Hey everyone,
I have a friend asking me info about fly rod blanks as he is thinking about buying a new one... However, I have never used a fly rod, everything I build is on a spinning or casting rod. He asked me the questions below, any help would be appreciated,

"Our friend Gilbert is considering to buy a new fly rod made by St. Croix. He seemed to remember that you purchase St. Croix blanks, and has a question:

The new rod he is considering is: Legend Elite LES 60 ULF2, UL Fast, 2 pcs, for $330.

But he already owns a Premier 5’-6” L, and a 5’-6” UL. A third rod he has is Avid 6’ UL.

The question is whether you know if there is anything to gain with the Legend Elite over the three he already has?"

Thanks for the help all!

First off, the rods above don't seem to be fly rods, unless I'm not understanding the designations as listed. I can't claim to keep up with all of these days. Either way, the Legend Elite will be a lighter (for the same power) crisper blank. It will react and recover more quickly, although in these shorter lengths the difference may not astronomical. But yes, there is something to gain.

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Fly rod marketers have not yet got around to labeling some of their products "UL". However, in my opinion St. Croix Legend Elite fly rod blanks are absolute top quality blanks and over four or five dozen years I have found St. Croix customer service second to none.

Jon, ask Gilbert what kind of reel he is planning on using and it's weight. These short 2 wts are incredibly light and without a mini, featherweight reel tend to be overly butt heavy. It's kind of annoying for some folks and quite different from typical longer flyrods.

Anything to gain with Legend Elite? Not really. At that weight and dimensions along with typical 2 wt angling situations they all works about the same...wonderfully! I'm betting the Legend Elite is probably a bit more toward the 3 wt category, some of these claims about "fast 2's" measure decidedly 3-ish with the pennies.