So I haven’t gotten out to fish lately. On the other hand I finally received a much anticipated package. My new 9′5 Burkheimer 6 weight. The rod is even better looking in person than on the website. I had Kerry build it to cast similar to a Winston BIIX. It is a 4 piece rod, the bottom sections from his saltwater line up and the top two sections from his DAL(deep action load) line up. This creates a a rod with a powerful, fast lower end and a deep loading fast top end. It is built saltwater ready with Titanium guides, strippers and seat. The cocobola wood insert adds a nice rich brown colour to the rich green blank. Beautiful craftsmanship.
I had it out on the grass today casting a 6 weight line loaded on an Abel Creek reel with the Bonefish finish(more on that later). It loads with very little line for short accurate casts. It can also fire out a long accurate cast with a tight loop. The trick is to really slow down and let the rod do the work, much like the BIIX that it imitates. The rod feels a bit stiffer in the bottom end than the BIIX and I would like to try casting a large weighted streamer with both rods for comparison. This stiffness adds to the swing weight of the rod and almost makes the rod seem noticably heavier than the Winston. They are almost the same weight. I would imagine this rod outperforming the the Winston in windy Saltwater environments but the Winston would be more enjoyable for lighter trout fishing. Both rods will be great for nymphing and streamer fishing on the big rivers I like to fish.
I would recommend Burkheimer rods to anyone looking for a fine crafted, personalized rod. In fact, for the price, I would recommend them over any premium flyrod. If you’re going to spend the money, you might as well get something that’s made just for you and your casting style.
The Abel Creek Bonefish reel looked really nice on the rod. I did notice that it reflected a lot of sunlight though. In my opinion, this could be detrimental when fishing for spooky bonefish in shallow water. Seeing as it is a click-drag reel, backing capacity would also be an issue. I would probably end up using pewter or black reel for flats fishing instead.