From Here to Eternity

Rainshadow Eternity RX10 fly blanks, that is.

Back when I was poor, meaning when I was in college spending all my money on beer, girls, and gas for fishing and hunting, I couldn’t afford fancy, expensive gear. I longed for certain fly rods back then, but the astronomical prices–$300 for a good fly rod—simply made them as far beyond my reach as Jamie Lee Curtis (Okay, I realize she was hot before some of you were born. Just trust me on this). But things were about to change in a huge way for me. Not with Jamie Lee, but with quality fishing rods.

A friend of mine showed me his 9-foot, 5-weight G.Loomis fly rod he’d built. I remember this very clearly—it had red thread and a black aluminum reel seat with a rosewood insert. I looked at that rod like Gollum looks at his “Precious.” I had to have one. He told me about a place in western Washington called Angler’s Workshop and said I could order everything I’d need to build a rod just like his. I asked him what it cost, and doing a little comparison, I figured he built that rod for about half what it would have cost him to by an already-built rod. Suddenly, that beautiful 5-weight was just within reach.

A Rod Builder is Born

So, I began building rods—all rods, not just fly rods—for two reason: First, by putting my own sweat equity in I could afford rods I otherwise couldn’t. Second, I was able to build technique-specific rods that simply weren’t available back then. Since then, I’ve built rods ranging from ultralight ice-fishing rods to 13’6” surf rods.

Nowadays, I’m not pinching pennies nearly as hard as I did back then. But I still enjoy building rods. I like to think I can build a better rod than I can buy. I use better components than the factory rods come with, and I KNOW the rod is put together right to eliminate the possibility of any failure.

Last spring, I acquired two new fly rod blanks from Batson Enterprises: the new RX10 Eternity 9-foot 6-weight (RXXF906-4SS), and the RX10 Eternity 9-foot 8-weight (RXXF908-4SS). I spun them up and have been using them since early July. I am impressed.

Batson Enterprises Rainshadow Eternity RX10 Rod Blanks

For the 6-weight, my intended use was for stillwater, throwing intermediate or sinking lines with various stillwater flies, and for floating line/indicator fishing with beads. I used Batson components on this rod, and it’s very helpful that they have detailed, suggested build sheets to help you with component selection to help ensure what you’re ordering is going to fit. I used a full-wells super-grade cork grip, a cork-and-composite fighting butt, an RA5 classic locking reel seat with a teak insert, and light wire snake guides plus an MXN titanium stripping guide with zirconium insert. This rod is light, fast, and responsive. If it were a car, I think it might be a Ferrari.

So far, I’ve landed a couple dozen trout and dollies on this rod, mostly fishing with a floating line, indicators, split shot, and beads. When I fished with a weight-forward intermediate line with typical lake flies, I found I could easily cast this rod farther then many of my slower-action rods. It’s a lightning rod.

I built the 8-weight for casting streamers, primarily to salmon other than Chinook, but also for some Outside fisheries like Pyramid Lake cutthroat and bull trout in places that shall remain unnamed. I again used the suggested components from a Batson build sheet, but on this rod I put a full-wells carbon-fiber grip, 2.5” carbon-fiber fighting butt, standard weight titanium chrome snake guides, and an RA8 aluminum reel seat since this rod might see some saltwater duty. The carbon-fiber grip proved to be very good looking, very light, and very sensitive.

The Go-To Rod Build

I have literally caught hundreds of salmon on this rod; all five species of Pacific salmon native to Alaska. This rod is no my go-to rod for stripping streamers for coho in rivers. It excels at casting fly lines like the RIO Outbound Short or RIO Striper lines, with big, lead-eyed flies in tow. No doubt it will work well for Alaska’s biggest rainbows, steelhead, and in the salt, silvers, pinks, and rockfish. I wouldn’t be worried if I hooked a 20-pound king with this rod in the salt, as long as I have sufficient backing. If the 6-weight is a lighting rod or Ferrari, the 8-weight is a thunder stick or 3500 RAM diesel.

Both rods share some strong attributes: extremely light, very fast, lots of lifting power for pulling fish towards a net. The blanks recover quickly and exhibit little east-west wobble when casting, resulting in tight loops and accurate casts. They are very powerful casters overall, and equally powerful fish-fighting tools. If you select the right components for these rods, and you put them together well, these blanks will compete with high-end fly rods costing upwards of $1,000. They are fantastic.

Elite Level Fishing Tools

There is one attribute of RX10 blanks that you’ll want to be aware of before you select what you want to build: They punch above their weight class. What I mean by that is it may be helpful to overline these rods one line weight because they are so fast. This will allow the rod to load more easily when you don’t have much fly line out, or if you aren’t a strong caster. These rod blanks are elite-level tools, aimed at the experienced, discerning hardcore flyfisher.

It’s not often that I use my Creel column to review gear, but I’m so impressed with the RX10 fly blanks that I wanted to make sure I tell you about them before Christmas in case you want to put one on your wish list. I know you do!

Merry Christmas to all!

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George Krumm is the Editor of both Fish Alaska and Hunt Alaska magazines. He can be reached at george@fishalaskamagazine.com.

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