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fredscustomrods · 2 years

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#Stryker Rods Not your Grandpas rod

What legends are made from, Stryker Rods has their hat in the ring!

I have been building custom rods for over 30 years and its not often that I genuinely get excited over blank design. The good ones all have very similar qualities, especially when we are talking about fly rod design with performance rod blanks. High modulous blanks, typically feel similar to each other especially when you are into 30 and 40 ton high modulous and Torrey carbon blanks. Its nice if you like a fast rod, however there are qualities that you loose in the translation of energy fighting a fish in ultra high modulous blanks. They simply don’t have that supple quality of say a fiberglass blank that has a whole different quality of feel translated through their core. The main problem I also find in blanks is how they are classified, one companies Moderate-Fast is another companies Medium, is another companies fast. Its not like there is a stop watch involved, its about a designers perception of speed or design intent, intent doesn’t always meet expectations though.

Enter #Stryker Rods, from the moment I cut the tape on the rod tube and pulled out the first blank, as I flexed it in my hands, I felt a quality I have not seen in a rod blank, in a very long time. It felt supple, which is the only word I can think of to describe the smooth, yet seemingly soft feel I found in every blank I have tried from Stryker Rods. These would include a 9’ 2 piece 6 wt fly rod, a 9’ 2 piece 9wt fly rod, an 8’6 M 2piece Salmon float rod, an 8’6 MH 2 piece salmon float rod, and an 8’ 2 piece steelhead M float rod. The same quality of feel resonates through all of them, the only way I can describe it is if you are old enough to remember a really good fiberglass rod that you could feel a fish swim past your bait with, because it was so sensitive and could translate the slightest shock wave to a subtle shutter through the rod. A quality that is lost in most rod designs after the introduction of IM6 design’s and up in the high modulous world of rod blanks.

Just when you thought you would never find a rod that had that supple sensitive feeling again in higher modulous blanks, enter #Stryker Rods! They have straight up killed it with their line of rods. I built the 6 weight fly rod first and when I stress tested it and checked it to determine the neutral spine on each section. ( I prefer building on the neutral spine because it is the most natural way the blank section bends and is the least reactive if you are off the spine slightly it doesn’t tend to deflect off center as the X and Y spine will) I had trouble understanding how the designer could have possibly achieved such smooth and soft reactions from a High modulous composite blank. The material that #Stryker rods uses has a quality that I have not felt in any other rod blank in years! High Modulous blanks Im6 and greater all have a springy quality that is harsh, I don’t care if you are handling a Thomas And Thomas Fly rod, a Sage, Scott, Winston, TFO, you name it they all have a very harsh static feel to them. Not So with #Stryker Rods, I am absolutely blown away with the sensitivity and feel through, that these rod blanks have.

By nature, I am not easily impressed, in fact to the contrary I am typically super critical when it comes to feel and performance in a rod. I currently have no less than 90 something rods in my garage, everything from short ice fishing, jigging rods to 13’6” Heavy surf casting rods and everything in between. That’s just casting and spinning rods, enter fly rods and there are at least 30 fly rods in the arsenal and more reels than rods! I still fish a fiberglass rod or two that I have had since the late 60’s and rebuilt a few times simply because they are great rods and feel amazing when fighting a fish, not to mention they bring back memories of fishing glory days! SO Im pretty particular about my rods and which ones I take with me when I go fishing to say the least.

#Stryker Rods started its residency in the rod market in 2019, they can be found headquartering their factory in Eugene Oregon, and are some of the nicest most sincere fishermen and women I have spoken with in a very long time. Everyone from Robin in customer service to Josh who runs the company and Nate who heads up sales is enthusiastic about their company and rightfully so. They spend the time to answer your questions and are proud of the product they turn out, I honestly cant find anything I don’t like about the blanks I have built rods from. Each one has a quality that is without a doubt unique to the blank industry, lightweight yet sturdy, unlike many high modulous rods, their tip section has a little more girth to it and seemingly will hold up. Unlike many of the high modulous blanks many are so frail they come with two tips. You wont have that problem with a #Stryker Rod, the tips have a little more beef in them but still are light weight and very thin sidewalls in the blanks.

Results tell the whole story in my world, and honestly my new #Stryker SFR906 fly rod is going to be my new go to rod, retiring one of my Sage’s because it is so far superior to the Sage, the feeling in the rod, unmistaken quality that I do not believe can be found in any rod on the market today. As I said earlier it has the feel and supple qualities of an old very high end fiberglass rod with the speed, loading quality, and energy release of the best of the best High modulous fast rods.

