It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone at this point that I love Cortland rods. With that being said, when the chance to grab a Cortland PAC rod came up, I jumped at the it. At this point, I am not sure it was a smart move. These rods belong in the Cortland FR 2000 family and were made between 1974 and 1980 I believe. There has been some discussion as to who made the blank and many people believe the blank was made by U.S. Fiberglass. The tube is marked Cortland PRF-2000 7' PAC-Rod. The rod has 5 pieces and when assembled it is 7'. My understanding is that there were two versions made of this blank made, one was a 5 piece and the other is a 6 piece. The rod itself is a translucent red with brown wraps. On the second piece of the rod it says PRF-2000 1-650-1 7' for line 6 rod weight 3 oz. Herein lies the problem. This rod actually handles better with a 7 weight line than it does a 6 weight line. For me personally, that seems a bit excessive in a 7' rod. I'm really not sure how I feel about it. In fact I'm not even sure when I will fish with it. Most of the waters I fish require between 3 and 6 weight line. I could see it being used for a short streamer rod on some of the smaller streams but even that might be overkill. I mean, we are talking about streams that are less than 5 feet deep and 20 feet or less across. Right now I am using a 5 weight line to chuck streamers and in clear water I feel like it might as well be a 12 weight. So, I am really on the fence about keeping this guy. I will have to take it out and throw some flies around when I have an opportunity. Maybe I'll change my mind. On the one hand it is a Cortland, vintage, hardly used and fiberglass but on the other hand it is a 7 footer throwing a 7 weight line. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Thoughts? What would you do?
Thanks for this post! I just found this rod in my granddad's things. I'm happy to have the description and the line weight recommendation as I'm new to the sport.
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