Moonshine Rod Co. Fly Fishing Rods with Carrying Case and Extra Rod Tip Section, Slow-Medium-Fast Action, Carbon Fibre Fly Rod

I have a few Moonshine rods now and they are light, good to cast with and great quality for the price. Usually they have to be purchased from the USA with attendant fees and shipping, so finding a rod on the UK site at a very good price was a real steal deal!

The casting action is really good, on the faster side of medium fast, the backbone is perfect for a 5wt it's quite strong and not too stiff, it handled 2-4kg trout with ease. It isn't the Drifter 2 so keep that in mind, though it's really good as is!

Well made and good looking 9' fly rod.Perhaps a little on the stiff side for a #5 weight?

Lots of reviews and commentary about Moonshine - - - here's what I can tell you. I purchased a 3 and 4-wt drifter, and then another 3wt as a gift for a family member. Aesthetically, the rods look really good. The case works, and you can't beat getting the extra tip. I've fished both the 3 and 4 wt in skinny water and small rivers throughout IL & WI for mostly brown and brook trout, plus smallies and the unintentional rock bass / blue gill.One of the complaints I've read is that the rods feel heavy and stiff, some said it felt like casting a log... I didn't find this to be the case - - - I fished multiple sessions, days at a time, and never felt the weight of the rod to be heavy or clumsy. Casting, I was able to target pockets with accuracy ( relative to my own skills ). In many cases, the rods provided me with enough confidence to pursue to a few fairly ambitious targets, which paid off with strikes and landed fish, time and time again. I can't say much about backbone, as my target species were typically 8" to 12" browns - - - that said, i did handle a 15" brown to hand on the 4wt, and a thick 14" smallie as well. Never did i experience any breaking, splintering, or any other complaints other users have had...Overall, after one season, I'm a fan of the moonshine rods. I'm not going to say I'd take them over St. Croix, G. Loomis, Sage, etc... but I found them to do the job, especially for skinny water trout.

Grabbed this rod for a song, took it to Tennessee and hooked into trout. What a blast! The fiberglass rod was amazing, sensitive, and stupid-fun to fight the trout on. Casting was SLOW, relaxed, and I will admit to birds nests and wind knots in my leader frequently as I was so used to casting more quickly with a graphite rod. Take some time getting used to a slower rhythm in your casting stroke; once you figure it out, it's magic. It has enough backbone to bring in fish upwards of 20 inches while protecting 6-7x tippet, and makes any fish under 8 inches feel like a monster. I was able to shove the rod and tube into a suitcase instead of hand-carrying onto the plane, and the extra tip it comes with is a nice bonus. My one regret is that I didn't grab another one for my wife.

What a fantastic rod! It punches outside it's weight class in every way. First of all, it looks great! Secondly, it is made exceptionally well. I have a couple of 9' 5wt St Croix rods and needed a 3 wt. I bought the 7'6" 3 wt Moonshine Drifter II. I've used it twice and am sold. It is incredibly accurate. In fact, in just a couple of minutes of use I found myself literally just thinking of a spot and the cast was almost automatic. I was nailing challenging targets time after time like shooting fish in a barrel. Fighting a fish is natural and intuitive with the drifter II. It has great feel and is super comfortable. The action loads easily and launches line. The handle is some of the softest feeling cork I've ever felt on a fly rod. So far, it's fantastic. My hope is it holds up over the years. Time will tell. At this point, I can see this being something I could proudly hand down as an heirloom.

Very high quality made fly rod with extra tip section. Well worth the sale deal to replace the broken rod.

First rod received with broke handle and broken blank piece, reported to Amazon and I had new rod in five days, UPS picked up the broken one, little effort required to fix problem. Moonshine rods are great alternative to more expensive rods.