Redington Chromer and Behemoth Review

Redington's newest entry into the spey game, the Chromer, is a hell of a rod

This fall they gave me the opportunity to give the 13-6 8 weight a go along with the Behemoth as we spent our days on the Clearwater in search of early season steelhead.

First Impressions

The mid level price point of $399.99 is a nice way to get people into 2 handed casting without spending mortgage type money on a stick.  You can find some cheaper, but you can find dozens that close in on the $1000 mark or more.   So the price point is great, A+

Aesthetically,  the matt black finish looks great and the components all come together nicely for a great looking rod.  The biggest difference is this....polymer top and bottom grip points.

Traditionalists probably scoff, but I found that these touch points were really nice in hand and in running line management.

With regards to the Behemoth, again the price point of $109.99 you're not going to find many large arbor reels to match with a spey rod that can beat this reel.  The die-cast construction, the lock down drag (if necessary), and other features are exceptional on a reel like this.

On The Water

Paired with the RIO 38 ft Scandi Shooting Head, the Chromer was an all out pleasure to cast.  Each person is going to have different likes and dislikes in every rod they throw, but the break in time with the Chromer was minimal for me.  Once I found the proper anchor placement with the Scandi head, the rod allowed me to cast and cover wide swaths of the rivers I was fishing.    Back to the price point....it fishes like a $1000 stick if you know what I mean

With regards to the polymer grips and my used of mono running lines, I found them to be a big bonus feature with the Chromer.  Pressing the line into the polymer allowed for far less fouled casts that tend to happen with lines like Amnesia.

The reel did exactly what it needed to do.  I prefer a light to moderate drag setting, and I experienced no backlash or issues like that.  The line pick up of the 10-12 reel I had was very, very quick and allows you to keep solid connection with the fish

Any Negatives?

Completely nitpicking on this, the rod's cork could use a little work.  My particular model was missing a few pieces of cork filler but for the price point, do not expect the most amazing cork in the world.  It's a trade off, I'll take a lower grade handle for the awesome cast-ability of the Chromer any day.

On the Behemoth, there was an issue that I had from time to time.  There is JUST enough room for my running line to get caught outside the spool and thank goodness it never happened while catching a fish.  On those time when it happened, I had to loosen the spool a bit, pull the line over and then retighten it back down.  It's a fairly common problem that I am sure anyone has dealt with from time to time

Unanswered Questions

The only thing for me personally is that I never got the shot to throw the rod with heavy sink tips.  It's rare to find a rod that excels at throwing both scandi and skagit heads but I have a suspicion that the fast action and strong butt section will handle heavy tips like 12 ft of T14 with ease.


Conclusion

This combo of rod, reel and line gets a OH HELL YES rating from me.  There are few entries that can provide this much performance for the price.  I may or may not have shed a tear when I shipped them back to Redington, but that's between me and the UPS driver.

Getting Bested By The Best...

The day started on another river in another state.  A fast rising hydrograph made us question whether this was the place we should be fishing.  As you other fishermen of anadromous fish know, once doubt sets it, move to option B.

Conditions were perfect with dropping water levels and consistent water temperature.   Game on.

Into the second run, a fish slammed my bug mid swing and gave me a hell of a battle.    It was a very, very nice buck that went into the early teens.  They're aren't many fish bigger than this one in the whole realm of inland steelhead, so I was more than pleased as it swam away and the flask was passed around in celebration of good fortune.

The day continued with the swing and step routine from run to run  and into  the closing hour of the last piece of water.    That's when OMR pulled the rabbit, or should I say whale out of his top hat.

The dude knows how to fight a fish, and this one kicked his ass.  In seeing the initial hook up and watching my dad's face, I knew this was a big, big fish.    Most of the time, you can get one of these summer runs in within 5 minutes, but this battle stretched all of 15 minutes and every time the fish wallowed or it's tail came up all we could say were things like

Holy Shit.  F----K.  Oh. My. God.

After 5-6 big runs and numerous short scraps, the fish of a lifetime came to hand

It was a miracle the fish was landed, the hook on the prom dress just fell out.  Fell. Out.

A few pics and the massive buck went back on it's journey. All three of us sat there a bit stunned at what just happened.  Bested by the best, with the best fish I have ever had the pleasure to see in person.  So very wild and in perfect shape.

OMR reeled up and found a great sitting rock to enjoy the rest of the fading light.  No point in casting again on this day, he found his fish of a lifetime.

Mega Taco...

Apparently 40 inch steelhead can make your spey rod bend a bit....

The Mis-Clip

The take was great, ripping the running line out of my hands.  I was running a solid skunk and had begun to question just about everything I was doing.  Wrong fly, wrong tip, etc.  What was really going on was that I was steelhead fishing, and the mind bender that it is was taking a grip.

