new wright and mcgill rods

has anyone seen the new wright and mcgill steelhead/salmon rods?

i happened to see a "demo rod" as the guy said down at Fish country on the cowlitz. they have an odd look with the "cloudy day" graphic the entire length of the rod.

anyone know when they will be officially on the market?

I haven't seen them, however I lover their rods. I was at sportco the other week and a guy said they should be recieving a shipment in the next few weeks!

Haven't seen them. I have a couple older Wright & McGill rods, known as Eagle Claw, sort of yellow or yellowish color to the blanks, made of fiberglass, extremely good value considering what they can do for the price in comparison to any modern graphite rods, but that's another subject altogether.

Sg

I have two. Friend is a guide and gave a trout rod and a steelhead to me. Looks nice. I fished his W&M rods in November, they work fine.

how are they are far as weight is concerned? the one i felt was a little tip heavy it was a 10'6" 4-8lb spinning rod

Had a chance to meet the rep and preview the new rods at 3 rivers several months ago and they were sweet.

These handled very well with the reel I used. Without a reel, the rod should be tip heavy.

Most rods over 9'6" are slighty tip heavy

well the one i felt was especially tip heavy.......with the slimmed down handle.

are the casting rods the same way? split foam rear grip and tiny composite cork for the fore grip?

Be care full as some people on this board have been known to make fun of yellow rods.

Just sayin.

thanks. looks good to me. i just built a rod with foam grips and like it alot over cork

That's fortunate cuz good cork is getting scarce.

I have heard that good cork is getting harder to come by.

As for the W&M rods, I have not seen the new models yet but I liked their 4 piece spinning and casting rods and plan to get one of each in the future.

I looked at these this weekend. Sporties was selling them for 99.99, not sure if it was just the sport show price or not.
I played with the 10'6" model, thinking it would be a good side rod. I don't care much for the color, but that's the last thing I look at in choosing rods. I like the grips, the guides are standard cheapo rod guides, same for reel seat. I didn't think the action was all that great, certainly not enough to replace my Loomis rods with these, but if I was just getting started and needed to outfit a boat, I would probably pick up a set.

The W&M was included in a review of "hot shot" or "plugging" rods in the latest edition of Salmon and Steelhead Journal. They get a good review, especially for the price, but do not quite compare to the more expensive Loomis, Lamiglass, ...

For us old guys that have been at this fishing business for awhile, there was a time when the Wright & McGill (Eagle Claw) yellow Granger was the rod to own, especially with an Ambassaduer star drag reel.

Then it was Fenwick, and now there are many to choose from.

I'm still using some of my 30 year old+ Fenglass rods, which I had Gregg's Custom Rods in Lake Stevens, cut to four sections adding metal ferrels that I use for travel rods which fit into my checked luggage while stored in a 24 inch PVC tube.

Ron Mount is the Eagle Claw rep here for well over 30 years. If you see those Eagle Claw hook packages with the guy holding a stringer of trout, that is his Dad, Paul who was with Eagle Claw I believe back into the 1930's.

I haven't tried the new rods, but have great memories of the first Eagle Claw rod I had and hooked my first Steelhead on the Smith River in northern California in 1961.

My Eagle Claw pack rod lasted 30 years before I gave it to my daughter when I started shooting photos for Fenwick and traded part of my fee for Fenglass Rods.