Someone is getting a new Toy Soon

Me too! My new 5 wt. outfit...wanted to fish it tuesday and wednesday, but had to do spring cleaning, house remodeling with the gf...Soon!

I haven't had a chance to fish it yet, just casting it on the lawn, but I like it quite a bit. The quality of the cork is great, better than the cork on any of my other rods, and the actual shape of the handle feels really good in my hand. This really is a fast rod. Faster than my Sage Fli's, faster than the Winston Ascent, about the same as my hardy Demon. The rod really is light, but it still balances well with a fairly stocky reel. The rod I bought is a 9 foot 5 tip flex.
The only complaint I have about the rod is the rod tube, its not the super strong PVC the way their old rod tubes were. I have an old clearwater that came in an ugly green PVC tube, but that tube was tough. I can squeeze the Hydros tube and compress it with my hand. I guess I just expect the rod tube to be more substantial.

The reel is a Dutch 2, they're made in Holland. They have a beautiful smooth drag, and I just love the way they look. International Angler in Pittsburgh has dutch reels.

very nice Skip, I just built myself a 7' dan craft 1 weight a great rod & fun to fish

Looks pretty darn good to me, enjoy it...it's always fun fishing with something you know is YOURS.

Had just a little time to kill after work yesterday, so I quickly headed over to a local pond. This place is closer to my house than any other lake or stream I normally fish, and as far as I know, I'm the only one that has permission that actually goes and fishes it, so outside of drastic weather changes, I can usually manage at least a few fish any time I go. I hoped that the pond would produce a few gills in my limited time frame, despite the chilly air and stiff breeze.

After a quick bit of UV Knotsense that I hadn't applied to my fly line loop, I attached a leader and a fly and started fishing the stimulator that I'd been using on this leader the last time it saw use. No luck. Nothing was rising at all in the wind, so I switched to a small wet fly, a #12 leadwing coachman. Before long, I felt a tug and tightened the line.



Soon after, my new 1wt landed its first fish. Not exactly the Leviathan, but lots of fun.



After this, I continued on my lap of the pond, picking up a few more gills here and there. I was almost back to where I started, and the wind was really starting to make casting a chore when I managed to lay out a fairly neat cast roughly parallel to the shore, about 2-3 feet into the water. Stripping the coachman slowly, I was rewarded by a greenish silver flash under the wind-rippled water. As I lifted to start the battle with another gill, the line pulled back violently, flexing the rod much deeper than it had for the fish before. Immediately, the bass let me know I was dealing with sterner stuff.



This battle really showed me how different a 1wt is going to be, as I'd have beached this fish within a few short moments with any of my other rods, even the 3wt that sat in its tube in the car. As I got the fish on the reel, it came to the surface, saw me move, and dove again, encouraging the Sage 3100 drag to sing a bit. After a bit more fighting, I was able to kneel down and grab the bass by the lip for a quick photo shoot and release.



All in all, it was a great first trip for the 1wt, and I cant wait to get it out again tomorrow! Sorry about the poor photo quality, I left my camera at home and had to depend on the cell for these shots.

awesome duud.  way bigger than anything i've landed on my 1wt.
 
btw, spotburn! 

awesome duud.  hook setting with the 1wt for stockies was tricky my first time with it as well.

Beautiful. I'm building a two weight as we speak for just that type of scenario.