Tomkis
I own two of the rods and have tried the third one.
The one I have only tried, is the CND Blueback. I friend has the 15.6 and other friend a shorter Blueback, I think 14.6. I have tried both. Since I have only tried them and it is a while ago, for the 15.6 a couple of years, what I can tell you is a bit of a vague recall.
The rod is well made, from a distance it looks black, close up you will see it is a gorgeous very dark blue. It has a deep or through action and not slow. It casts beautifully. It has very advanced graphite which I have been told has been laid in a very complicated way. To complicated to be used in normal prodution rods because of the cost. I had the option to buy one, I regret I didn`t.
The B&W I have had since 2008 and the Meiser since 2009. Both are custom made. The B&W is a 4-pce version, finished as a Double Speycaster. I have a 27 inch grip on mine, I think that is about right for a 15 ft rod. The rod has a cork filler and a cork "ball" at the butt end. On the US B&W facebook site there is a picture of an almost identical rod, but it is not mine. I have my name on the rod and the rods name which is "Sommerbris", Norwegian for "Summer breeze". If I had the rod made today, I would not have asked for the cork filler and ball, rather I would have asked for a graphite filler and a rubber button at the end. That would have added 40-50 grams to the weight and would have been good for balance. I have have a 1950ies four inch Perfect at about 420 g that balances the rod well.
The Meiser also have a 27 inch grip, a Struble U-18 extended reel seat (will take a four inch reel foot) and a five inch hardwood (ash) lower grip. This makes the rod balance with very light reels like a Hardy Ultralite Salmon Disc (220 g) or Sirrus Allwater 2 (250 g).
Personally I`m not much into the balancing game so I`m happy to use the Ultralite reel on the B&W.
Some hard numbers, the weight of the upper three sections of the B&W and the Meiser. The butt doesn`t count as it can be customized to anything you want. From top and down:
B&W: 22.9, 47.1, 79.6
Meis: 13.9, 28.6, 59.7 All in grams.
The B&W is much heavier, but I don`t think of it as heavy. According to Brian Potter at B&W the addition of an extra joint adds some 10 to 20 grams to a 15 ft blank, so the 3-pce version should be lighter.
Both rods are a pleasure to cast and fish and not that different. The Meiser has a lighter tip, both are easy to load, both have a wide grain window and will cast a great variation of lines. Both are what I will call medium fast rods and will bend into the cork if you ask for it. I can speycast both rods to about 40 meters (44 yds), others will be able to do much more so distance is not an issue.
Lines: For fun I dug out some Windcutter Versitips the rarly see dayligt and tried on the rods before writting this. Years ago an effort was made to make a speyline standard, the Denver standard I think it was called. When I read the specs I realized that the Windcutter was the standard. So I have cast the WC 6/7/8, 7/8/9 and 8/9/10 on the rods today. All of them worked well on the rods, both for single spey and overhead.
For long speylines the CND GPS and the Nextcast FF70 in 7/8, 8/9 and 9/10 are great, Carrons, Partrigde Ian Gordon are great as well.
Scandi heads. For Meiser rods I usually end up below Meisers grain window when it comes to scandi. I use Scandi only for sinking lines. On the Meiser Guideline 3Ds at about 41-43 ft and 31 to 32 g (475-490 grains) are good. This works well on the B&W too. Both can cast heavier heads like 36 g, but I don`t consider that scandi casting. When I cast scandi I keep my guard low, my upper hand well below my nippels and very stationary, it is only there to support the rod. I have cast heads as light as 26 g (just under 400 grains) on both rods and like the feel. Both rods will handle full sinking scandi heads and full sinking speylines like Carron 65s or Ian Gordons, but the B&W is better at it. If you put a S6 tip at a CND line, the B&W is better, but the Meiser will do it.
I may add that both rods will lift the full head of the CND and FF70 7/8 and 8/9 off the water for an overhead cast and put the line back again without any false casting. DT 7-8-9 and 10 may also be used on the rods.
All three rods will will do great service as big river rods for Atlantic salmon up to perhaps 13-14 kgs as long as you avoid really high, fast water. They will not cast a two inch copper tube, but bottlenecks, half inch coppertubes, large singles (3/0) and doubles, yes.
If you ask me to choose between the three rods, I will say I`ll take all three. If you force me to select one, I think my selection will be based on things like the weather, my mood, did I sleep well, was the breakfast good, all kinds of unimportant matters.
