Hey guys,

I spent last weekend on a new river in Central Oregon. It was very high and deep, and the first day only got two fish with a thingamabobber, my poorest day of trout fishing in like a year. The next day, I decided to ditch the thingamabobber, and spent the day high sticking. Totally uncharted terrain for me, but managed to get 10 fish. It was a complete "Eureka!" moment for me, and I'm really excited to stay off my bobber addiction and start learning some Euro Nymphing methods.

I found this forum yesterday, and my god, what a wealth of great information!

Anyways, I'm thinking about picking up a Rod for Czech/Euro nymphing, something in the 10-10.5ft range, and I'm looking for suggestions. I as originally looking at the 5100 z-axis and the 5100 Scott S4, until I found this forum, and realized that most people are using 3-4wts. The Winston BIIX 4100 sounds like it could be nice too, and I typically really like the action on Winston rods. The echo Shadow also sounds like a really good bet, but, I have a pretty large store credit with a Fly Shop, and they don't carry echo. In other words, I could get a Sage or Winston for free, but if I get an Echo, I'm gonna have to pony up $330 out of pocket.

What are your suggestions? Typically, I'm not a huge fan of Sage for freshwater, as I find most of them to be overly powerful and fast for trout fishing. Like I said, I'm a big winston fan, so am curious if any of you have tried the new 4100 BIIx.

Or, should I just pony up the $330 and get the Echo? It sounds like a great Rod, and I am a big fan of Echo rods.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Spencer