A little over a year ago, Carl McNeil asked me if I was interested in making a small run of my favorite Epic glass taper. Weight, length and color for me to choose. I was honored about the commission and decided to accept the challenge.
The Epic 376 is one of my absolute favorite 3wt glass tapers. Very crisp and responsive, and a highly capable fishing rod. Most 3wt glass rods are quite soft, which can be really nice when the conditions are right. But too often the conditions are not. It's windy, or the fish is rising out of range. Usually I will have to go with a 4wt rod, or even a 5wt rod. But with the Epic 376, I can still enjoy the delicacy of a true 3wt without losing faith in my rod if a large fish bites. I decided to go for the Mocha brown color, as I love understated design and brown is a classic color when it comes to glass fly rods.
These five rods were appointed with all cork reel seats and polished nickel silver skeletons. The hardware is turned and knurled in-house, and the butt cap is made from brown rubber to accomplish the blank. I decided to use down locking reel seats to emphasize the archaic look. Down locking seats usually calls for shorter grips to avoid getting the hand too far away from the reel. I made a straight Ritz grip (5.5’’/0.86’’) with a flare at the thumb position, that allows the hand to move freely backwards over the reel seat area. The REC Mildrum MRF stripping guide has a nice profile and gives the rod a sporty flavour. My first preference when it comes to snake guides is Snake Brand Originals, thanks to the extra short feet, the durable and the even quality. All guides were wrapped with Gossamer Pearsall silk and finished up with two rounds of light building Epoxy. I take great pride in making my own rod socks. These were made from bright blue shirt linen cloth and really adds to the tailored feeling. Epic blanks already have a beautiful factory signature, so I decided to brand them with my pyrographic logo on the reel seats.
All these five rods have now been sold, and I hope that they will be fished hard. That’s what Epic rods are made for.
