4 inches at 54" and the rainshadow deflected right at 2 1/4 inches. In summery I would say that I recomend either of these 4 weights very highly. Its a complete toss up, but you can't go wrong with either rod. THEY ARE BOTH GREAT. Thought this may help some of you.

Heres a recap:

Batson Rainshadow RX7 904-4 ( IM6 43 million mod): ERN = 5.20 AA = 68 with 2 1/4" deflection at 54" from tip.

Pac Bay Rainforest II ( IM7 47 million mod): ERN = 5.35 AA = 68 with deflection of 1 3/4 at 54" from tip.

BOTH HAVE VERY VERY VERY NICE ACTIONS !!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/2010 08:21PM by Larry Damore.

Thanks for the info, Larry. I just picked up a 9' 4 wt. RX7 to build for my nephew. I wanted to get him a faster 4 wt., and I thought this blank would fill the bill. I'll be using Amtack Nanolite SF guides so he can shoot that line across the Lehigh River when he needs to go long!

I appreciate the confirmation of my thought process. I now feel smart!

John

Thanks for posting your results!

Were both rods equipped with the same guides and spacing? Does the addition of guides, guide spacing or the style of guide (single foot vs double foot) even effect the Common Sense numbers?

Use the lightest guide you can. heavy guides will dampen the action of the blank Do a search here for guides and placement.

Bill - willierods.com

That Mastery GPX line is one half size heaver that most standard 4 wt. lines, which tells me that those rods - as you've finished them - will not load as quickly with a more traditional 4 wt. line. How is the "straightness' of the Pac Bay blanks? Did you notice any crookedness near the tip of the blank?

Both rod were finished using BUL5 reel seats. The RX7 has lite wire single foot guides per batsons layout suggestion, and the Rainforest II has TiCO single foot guides set up the same as the RX7 and about the same minimal thread wrapping. Looked at both rods, and they are both str8 as an arrow.

I was going to build a 904-4 and I wanted to ask if you thought using a set of REC recoil guides would have any appreciable effect on the rods performance?

dave schaub Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was going to build a 904-4 and I wanted to ask
> if you thought using a set of REC recoil guides
> would have any appreciable effect on the rods
> performance?

The extra thread wraps on a double foot guide will slow it down, but I think barely enough to notice. I wouldn't worry about it. Like I said in my previous post in this thread, I'm going to use Nanolite SF guides. Yeah, it's only one thread wrap, but I know the guides are definitely heavier than wire snakes. Believe me, I'm not that worried about it, either! Go for it.

John

Acid Rod has some new English Seymo Single Foot wire guides that are kind of neat. They sit higher then any other wire guides. [] About in the middle of the page.

Bill - willierods.com