Winston BIIIx Revisited

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DavidFin

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Joined
Jun 12, 2010
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The past two years I've been honing my casting skills and trying a lot of new rods (tapers, actions, etc). As I'm sure many of you can relate, the older I get the harder it is to get on the water. So my thoughts have been gravitating towards having as much fun as possible each time I get out, and let's face it, a lot of modern fast action rods aren't as much fun as they are effective. Granted this is just one opinion, still I won't name any of these rods specifically.

Anyhow, I picked up a 905 BIIIx two seasons ago as my big river dry fly rod, and it did the job spectacularly. However, it was always hammered into my brain that this is a dry fly rod only, other flies need not to apply. Wrong.

As my cast has improved, mainly by widening my stroke and relying less on hauling, I've found softer rods to be more versatile. When Winston released the BIII plus I was really excited about applying that Winston action to bigger flies, but when I demoed the 4+ ounce 5wt, I found it to be too heavy. I was left thinking about a heavy Winston rod I could cast weighted nymphs and try other things with. Remembering my "dry fly" only BIIIx, I made a effort in my mind to try to use it this year as an all rounder.

Last week on the Beaverkill I had an amazing day using it in a real soup of flies. I only caught on dries but I did nymph with it and it worked out ok.

Fast forward to yesterday, which was awful. Rained more than I thought it would in the morning cold, so skipped around the East and explored the lower Beaverkill a bit. The day was shutdown so I had to wait until dusk. However, I conducted an endurance test. This rod will do a lot more than fish dries. I would up picking up a huge bow comfortably nymphing some heavy flies in a seem, and then later on when the fish were hitting emergers at the surface I put on a heavy frenchie and a bwo emerger, let them sink, and then lifted them through the column for hits, which the rod did wonderfully. And the soft tip, compared to most rods, was super forgiving.

With reasonable water levels this will without a doubt be my go to all rounder from now on, and I can't recommend it enough if you're in the same boat of looking for more flex in power.
 
Nicely said, and you're right they are more than just a dry fly only rod! enjoy
 
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