Review: Barclay's Jackpot

Along the years Chris Barclay has become a good friend because of our love for fiberglass rods. Besides owning several of his rods we also like to discuss about little details on rod building (grips are my favourite!), type of action and fishing with very light fiberglass rods.

Recently Chris sent me one of his heavier line weight rod from his Synthesis rod series he calls the 'Jackpot' for me to review. On his website he says what he had in mind when he designed this rod :
"A 7’7” 7wt 3 piece rod I call the Jackpot. A bass rod I designed to pull big fish out of heavy cover. Suitable for fishing mangroves, salt ready"

At 7.7ft length the rod is quite a bit shorter than most heavier line weight rods resulting in a very light rod. When casting it exerts very low swing weight compared to 9 ft rods. I don't have a 7 weight line on hand so I tried the rod using a 6 weight and 8 weight line. Fiberglass rods generally have a wide 'line weight range' and when casting both lines the rod felt very natural like it was made for it. Obviously with the 6 weight line the rod felt a bit faster than with the 8 weight line. It's remarkable how delicate the rod delivers the line when slowing down the casting stroke.

This rod has some serious, yet smooth, power without feeling stiff. I wanted to see how it would handle a wind resistant fly so I tied on a 3 inch deer hair fur strip muddler on the 8 weight line. In spite of the shorter length of the rod I had no problem keeping the line high when false casting by generating ample line speed. With just a few back casts the rod delivers 80+ feet with ease. The rod still had reserve left but that's not what this rod is meant for. As Chris describes it's for casting under branches for a big bad large mouth bass or a snook in the mangroves. Being so light yet powerful I bet it's a ton of fun. I don't see such a trip in the foreseeable future for me yet but I know which rod I'll be bringing along.

The slightly sanded blank has this classic amber color and butt-over-tip style ferrules. The rod can be custom ordered with any type of grip shape (even with an Eva grip!), reel seat and configuration of guide wrap color or type of guides. The rod comes with an aluminum tube with a nice brass cap. All the blanks of the Synthesis rod series are designed by Chris and made by Mike McFarland.

Thanks Chris for the opportunity to try this rod.

Here's a video on tying an easy leader for fishing deer hair bugs: