Burkheimer 13ft. a reminder of the gentle art

carbon fibre tube This classy rod is finely finished in a varnished dark bottle greenwith fuji rings and high single snakes. The rod features a plainbut practical metallic black reel fitting but a very attractive,elegantly shaped cork handle, and beautifully hand-painted roddetails on the lower blank. The rod comes in a smart grey-greenaluminium tube and grey rod bag. When we first received this rod we feared the worst. Our lab testsshowed the rod to be medium-slow in action with little inner steel.The whole rod would bend through to the handle when under pressureand felt quite different to most modern rods. Its tested frequencyput it firmly in the medium-stiffness category yet it felt softerthan this, The rod was a revelation; an eye opener and a reminder of joyspast. It took me back to my long ago favourite fly rod the HardyJet 9ft #6 glass. I loved that rod and I loved this one too. This Burkheimer fly rod was simply a glorious delight to use. We pairedit with a #7(+) long bellied weight forward line and put it throughthe whole range of spey casts on the lovely river Tyne. The rod wasbeautifully balanced, light as feather and responded to afeather-like touch—yet the line fairly sailed into thedistance, simple as you please, thank you very much. Casting withthis rod was like conducting an orchestra with small smoothdelicate movements resulting in long, tightly unfurling note-likeloops. Have we forgotten how lovely flycasting can be? This is thefirst Burkheimer we’ve used and we want to try more. It hasbrought us back to the noble, gentle art yet in a modern contextand is a brave departure from the current norm. We highly recommendboth the rod and the gentle art of flyfishing that is represents. This is a genuine specialists tool to be brought out on thosespecial occasions when grilse fishing in low water with floatingline and tiny flies. It is for feather-light fishing on those sunnydays with broken cloud and gentle summer breezes. I can think of nobetter rod for fishing the lovely river Alness in July, or perhapson a summer’s eve on a shrunken Dee at the mouth of theFeuch, in front of the Banchory Lodge hotel with diners watchingon. We are talking here of delicate work with the most sensitivesalmon fly rod we have ever encountered and the thrill of hooking afresh grilse on a size 12 blue charm with this rod excites me now.