UPDATE: I actually ended up trading this rod for an Orvis 7'6" 1wt 4 piece Superfine Touch graphite rod, almost immediately after posting this. The Steffen is off to it's new home and I ended up going to the Orvis in Leesburg to pickup a WF1F line and a size 1 Battenkill reel. I'll have all this put together mid-week, at which time I'll post more. Bluegills are going to rock even harder than they did the 3wts!!!!
I checked the water temperature today - 54 degrees. We chummed the water with bread to see if the bluegills wanted to come out and wrestle - but no takers. Maybe a few more degrees and they'll jump in the ring! After she shanghai'ed my rod/reel last time, I bought Noe a new reel to go with her current rod. Lined that up with 4# Stren and she is good to go. Now we just need some fish...
I lined the Kabuto 7033 with a RIO Perception WF3 - and wouldn't you know it, it cast it beautifully!!! I have cast four different lines on it now and it has handled them all perfectly!!! It is a rare rod that can cast several lines, but do to that well like it was made to cast each line specifically, that is one in a million - if I had to have only one flyrod, this Kabuto would be it (and I'm glad I don't have to own just one and can enjoy them all).
That said, the Ijuin Yomogi is a completely different beast all together. As I said before - this is the slowest rod I have ever cast. I lined it up with a SA Supra DT3 and it forces you to slow down every part of the cast. In that process you feel the backcast load, the line unfurl after you stop the backcast, the rod reloading as the forward cast begins, and the stop rod flexing at the end of the forward cast and you see the line unfurl completely and land with no force whatsoever. With this rod, you will not punch 50' of line through a 10 knot headwind. You will not break the sound barrier either. But you aren't supposed to. You will enjoy developing an intuitive understanding of the cast, and if you are lucky enough to get a fish to play tug of war, you will smile like a little kid on Christmas - this is the definition of ultralight weight fiberglass fishing.
These rods are just wonderful - despite their being the same length, having the same three pieces and the same line designator, they could not be any more different. They do share the fact that they are both works of art that are meant to be enjoyed out on the water catching fish!
Spent a few minutes after work practicing casts with the Featherlight and a DT6 line.
I can't say that I'm getting better, but I can say that I can better recognize what mistakes I am making.
Not all is lost though - especially with a life-long pursuit like surfing or flyfishing, you have good days, and you have some less good days. Seeing less pile casts (leader-tippet-fly landing in a big bird's nest), lots more distance in every cast, and being able to hit targets with my eyes closed and using "the Force"/feeling the rod load and release has made most of these past several days good ones.
Before closing this post, I have to endorse this very inexpensive rod again - the Eagle Claw Featherlight 7'0" 5/6wt 2 piece fiberglass rod. This is definitely a way to get into flyfishing for much less than you would imagine. Yeah, I will still get rods that are hundreds of $ - that is just the way I am when I get interested in something, but I am really just intent on getting rods that cast lines well with the cadence that I have and allow me to smile when I cast to spots in the grass or when I'm lucky enough to, the piscine tug-o'-war championship league members. More exposure to different rods equates to more experience and better defining what it is I like in a rod. Being able to trade helps a lot too. Do yourself a favor, go out and buy this rod, beat the heck out of it and make a ton of memories!
Originally, I wanted to catch fish, but with the rains and really cold temperatures, the water was not conducive for hooking up - lots of current and sediment, oh and really cold.
So to salvage the 35 minute one way trip - I switched to practice casting. Taking the time to just cast without worrying about looking for fish to fool definitely makes you analyze your mechanics. I found that I was getting too many tailing loops on my forward casts. I've since hit youtube looking for corrective measures and on line lessons. And so, I went fishing for the first time in 2014 and got skunked by the fish (sucks). But I did get a bit better at casting (important). The Superfine went in the mail to the next loan recipient and I am eagerly awaiting the next rod (checkout the Fiberglass Manifesto for the rod loan program). I packed up and left just before the rain hit. 
Here is the DC/Northern Virginia/Maryland area, there is a webgroup called the Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders. There is a forum where you can get information on places to fish, what is being caught, what equipment is out there, what flies are working and who is out there fishing. Recently, there has been a few people trying to line up a casting session where you bring what fiberglass equipment you have and you get to try what everyone else brings. Despite the really cold temperatures this morning (12 degree F), four of us on the forum got together to cast. I brought the D. Lewis Performance Rods 6'6" 3/4wt 3 piece, the C. Barclay Glass 3wt 3 piece, and the Orvis Superfine Glass 7'0" 3wt.
Lucky for me I am not a person concerned with my image and I am very receptive to constructive criticism - I heard "SLOW DOWN, THIS AIN'T GRAPHITE" more than a few times during the shared casting - but when I did slow down, did I get a huge smile on my face as the rods started throwing controlled tight loops. There were Fenwicks (the 7'6" 4wt that Bruce brought was a gem), a half-built McFarland (wonderful rod that Carl Z was still building), a sibling rod to my D. Lewis 6'6" - a 7'0" Lamiglas S Glass 3/4wt (Art seems to think there were not many of these - I just know the 6'6" is the sweetest rod I own because it likes my casting cadence), an Eagle Claw Featherlight 5/6wt that I found casts a DT6 as sweet as silk, a tiny Lamiflex that Bruce had yet to fix the reel seat he stripped off of it years ago - but that rod could cast a line and pull wide smiles from me, and many more.
And last but certainly not least, Carl brought out some fly rods built out of spinning rod blanks that made me look like a casting god (at least I like to think so) - tadpoles!!! I can't remember the last time I was that cold - a few hours of casting and I had frozen sinuses and locked fingers, but the experience was invaluable - in getting more experience with different rods, learning for more seasoned casters on how to improve my own casting, and meeting some cool new people. I thought about pulling the waders on and trying to catch my first fish of the year - but I didn't want to risk a skunk with the temps so cold, or reduce the effectiveness of my casting muscles and miss out on casting the different rods. Definitely time well spent!
While I was casting, I decided to try and get to know the Barclay Glass rod better. I lined it with the WF4F SA Trout line and began casting. It seemed to like the heavier line better (even though RIO Golds are slightly heavier to begin with - maybe the 3 I have is a 3.5), but as I continued to cast, I started to realize, it was not the rod, or the 3wt Gold, or even the 4wt SA Trout line - it was my cadence. I can feel the rod load, I think I now need to slow down my pauses between the load and foward/back casts. I'll go back to the RIO Gold 3wt line and try slowing everything down and enjoy the sweetness this rod promises. It just so happens that I will be participating in fiberglass rod get together tomorrow - other guys bringing other rods and everybody casting them all. Of course I'll get there early and chuck some fake meat to the year-round sunnies. So here I take my first steps to becoming a better fly caster -
I signed up to participate in a fiberglass rod loan program from The Fiberglass Manifesto. And the first rod came in today - the 7' 3 piece 3wt Orvis Superfine Glass. I lined it up with my RIO Gold 3wt line and practice cast it in the snow filled road. This rod is a true 3wt - I felt like I could hit whatever I wanted to, just point and shoot. The feeling of the rod loading on the backcast was not as evident as what the Lewis 6'6" provides. And overall this rod is softer throughout, but in a balanced way. I like the taper (but truthfully if they made the uplocking reel seat in black I think the aesthetics would be much better). I've got my name in the hat to try out several other rods, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to get more working knowledge under my belt. It is actually rare when I practice cast... I think this year I will have to change that and get better overall casting whenever I have some spare time (resolution???).
