Douglas Outdoors' rod series called the Upstream was a big surprise for me and many others. I really love the smooth medium action of the Upstream. Loads of feedback on even the shortest casts. So much the opposite of all the fast rods that has been flooding the market the past years. After this success Douglas Outdoors decided to launch the Upstream Plus, a beefed up version of the original series. QFlyshop sent the first two rods (9ft #4 and #5) it received directly to me to take a look at them.
The Upstream Plus has the same 'natural tonkin' colored blank as the original Upstream. It's certainly not a 'sexy' color but after the initial look, it doesn't bother either. The grip and the reel seat has been altered to a nice comfortable snub nose-like grip and an unlocking seat with a cork spacer. The upper and lower 1/8" part of the grip has a varnished composite cork section similar to the Scott G2's grip. I couldn't really feel the cork of the grip as I left the plastic wrapping on the cork but it looked pretty familiar to my regular Upstream. Not the quality of a custom built rod, but certainly a quality cork grip.It also has the same spigot ferrules as the original Upstream with alinement dots so setting up the rod is a breeze. The rods come in a handsome grey colored aluminum tube. The tubes are very roomy, so traveling with two rods in one tube is no problem. The overall finish might not be up to par with rods by Sage, Winston and Thomas and Thomas but certainly comparable to, and maybe slightly better than, rods from Vision and Guideline.
All rods in the Upstream Plus series being 9ft (all 4 piece), makes them 'all purpose' and more familiar to the general fly fishermen looking for a rod in the most popular line sizes (#4 to #6). Since I'm a 4 weight junkie the first rod I grabbed was the 4 weight rod. For both rods I matched with a true weight fly line (not overweighted like the SA MPX or Rio Gold): the Orvis Hydros WF #4 and a SA Expert Distance #5. Although the Expert Distance is a long belly fly line, both fly lines are true to it's weight (median of the AAFTA fly line specification) in the first 30 ft. 
The remarkable conclusion is that the 4 weight version is a much stronger rod than the 5 weight rod. Relative to the line weight that is. The 4 weight rod felt too stiff lacking in good feedback on shorter (15 to 25 ft) distances. Even the longer casts I didn't quite feel the right feedback I wanted. The 5 weight version felt like a different rod, its action giving a much more balanced feed back on all distances. Obviously casting nice tight loops with both rods is a no brainer.
Both rods being quite powerful they had no problem casting up to 60-70 ft. I did try to cast 80+ ft on the 5 weight since the fly line used is a distance casting line. I didn't remove the plastic grip wrappings so getting a good hold of the grip when casting long distances was a bit awkward. Fishing a dry fly at 80ft is of course madness so the fast action should be translated to a fishing application. I'd like to see how the rod handles a heavy nymph rig or a large hopper-dropper combo 25 to 40 ft.
A bit bothered by the initial casting of the 4 weight rod I decided to swap reels. The 4 weight rod came alive with a 5 weight line! The stiffness was gone and smoothness appeared. In fact I loved this combination. Great feedback at shorter distances and it handled casting up to 50-60 ft superbly. The 4 weight rod being significantly lighter than the 5 weight rod, the rod felt amazing. The 5 weight rod seems to have a more balanced action altogether and handled the 4 weight line remarkably well. Obviously the rod felt a tad faster than with a 5 weight line, it still gave good feed back except for the very shortest distances.
The next afternoon I tried the 4 weight rod with an overweighted line (an older Airflo Ridge, about a half line size heavier). The rod immediately felt much livelier. Better feedback on shorter distances and it handled longer casts without a hitch. In fact I really enjoyed casting this rod. For the final insight of the rods would be fishing them, but for now it's certainly clear that the Upstream Plus series is complementary to the original Upstreams series. For most fishing conditions I think the 4 weight rod is too stiff. Use it with a heavily overweighted fly line like the SA MPX or go one line weight up. The 5 weight rod is a great 5 weight rod probably capable of doing almost everything a 5 weight rod should.
