Winston IM6 376 - 2pc or 3pc?

I'm guessing there are few fly fishers who still rig up a two-piece fly rod these days. I do. Of course, it helps that I fish two-piece rods that are short, light trout models built for small stream fishing, and I have found these are easy to pack for travel to local fishing destinations. Long rods in two-piece configurations are not as convenient, but still very packable for car travel. Air travel, yeah, a bit more cumbersome.

Once three and four-piece fly rods came on the fly fishing scene, the two-piece fly rod quickly became just a memory in fly fishing history. Of course, I'm talking about graphite rods here. Winston offered two-piece and three-piece IM6 models for several years. The consumer had the option of buying a rod in either configuration. Winston still sold 2-piece models during the early production years of the WT series, and are still selling their most famous 2-piece rod, the TMF, to this day! Remarkable!

For the past few of years, I have been fly fishing with two Winston IM6 7'6" 3wt models, very much the same, except for being two and three piece fly rods. The two rods were built only one year apart in 1992 and 1993. So, they come from the same era and likely the same Winston employees were involved in both rod builds. The only significant variable between these two rods are the number of sections, and one has a sliding band seat while the other has a down-locking (screw) seat.

Just faintly, I can detect a bit of more flex with the 2-piece rod as compared to the 3-piece model. Other than that, their actions feel the same in casting and tight lining a trout through the dance, and into the net. These two are what I would call fraternal twins...same personalities, but you can identify each by physical appearance. I don't prefer one over the other at all, and enjoy fishing each of them equally. Why do I like an IM6 376 rod? The model is an excellent fit for my mountain Rio's and as good as a 7'6" 3wt rod can be for all-around fishing in my various creek environments. Well, I believe it's the best, actually. Yeah, it is a dry fly special. And a blast to fish!