Building The Rodfather Diamond Blaze [drc #18 - 8'6" 4pc 4wt] 25Apr22-21May22

A guy's gotta keep busy with a foot of snow on the ground but the ski resorts and trails closed. While I have an awesome Winston 8'6" boron 4wt for dries (and really anything) and a Rodfather 9' 4wt w/ fighting butt, based on CTS Affinity X, again for anything ~ my go to at the PT, Jurassic, and 11 Mile, I will compliment these with a Rodfather 8'6" 4wt for closer quarters & stellar accuracy as out at Rainbow Falls or in 11 Mile Canyon. Do I need it, no; it will give me flexibility among my primary Colorado weapons, the 4 weights, and I get to build a keen new rod. I call it the Diamond Blaze 'cause of the custom handle and it's speed. The RFDB is a serious contender for the 4 weight "always ready" slot in the rod vault (versus the RFCT there now); it casts great, balances well and feels dreamy smooth with a perfect of ERN 4.6, and it is righteously fast with an AA 69°. It weighs 4.1oz due to the heavier handle but delivers a sweet 9.3 swing weight. The rod mates perfectly to either the Ross Evolution LT 1.5 or the Redington Rise loaded with 4 weight SA Mastery Amplitude Smooth WF4F (effectively weighing in at 4.75). The dark green Evo reel is a bit off the color scheme of the RFDB, but a nicer reel than the orange Rise. It's complete butter either way, not unlike the Winston boron rod really, but  sports a fighting butt, which I do now tend to favor.

The parts came from MudHole and I fashioned a keen "18 diamonds" handle for this rod (1.4oz), one of my nicest yet (but a bit heavier than others). I selected my favorite REC nickel-silver ultralight NBS uplocking reel seat with curly koa wooden insert and a matching removable fighting butt hardware. I then mounted all that  to the butt section of the blank.

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Here's wrapping the the RFDB on the MHX high modulus blank weighing just 1.25oz and colored slate grey... I've never tried this Chinese manufactured blank. The guides are the classic ECO coated silver Snake brand guides with a Fuji stripper guide. I wrapped out the rod with brownish variegated thread offset by maroon. Stunning IMO.