Everyone has been there, it was just my time to go through it.

One small jump followed by several nice runs and the fish was at hand.  Beautiful 8-10 lb fish with fire in her belly, but a question to her origin.  All the other fins were perfect, and the fight in cold water made me think she was born in river gravel

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the adipose was a mis-clip.  The razor blades at the hatcheries dont all ways make a clean cut.

But still when you're on the bank ready to make the bonk or no bonk decision, that doubt came creeping in and the last thing I needed was the grey area causing me to get a ticket.

More research after the release leads me to believe that I would have been fine to keep it, but it was a snap decision on the shore that had to be made that put the fish back into the river.

Hindsight is 20/20 and that fish should be in the smoker but I'd rather find myself on the right side of caution

Which leads me to another question.  What would have you done?

A Peashooter Vs Bazookas...

The old timers say, plenty of steelhead have been caught on a single handed rod.

But the truth of the matter is the single stick is the anomaly.  The oddity

So take the biggest river we fish and throw a one hander, and it feels like a peashooter versus a fleet of bazookas

When the fish took, we all freaked out and lost it.    We've convinced ourselves that it wasn't going to happen.   4 adult males dancing around celebrating something that was once just normal

Call it retro or whatever, but it was awesome.  We as steelheaders dont have to boom 100 foot casts, but spend more time reading water and controlling the bug in the water to present it well to a willing biter.

The peashooter won this round, and we couldn't have been happier.

Dress Less....

Steelhead eat a lot of things.

The challenge is to get them to eat tiny little spey flies.    Even harder, forcing yourself to use less materials and dress your flies with the sparsest amounts of feathers and flash

Once, Twice, Three Times.....

The first rise was surprising.   There are trout in this run that give a skated dry fly a tussle that raise your heart rate but put no bend in the spey rod.

Still, you have to give every rise it's due and shuffle back up a few steps to re-offer.

The second rise displaced enough water to make me think.....maybe.

It's dramatically early in the calendar for steelhead on the rivers that aren't adjacent to the ocean.  You can sit and stare at dam counts and tell yourself that the 50-80 fish a day over Lower Granite, but the odds are not in the favor of catching

It's really hard to step back up and wait a minute or two before you offer again.  Standing in the river, all I wanted to do was cast but experience tells me .....settle the hell down, give it time

The first cast through the bucket and all doubt of what it was was quickly erased when the fish slashed and became connected to the bug.  Right away it was evident that this was going to be a hell of a show and 2 full jumps later, we settled right in and duked it out.  She added 2 more sky dotting jumps for good measure to let me know what was up.

Ole Murphy showed up and my reel's drag stopped functioning almost altogether, but with luck and help from the big man upstairs, the fish came to hand......

That time you spend with a wild fish is special.  You only have a few brief moments to examine the beauty, stamp it into your mind and let it go.  It's in that moment that the gong show of landing a big fish stops and you get lost in why you get up so early, stay so late and cast hundreds of times without any response.

With grace the hen swam off and so deepened my love for everything steelhead...

Favorites from the Season

Thanks for coming along for the ride.  I appreciate everyone who visits this little outpost on the internet.

Riverside Spey Summit...

"No, seriously....the fish jumped 9 times and then snapped me off"

Sure it did, sure.

OMR holding court on the Big River.  No BS is ever spoken there.  Nooooooo way.

Dropping Hammers with the Method...

Time for another test drive, and this time the Sage Method 12'6 8wt

Before we dive into anything,

The elephant in the room....

A year after the "One", what's Sage doing releasing another $1,000 rod?

It's my belief you cant stay stale in anything.  Sit on the same lineup forever and you're going to get passed and surpassed.   In any business you can go from industry leader to also ran in a second.    Our little fly fishing community tends to get stuck in a baseball like position where we have a terrible time letting go of established dogma and accepting new items.  I myself love vintage reels, but on the same hand wouldnt know what to do if I had to nail knot everything.

For that, I have no problem with Sage pushing for a little bit more, another edge, another innovation.

For that, the Sage Method is the shit.

My test drive for the Method was primarily in the part of my steelhead season that focuses on Clearwater River in Idaho.   The set up was made complete with the new Evoke series reel and the Rio Short Head Spey

The Clearwater is big, in both runs and the size of the steelhead that return.  It's one of those rivers that begs for the long dryline and that's why this set up excited as we focused on the Clearwater August through the beginning of October

Here are my top 5 reasons why I dug this set up.

