Greys Wing Travel Fly Rod

The Greys Wing Travel Fly Rod exists for the trip where the rod tube is the problem. Overhead bins, float plane cargo holds and pack straps all have opinions about a four piece nine footer, and the Wing Travel answers by breaking every model in the range into six sections instead of four. That is the whole premise: a rod that rides inside a backpack or a carry on rather than strapped to the outside of it, on a backcountry hike or a long haul flight, without giving up the way it casts once you get there.

Greys did not build a single travel rod and stop. The range runs from a 9ft 5wt single hander through a 9ft 8wt, then into three two handed models at 11ft 3wt, 11ft 4in 5wt and 14ft 8/9wt, all of them six piece. So the rod you pack for a trout week and the rod you pack for a swung fly trip come out of the same family, and each one is tapered for its own job rather than sharing one generic travel blank.

Blank

Powerlux Carbon - Every Wing Travel model is built on a Powerlux carbon blank in a compact six piece layout. Six sections means five ferrules instead of three, which is why the section joins matter more here than on a standard four piece rod, and why Greys prints a model ID and alignment dots on the sections. The dots let you line up the guides correctly on a cold morning without sighting down the blank piece by piece, and the model ID keeps sections from two rods in the same bag from getting mixed together.

Application Specific Action Design - The action is medium fast across the range, but the taper is set per model rather than scaled up and down from one blueprint. Medium fast is a deliberate choice on a multi piece rod: it keeps the rod loading progressively into the mid section, which smooths out casting stroke timing and makes the rod forgiving of the small variations in ferrule seating that come with assembling six pieces every day of a trip.

Guides

Stripping Guides - Lined stripping guides on every model. The insert gives the line a hard, slick surface to shoot against, which matters most on the two handed models where a whole head is leaving the rod on every cast, and it resists the grooving that a bare frame eventually picks up from grit.

Snake Guides - Single foot or double foot snake guides depending on the model, so the guide train is matched to what each blank is being asked to do rather than standardized across a range that spans a 5wt and a 14ft two hander. Every model in the range carries 11 guides, so the six piece build does not come at the cost of a sparse guide train, and line follows the blank cleanly through the bend.

Reel Seat

Every Wing Travel gets an alloy reel seat with dual locking nuts and a nylon cushion ring, so the reel foot is clamped from both sides and the cushion ring keeps the nuts from backing off under casting vibration. That is worth having on a rod you break down and reassemble constantly. The slide band is keyed and milled to cut weight, and the spacer is either selected wood or alloy depending on the model, so check the model you are ordering if the look of the seat matters to you.

Rod Tube

The rod ships in a rod bag and a hard tube. Because the blank is six piece, that tube is substantially shorter than the four piece tube for the same rod length, which is the point of the whole exercise: the 9ft models pack down small enough to go inside luggage instead of being checked as an oversize item.

Warranty

Greys runs its own rod warranty, separate from the Hardy program. Register the rod within 60 days of purchase and you are covered for the lifetime of the product for repair or replacement, at Greys discretion, of damaged, broken or defective sections. Claims currently carry a 75 dollar charge that covers repair or replacement, handling, administration and return postage, and you pay the shipping to send the rod in. Coverage applies to the original owner only and does not extend to lost or stolen rods or sections. If a rod is discontinued and sections are no longer available, Greys may offer a comparable current rod at a discounted price. These are the United States terms; other regions are handled by their own Greys customer service department.

More Info

• Rod Action: Medium Fast
• Best For: Travel where packed length is the constraint, including carry on flights, bush planes and backpack access, covering trout on the 9ft 5wt, streamer and light saltwater work on the 9ft 8wt, and swung fly fishing on the two handed models
• Grip Style: AAA cork. Reversed half wells on the 9ft 5wt, full wells with a fighting butt on the 9ft 8wt, and two handed spey grips on the 11ft, 11ft 4in and 14ft models
• Ability Level: Intermediate to Advanced
• Line Weight Range: 3wt to 8/9wt
• Lengths: 9ft, 11ft, 11ft 4in and 14ft
• Pieces: 6 on every model
• Guides: 11 on every model
• Reel Seat: Alloy, dual locking nuts, nylon cushion ring, keyed and milled slide band, wood or alloy spacer by model

Recommended Lines

A medium fast blank rewards a line that loads it progressively rather than one built to bend a tip fast recovery rod. For the 9ft 5wt, the Rio Gold Premier Fly Line is the straightforward pairing, with a long head and a taper that mends at distance and still lays a dry fly down quietly. For the 9ft 8wt, the Rio Outbound Short Premier Fly Line carries a short, heavy head that loads six sections of blank in one or two false casts, which is what you want when you are throwing a weighted fly into wind rather than making a lot of aerial work. The two handed 11ft 3wt and 11ft 4in 5wt are trout spey rods, and the Rio Elite Skagit Mini Max Power Shooting Head covers them in the light grain window they are designed around. The 14ft 8/9wt is a full size two hander and takes a correspondingly heavier Skagit head, not the mini range above.