Wow, this thing will drop dimes at 80ft, right ahead of unsuspecting cutbows. It's just in time for springtime and is aptly named the Bombadeer. Did I need another 4wt (that's right, the Bombadeer is more like a strong 4)? Probably not. I couldn't ignore the deal for a nice high modulus rayon from Japan, rolled in China, blank marked down by 50% though. It's built on a light 8.5' 4pc from MHX's Native blank series and is plenty fast. Sweet. It tips in with a stout 4 ERN of 4.6 and is plenty fast with an AA of 68° yet only weighs a meager 3.5oz and the ultralight 5.5oz swingweight blows my mind. This rod displays the very lowest normalized swingweight (swingweight/ERN) in my entire quiver. I'm ready for a RF Diamond Blaze (my current go to 4wt) vs RF Bombadeer vs Winston B3X bakeoff... best 4s in the quiver. Though, the RFDB has nicer hardware than the "bargain" RFBA.
I started the build with a custom full wells handle and fixed fighting butt. It was interesting turning the fighting butt as I needed to epoxy it onto the end of the butt section, with the reel seat ahead, before turning. I registered the fighting butt dead center, taped off the seat, and wrapped the other end in masking tape for the chuck, and then turning went quickly. I conjured up a wild diamonds and variegated wave horizontal spiral grip that finished nicely. I have to say also that on the purchase date I also looked for a reel seat at a deal price and found a pretty American Tackle one with braided windows and coralwood insert in black & beige that matched my build perfectly... the only issue is that it did not come with a rear ring to "finish off" a build with a fighting butt so I just slightly buried the seat in the butt.
I added just simple CRB snake guides and a Fuji stripping guide for this "bargain build" but I did splurge on new tri-color variegated nylon in black, dark green, and desert tan for the wrapping. The wraps match the coralwood and satin charcoal blank well. I typically buy colorfast nylon but the new Tiger Pro Wrap stuff wasn't, so I "painted" the threads with color fastener before floating on the epoxy. No accent wraps this time - despite called size "A," the tiger wrap material is thicker and didn't mate well with my intended desert tan accent thread. One can't really see the tiger stuff from afar, but I know it's there and cool... the moire patterns created in the wrap tend to change as the wrap diameter shifts.
The Bombadeer measured out sweet with 1477 grains of power. It's balanced right; it's super light @ 3.46oz (lighter even than the marking as I have to guess just a bit before the last epoxy is put over the "logo"); it's cool mated to the Rise reel and perfectly matched when loaded with some new SA Amplitude Infinity Smooth WF4F (1st 30ft weigh 1540 grains).
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.