As confusion set in while I built the rod, excitement grew in me to test my new rod! I built it using oversized western guides as I build all rods, its just what I believe in for fly rod builds, a nice Weiss reel seat with burled maple insert and a AAAA grade half wells grip, with slate thread and finished the thread with high build resin.

Into the wild we go to test the rod, I used a mid quality 6 wt WF line and one of my old faithful reels to test the rod, the results are in and we have a Winner! Speechless is a better way to describe the performance, I have been fly fishing for 52 years and rarely have I been so impressed by a new rod. I almost became giddy with delight as I began throwing the fly. Granted like all fly rods the first twenty feet can almost be painful if your impatient like I am, but get past that first 20 and WOW! Is all I can say, within 15 minutes I completely understood how to make this bad boy work.

I test drove the rod in a small stream about 50 feet wide tree tip to tree tip, with only 15 feet of water in the middle, I was fishing a dog leg in the creek that dropped off about 10 feet in elevation over 40 feet of stream. Going from rocky rapid section, ( when the creek is filled with water, we haven’t had rain in months and the creeks are fairly dry) to a pool that is about 30 feet wide and 100 plus feet long. SO this was the only area I could get a false cast off and not get wrapped up in the trees! It was my only option without going a couple of hours away and I just didn’t have the time to drive that far to test a rod. In retrospect I should have taken the day off to fish a winner like this #Stryker Rod, as I was impressed!

So this is what I found as I began to throw the rod, I started out with a #8 hopper as the smallies love them and the bigger browns will hit these as well. The first few tosses were painful, as I found some trees in my back cast. SO I pulled out my trusty pocket knife and hacked off about 2 feet of a limb that was dead anyway and ((((((((((poof))))))))) no more tangles in the back cast. Fast forward a few minutes and the magic began, the rod was flawless, I was effortlessly picking up from 20 feet out and with 1 false cast I was able to shoot the line to between 60-70 feet with no effort at all! (That was to the head of the WF line not counting leader length, so add that in ) After about 20 minutes total, I could pick up at about 20 feet and shoot to 60 feet or more without a false cast, impressed is all I can say. The feel was amazing, smooth like an old fiberglass blank, responsive and fast, filled with energy like a 40 ton torrey carbon rod, simply sexy is all I can say. This was almost confusing I felt like I had a rocket propelled grenade throwing my line! I could feel everything with this rod the gentle nuance of the current as I stripped the line it had so much feel to it, the rod was reminiscent of old school fiberglass, the really high-end stuff that legends were made of.

Matt the designer for #Stryker Rods has hit it straight out of the park, his combination of material choice, pre-preg, and selective layering of materials is shear genious. I simply can not find any other words to describe these blanks, it is the perfect combination of design intent where old school meets new school and out of no where in Eugene Oregon, A star is born.

Without any hesitation, I can say that our spring line will be featuring all things #Stryker Rods. From my experience, these guys are a custom rod builders dream to find. I was talking to them about Salmon and Steelhead blanks which are pretty much their main event from the write up on their website, when I happened to mention my passion is Fly rods. Nate instantly piped up on the phone explaining to me they have fly rods and although they weren’t on the website, they were in production. Nate asked me what I was interested in and I said I wanted to test a 6 and a 9 wt, he said he didn’t have any at the moment but would roll one for me and get it out as soon as he could. Much to my amazement about a week and a couple days later the blanks arrived in my driveway and the thrill began.

I would give #Stryker Rods a 10 in all categories, if you want to look them up #Stryker Rods can be found at https://strykerrods.us , on Instagram at @strykerrods and on Facebook at @strykerrods . They have the best customer service, and no question goes unanswered! I am genuinely excited to say we have added #Stryker Rods to our line and I am probably going to have a follow up story next season to explain all the reasons why #Stryker Rods is most likely going to be our go to for rod blanks next season.

They are quality through and through, from customer service to performance they are hard to beat. Speaking of which they have a price point that wont break the bank and will definitely leave enough money in your piggy bank to get 2 or 3 rods from #Stryker Rods when you would only be able to afford a rod, or more like a half of a rod from the competition. In my mind, the competition is the best of the best in any category, these rods are designed to perform and as I have said before have a quality of feel through that is second to none. I have thrown them all and built just about every companies blank you can think of in the last 3 decades! #Stryker Rods , definitely a rod worth trying, I guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised, give them a try, you wont be disappointed.

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