Awhile back, somebody on the list recommended picking up the 4 pc. Griggs fly rod at the Sportsmen's Warehouse in Spokane for $49.99. I was a little skeptical that any fly rod for $50 could be decent so didn't rush right out to check them out.
Last week I had to go to this store on business for EWU and got to play with a bunch of rods $50 and under. Let me tell you fella's this rod is the real deal. It will make you shake your head and question your sanity about spending mid 3 digit numbers for our designer label rods. It was so much higher quality then anything else in the sub $150 price range that it wasn't even funny. Now before you go and think I have gone off the deep end let me say that it certainly doesn't have the vibration dampening of a Sage and the guides are not the same quality but it casts very nice. Very much like the St. Croix rods and the Cortland GL series at 3-4X the price. In fact, it reminds me of a little nicer action Loomis GL 2. Here is what you get for your $50. A nice medium action rod with a good back bone, decent quality wrapped guides with the smaller diameter thread like I use when I build a rod, a wooden real seat with black hardware and a nice padded case with the same heavy duty cover you find on most rod cases today. The rod also has a 1 year warrenty on craftmanship and lifetime warrenty of $25 or less to replace any section you break no matter the cause. So how does it cast? Very nice. The rod loads well, picks up both small and large amounts of line and appears very accurate. I was casting in a 10 mph headwind and had no trouble putting the tippet where I wanted to. I plan on taking this rod out tomorrow to get into some fish so will post a field test report when I get back. Griggs also offers a 2 pc version in a 5/6 wt. for $39 and a neat little 6' 3 wt. for about $30. Combine that with your favorite low cost real and you have somebody on the water with nice gear for under $100. Mike