1.  Extra Crispy--The Method is all types of fast action.  If you like a progressive flex, this isnt your stick.  I tend to cast better with a faster action spey rod

2.  It's Purdy-- Finally a fly rod that's not muted grey/black/blue/green.  The wife has shoes, I have fly rods.

3.  Beautiful Cork--I used it for a solid 7 days on the river and it continued to feel like I just unpacked it for the first time

4.  The Line Combo-- Having only cast shorter Scandi and Skagit style heads, the transition to the 10ft longer Short Head Spey by Rio was made a lot easier by this rod.  It was forgiving and powerful enough to get it going.  Once I got the anchor placement down, it all came together nicely

5.  Lightness--ALthough it's really powerful....after a day of spey casting you'll love the lightness of the stick

Yes, it's a lot of money.  If it's part of your budget, have at it with out any reservations because if you like spey rods for the same reasons I like them, you're going to love the Sage Method Series

Fly fishing will always hold onto traditions and traditional gear.  Every now and then, it's ok to check out what's on the forefront of development of our sport

The Redington Dually Spey--Lots of Rod for Little Cheddah.

So Redington comes out with a $249 spey rod.....and the first thought through my mind

Yeah Right....

Then I spent 3 days pushing line with the spray pole.....and the next thought is....

I think I found my go to dryline rod.....

In my case, I tested the 12'6 6wt model which turned out to be just about perfect for the smaller/medium sized river like the Grande Ronde where I am magnetically drawn to in the fall.

Here are the top 7 reasons why I loved this little stick, and 1 reason why I didnt.  Each rod has it's sweet spot in terms of what application you put it to and in this case, pushing a fly just under the surface or even on top is where this model shines

The Goods....

1.  The Price-- Looking to dip your toes in the spey game to see if it's for you?  Here's your token to get on the ride.  Seriously, this rod casts like it should be sold at a $400-$500 price point

2.  The Cork-- The full cork on the handle is very unique, all the way through the reel seat.  I think it's a pretty darn cool touch

3.  The Color--Distinctive in a black/green/blue dominated market, the maroon outside the norm.

4.  Up-locking Full Metal Reel Seat--Classy, very.

5.  Handle Options--3 of them for the choosey folks out there.

6.   Chrome Magnet--See exhibit B

7.  The Sweet Spot--I found this rod to be exceedingly fun to cast scandi lines on.  I settled in on a 420 grain head and it felt as if it was matched perfectly.  This particular 6wt model is made for rivers like the Grande Ronde and the Methow where you dont have to make 100 foot casts.  Working 60-80 feet is fully effective on those rivers and I will tell you this rod lets you feel every tick tick tick of a dryline take but has the nuts to crank the fish in at the appropriate time.  I sat in one run and threw my rudimentary snake roll time after time after time and loved every second of it.  Zero fatigue, ready to roll for more time on the river.

The "Ehhh" part of this model

1.  Throwing tips-- the vast majority of time I spent with the Dually was without sink tips.  When I did....I wasnt throwing the greatest loops.  I cant blame the rod, more than likely it doesnt suit me when dredging is in order.  A lighter tip than I was throwing would suit the rod better and then this gripe can be thrown away.  Farther up in line weight models and I dont think it would be or is an issue.

All in all, the Dually gets the Chucking Line and Chasing Tail stamp of approval and I will be adding this stick to the quiver quite soon.

Get more info here on the entire line of Dually Spey and Switch Rods.


The Dually by Redington from Far Bank on Vimeo.

Picture Of The Year...

When I look back on 2012 and the year we had, from a fishing perspective, this is the photo that will have defined the year.

Another year to share with OMR and our friends.  Another year of early wake up calls, monosyllabic grunts and talks as we sped towards our water of choice and hoots and hollers as someone in the crew hooked up

Our trip to the Skeena system left us wanting more and a desire to come back.  The people and the land left an indelible mark on us forever.

Our year was fun, filled with amazing stories, hilarious bloopers and a few other happenings that probably should stay out of the written word to protect the innocent. haha!

So why is this the picture of the year?

It showcases the bond between my father and I.  It shows how much we're willing to go to fish for these ocean runs.

More than anything, look at this fish.....a perfect specimen.  Cleaner than clean with perfect angular fins that show that this fish is wild born and bread.  Also, this is a monster for the river it was caught on.  They dont get much bigger in this system.

My only regret is that I didnt catch it, OMR did.  On the swing.  In 37 degree water.

I will gladly play the role of gille any day

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

When the Steelhead Gods Say It's Time....

When the steelhead gods say its time, then it's time.

My good friend Ryan took up the Spey game a year ago, and he's been dedicated to two handed casting with the goal of hooking his first steelhead on the Spey.

Yesterday, it happened.

