FFR 2006: Tim Rajeff and Echo

Tim Rajeff and Jamie Hixson of Rajeff Sports and Echo Fly Fishing were showing me an interesting “extension” of the dual-mode fly rod concept today: they have a new rod coming out in 5 and 10 weights that allows conversion from a 9’6″ rod to a 10′ rod with a simple change of tip sections (the rods they showed me were 4-piece). As Tim pointed out, the extra rod length — which is also modified in taper — does two things: it moves the action of the rod down from the tip and toward the grip, making it a better rod for roll-casting and controlling larger amounts of line; and it gives the float-tuber/drift-boater fisherman better line control by keeping the line higher in the air.
While we were testing the rods, Gareth Jones of Air-Flo flylines came up and I asked him whether the 10-footers wouldn’t also make better nymphing rods, and he concurred. “The European market is all 10-footers,” he said, “you get better Czech nymphing control and lake fishing is much more effective with longer rods.” (He went on to talk about how the particular “bounce” of Tim’s design helped up-and-down nymphing techniques, but that is perhaps a subject for another day.)