Hi Guys, my Redington Butterstick 8ft #5 arrived last week and I took it out for a cast on grass today, so I thought I would share my first impressions.
Firstly the rod is a brassy, bright Yellow, not as bad as some blanks but also not to everyones taste, it comes in a bright, and I mean BRIGHT yellow cloth bag inside a fairly bright red tube.
The Reel seat and the cork look a bit cheap, but the wraps are all well done and overall the quality looks very good for the money.
This pic is probably the closest color wise:
Having taken some advice from guys who have other fiberglas rods I decided to try a Cortland WF#4 Clear Creek line on the rod first. I found the sweet spot for this line to be a distance of 10 to 15 meters. Shorter casts just would not turn over and longer casts lacked the crisp feel I am used to. The line cast well as a single hand spey line, roll casting, single spey and snake rolls all going very nicely, but I struggled a little bit casting overhead outside the sweet spot. No criticism of the line, it just did not suit my casting style very well on this rod.
I then changed to a Rio Grand WF#5 and the difference was huge, this line just suited the rod and my casting much much better. Turning over a 12ft tapered leader with a biggish hunk of indicator line tied to the end into a stiff breeze no problem at all. It cast very well at distances of 2 to 25m and spey cast beautifully.
The Butterstick is a slow action rod, but not as slow as I thought it would be, it is a deep flexing rod and the casting stroke needs to adjust to this but it did not take long to get the hang of it.
All in all I think for the money it is a good first fiberglass rod and I look forward to getting it out on a stream sometime soon.
All the best.
Mike