The Ultimate Small Rod

(Update July 26, 2010)

I have now used the Dorber eRod "L'il Streamer" in the following situations: Medium-sized trout stream (Woodland Valley Creek, Phoenicia, N.Y.); big river, albeit with fairly low flows (the Esopus Creek in Phoenicia, Mt. Tremper and Boiceville, N.Y.); warm-water lake (South Pond, Mt. Riga, Salisbury, Conn.) and squirrelly mountain trout stream (Wachocastinook Brook in Salisbury and the upper stretch of the fly-fishing only section of Woodland Valley Creek).

• With a pretty good wind shooting downstream on the Esopus the rod's length worked against it to some degree, but in fairness casting with a strong head wind (or tail wind, for that matter) is tricky with any rod.
• The rod turns over heavier flies without any problems (I am using a double tapered line). After some experimentation with leader length I just said the hell with it and went ahead with a seven and a half footer, adding tippet as necessary.
• With tandem rigs the rod's super=shooter action resulted in a couple of lost flies that just got sling-shotted off into the unknown. (Doesn't say much for my knots.)
• With putty weight added the rod behaved like any other.
• As a bonus, because the rod is so short, a medium-sized trout, like the foot-long rainbow I took last night, will actually strip line off the reel.

In all these different contexts I continued to be almost unconscious of the short length of the rod.

Fishing with the L'il Streamer in Woodland Valley from the catcher's crouch. Note — even with a camera set to take a picture every 30 seconds you'd be amazed how hard it is to actually get one of a cast.)

The short rod. A nine-footer would tower over the car. I have the cork and ring configuration; they also offer an adjustable reel mount handle for about 10 bucks extra.

Note the first oversized guide. Looks like a spinning rod. Almost.

Not the greatest photo but the oversize guides are visible.

Original post




I bought a five and a half foot, two-piece rod for a five weight line from an outfit called the Global Dorber Group.

Yes, it sounds like some sort of shady investment thing, or a sinister think tank funded by George Soros.

But they make fishing rods. Good ones. Inexpensive ones. I have an eight-foot, two-piece five weight from them with a very slow action that I've been happy with.

This recent rod is from a line called the "L'il Streamer." The promotional copy says it was invented by a guy in Arkansas name of Bob Brunsell, who came up with the idea of a rod with oversized guides that are closer together.

The result is a rod that is so easy to cast that after a half hour or so I was almost completely unconscious of the fact I was using this little dinky rod.

I used a double-tapered line. I don't think the rod would work as well with a weight forward (see Brunsell's article, linked below).

I'd like the action to be just a little slower, for bow-and-arrow casting. But that is a quibble. A-




http://www.dorber.com/flyrods.html

Here is a link to the story of the development of the rod, by Bob Brunsell:

http://www.dorber.com/E1.html