Three quarters through the swing in my favorite run in my favorite river in the world this A run gamer slammed his bug and off to the races it went.  Hatchery in origin, it is current marinating in wait of the bbq tonight at the Bailey household.

Two weeks ago Ryan accompanied OMR and I to the big water in the hopes of crossing off the list.  In the last run of the day I turn around  to hear "fish, fish, fiiiiiiiish" and Ryan was hooked up.  Two seconds later the fish was off and if he was the swearing type, I am sure there would have been some choice words.  Sometimes, the connection isnt sold and the fish swims on.  Dems da breaks. 

Now back to yesterday, as it's not always the biggest fish you catch that leaves the biggest mark on your brain. .  Often times, it's the one you work the hardest for, as in the case here with Ryan's first spey rod steelhead.

By the way, that fish is bigger than it looks.  Ryan used to play basketball for the Palouse Cougars and thus, he's a huge dood.  He estimated the buck around 5 lbs.

A Series of Steelhead Events...

Cooler overnight temps finally have the fish moving up the Big River onward in their fall push to the inland tributaries.  We thought we would try out luck to see if any were willing dance partners.

Nothing like hooking up to the chagrin of the gear slinging guide boats.  You could almost hear them groan as OMR hooked up in front of 2 loaded guide boats.  Take another lap there dudes, you cant battle OMR's fish karma!

You know what's special....Watching the rocketship burn off line of your dad's reel and listen to him whoop and hollar, giggling away like my son.

Almost there....

Jack Pot.  I have yet to meet a man who has more fish mojo than this man.  OMR is on the board for the 2012 summer steelhead season. 

The Echo Dinner Plate

Holy line pickup Batman!

Just added new toy to the spey arsenal, the Echo Ion 10/12 Monster. 

Alright, the name isnt actually "Monster" but the bugger is huge and with the need at times for fast line retrieval, this should do the trick very nicely.  And at $80 bucks retail, why the hell not. 

Although it's made in Korea (what the hell isnt?) it's very reassuring that with a company like Echo, you know they stand behind their products without question.  It makes the purchase that much easier.

I shall fish it this weekend on the Big River, and hopefully will test it against a big fish. 

Here's to hope and new gear.  Whooooody hoo!

Redington Sonic Pro's--A Ladies Perspective

Today we have a guest post from my buddy Loran Kerrigan from Peak7 Adventures, regarding her experiences with the Redington Sonic Pro Waders, made specifically for women. 

Loran and her husband Ryan run Peak7, a fantastic organization that give disadvantaged youth a chance to experience the great outdoors through rafting, camping, climbing and more.  Hopefully in the future we can get them to expand their offerings to fly fishing!
----

You could say I come from a fishing family. 

Being from Cincinnati, OH my dad grew us up going to the Boundary Water Wilderness Canoe Area
(BWWCA) in Minnesota and Canada. I learned what portage was and how to fish and camp up there.

My brother who is ten years older spent his college summers and furthermore into graduate school as a professional fly fishing guide on the Flathead River through Spotted Bear Ranch. 

I would visit him several times and he taught me how to fly fish. Of course, at first he took us to the holes where trout would jump at anything, so I was hooked on the fly from then on. We'd stalk fish from boulders above and land them. It was awesome. 

There was only and has only been one problem, my gear!  I have always borrowed my brother's and dad's gear, which is never cut right for women and generally makes a long day on the water much longer.

The fishing world has taken notice to what ladies need as I now have my own pair of female specific waders, the Redington Women Sonic Pros

They are so cute, with double zippers and the teal Redington logo on the front pocket.  Despite the cute and creative girlie accents, the waders are very comfortable and technical. The hip belt is easy to maneuver, although.  I wish you could pull the slack tight against the belt without having a slack loop, but I just tucked the strap into the belt loop, so it was smooth, without a big webbing loop when tightened. 

The neoprene feet socks may not feel form fitting, but when you put your boots on,they fit perfectly inside the boot and are very comfortable. I have worn my waders now in the Spokane, Provo and Clearwater and love the waders so much. 

But, I think after getting suited up and getting in the car at Clearwater, I realized that I should probably have the size M/L, which means medium/long. I don't have as much flex in the knee
and leg area to bend down. They're fine, but when I get my next pair, I'll get the M/L, as I am 5'9

The fabric of the wader is not Gore-Tex, but one that is very similar and just as good. I have been wading to a deep as the bottom of my breast pockets and evenhad my phone in the pocket for pictures and they're completely dry and safe. The straps and suspenders detach along with a front zipper, making accessibility and adjusting super easy and comfortable.  

Needless to say, I really do love my Sonic Pro Women's Waders! I'll never ever go back to borrowing men's waders, it's not worth it now that I know the feeling of being comfy and cute on the water!