Building The Rodfather Colorado ~ The Quintesential 5 Weight (drc #11 - 9' 4pc 5wt fast) 21Jul21-18Aug21

My rod building is strong and I now seek the most excellent and versatile rod for all over the Rocky Mtn's larger rivers. Introducing the Rodfather Colorado, a fast 9' 4pc 5wt with small removable fighting butt. Sure I like the spectacular Rodfather 10' 5wt All Blacks but it just is more specialized than a 9 footer. The lower swing weight and lower overall weight of the 9 footer is my sweet spot ~ I can tell especially when tossing all day. This is a Sage Buster for sure but is named alternatively.

I used my favorite finer materials, including the REC nickel silver reel seat with stabilized box elder burl insert and removable fighting butt hardware ($70), polished Snake brand guides ($40), and the awesome CTS Affinity X blank ($280) from New Zealand.

 

A new handle design specific for this rod is the "Always Forward."  Its three forward pointing arrowheads were created in sub-assemblies with lots of detailed sectioning and re-gluing. The custom turned full wells grip and smaller fighting butt feels, performs, and balances like a dream. The "beige" box elder burl insert is a stunning offset for the deep blue rod.

 

The color scheme had to reflect Colorado ~ so, mimicking our flag and our land, the rod is deep blue (like our sky), guide wraps are crimson (like our red 'C' and red rocks) and yellow (like the center of the 'C' for our sunshine & gold); ferrules were spiraled in red-yellow.  I added a white stripe on the butt segment, under the hook keeper, indicative of our snow-capped mountains represented by the center stripe of the our flag.

Bringing all this together yields one of the better 6wt rods I've thrown. That's right... for whatever reason the blank is too strong to be a righteous 5 weight ~ by a good margin. Hmmm... my other Affinity X blanks did not measure out this far from target at all. CTS isn't Orvis or Sage after all. The Colorado comes in as a righteous fast 6wt with an ERN of 5.9 and AA of 68°.

I will still mate it to the cool Hardy 4000 Ultralight CADD loaded with Amplitude Infinity line (weighing in @ ~5.5/1800 grains) - the line is lighter than desired for this rod but it allows a decent match to it while remaining light overall and the whole rig is cool AF IMO. I'm celebrating completion of this iconic rod with an excellent Rotating Imperial IPA from Melvin, the Boom Shakazacca... tasty. All the while I'm pondering what to do about the wicked stray from spec in the CTS blank and the hole somewhat left in the Rodfather 9 footers at the vital true 5wt spot.

UPDATE 25May22 - Ok, I love this rod and I cannot be made to hate it, despite the 6wt head fake. I can't load it with the Hardy as that's reserved for my heavy fives ~ loaded with 5 adn 1/2 wieght Amplitude. I searched my bin and found a lightweight reel with enough capacity for a 6wt ~ its the Aoka XS. It was intended for the TX bays for redfish, but was too light there (I had to borrow Rob's 9wt for the RFRF, which could've even used a 10). So, I repurposed the cool AOXS to the RFCO with great results - It's now loaded with Orvis Hydros WF6F (30' head gr weight of 160g) which mates perfectly with the RFCO. I love it now... balance is better: casting is finer; love is greater.