Guideline Fario

There’s been a lot of talking lately about Guideline’s new fly rod series Fario. It has been praised by the critiques (the 9′ #5 rod won a test in Trout & Salmon magazine) and our friends who have tested it have been very impressed. And when we got our hands on the 9′ #5 we just had to try it, even without water or fish.

Fredrik was on his way to a soundcheck and we only had time for some casts on the grass. Speaking of that, casting on grass really makes people talk: “Are you catching anything?”  “ Where’s the fish? Let me see the fish!” and so on. An old man came to us, shook his head and wondered what on earth we were up to and why. He had some tips for the really long casts, such as: “You have to put a heavy weight on the end of the line, then you’ll cast further”. We didn’t have anything to tie on the line so the man just shook his head, said some unrecognizable words and slowly went away, disappearing like a trout in the stream.

Well, the rod is not just beautiful to look at, it was a real delight to cast. We used a #5 Guideline Highwater line, and the action felt very good at all distances. You could easily load the rod even with a short line, but the rod didn’t have any problems to hold a long line in the air and then shoot the last meters. I know some people use to use heavier lines on their rods, say a #6 line on a #5 rod, to get a better feeling on short distance. I don’t think this is be necessary on this rod, even though it probably could handle a heavier line just fine. We never tried a #4 line but it would probably work well if you are used to lighter lines and faster action.

It was great fun to try the rod, and while the casts became longer and longer, the sense of time started to fade. Fredrik realized he was already late for the soundcheck and had to take the rod case and the drum stick case on his back, and ride the bike to the gig. I was left alone in the rain, without the rod, feeling empty. Well, I can’t wait to get fishing with that rod!