Caught the mountain at least

Hi guys,
No musky this morning, but then it is...musky. Had 2 really good smallies hit my big Mayfield Minnow, but they were just nipping the feathers.

I missed a small musky last Thursday, but nada today.

Also tried sneaking up on mama boss carp, but she escaped once again. I'll get her one of these times. She's a hog.

I at least good a great chance to fish my "buddy/spare" rod. My buddy (how ironic) saw my post on here and offered to build a Sage RPL 11wt for me. He has been sitting on the blank for many years. He got it when he lived in Alaska. Thought it might be a good king rod. Or even lings and halibut.

Anyway, he graciously built it for me and it turned out great. And it's a great musky rod! I like it better than the Orvis Clearwater Musky specific rod I bought a couple years back. So which one is the buddy rod now??? Guess it depends on the buddy.

Rigged proper


Mountain looked good as always.

 

[Buzzy]

RPLX - great rods in 8 weight, nice to know they're good in an 11 weight too - they must be tough hauling on that mountain. Oh my, your rod has a hook keeper!

 

[Wanative]

RPLX - great rods in 8 weight, nice to know they're good in an 11 weight too - they must be tough hauling on that mountain. Oh my, your rod has a hook keeper!

I've got a 7 wt in RPLX.

 

[skyriver]

We were wondering if the X on the blank actually meant RPLX since it's separated from the RPL. We couldn't find anything definitive from Sage. The B means it was sold as a blank.
Based on the very stiff butt and it liking an old (NIB) Wulff SWT12I line I agree it's definitely the RPLX. And this one is the 2 piece so 1190-2.

I can see how some might think it's a broom stick, but I bet most of those people like a slower rod and probably had a true WF11 line on it. True 11wt lines back when this thing came out weren't like today's .5 or .75 heavy lines.
This is why the old timers always knew to match the rod weight with a DT line, but for WF always good to go up a line.

What's funny is I bought an absolute ancient Cortland Rocket Taper WF11I for it in case it was the regular RPL. $17.50 off ebay, never opened. The box sticker said $22.50. Maybe English pounds?? Haha!
Regardless, the RPLX doesn't like it, but the Orvis Clearwater 11wt takes to it quite nicely. So now I have a buddy rod, but I also have 2 rods I can rig when solo. One dark, 1 light or 1 intermediate and 1 sinker, etc. Pretty nice.

I have an old (NIB) Wulff TT12F and a 450gr Sonar sinker I have yet to try on the RPLX, but given how well it's doing with the Wulff SWT12I it will like those as well.

 

[Wetswinger]

Those Wulff Intermediate lines are sweet!..