For the lighter rods, we used their Amplitude Smooth Trout. Bottom Line: Winston has been making moderate-action dry fly rods for years and this is the culmination of years of R&D. No handling fee. Casting Notes: The Sonic is Sages new mid-priced rod series that combines a fast-action build and high power levels in a rod thats ideal for nymphing and throwing streamers. Rods that are light in overall weight and swing weight, and ones that have softer tips, eliminate a lot of break offs caused by an inadvertent heavy-handed hook set. Ive found that it is almost impossible to judge accuracy and presentation if you have strong gusty winds, but having a little wind tells you a lot about how the various rods perform, especially at long distances. Here the lack of butt power hurts a bit but it was better than the Shadow out long and matched the Scott G-Series. This is especially important for 3 and 4-weight rods, when you are often using very light 5X, 6x and 7X tippets while fishing small dries, emergers and spinners. You call in and incur a credit card of $100 but you get a brand new rod in 3-4 days. The quality of the cork is not so hot though, and a lot of filler is present. Our deflection charts have been very popular in past Shootouts, so we are giving you more this year. Bottom Line: If youre looking for a rod design thats optimized for distance casting, versatility, and chucking double nymph rigs, the Crux is one of the best in its price range. There's no other place online that has as many or as comprehensive reviews as you guys, and it really helps. The brown dull coating of the blank and the red wraps provide an original look. When Im fishing dry flies Ill use a 12-foot leader most of the time as this keeps the fly line farther away from the fish, minimizing the number of fish you spook while casting. The epoxy coatings over the wraps were surprisingly good for a one-coat finish. Good butt power also helps me land fish in a minimal amount of time. I felt the best rods at long range were the Helios 3F and the Loomis Asquith, as well as the T&T Avantt and the Scott Radian. It had the power to hit 60 feet easily enough but my accuracy was not very good. Im not getting much feel either. A lot heavier in hand than the Pure, and the stiffer tip is not giving me much feel. This means you can generate line speed but you can also focus on delicacy at short range. Power: 8.5/10 - Higher power levels make this rod a great choice in wind or large water. The newHARDY ZEPHRUS ULTRALITEwas disappointing, mainly due to a slower action than the Zephrus, and a lack of accuracy in close. Not much feel with all that swing weight, and the accuracy was pretty crappy too. The blank is an attractive dark blue, with a matte non-glare finish. But superior craftsmanship commands a much higher price! Feel is good and the rod is very light in hand. The Clearwater is finished in a dark gray color with dark olive guide wraps. There are dozens of 5wt rods on the market at a variety of price-points and each rod offers something different to every angler. Since most anglers fish at shorter distances with a 4-weight rod, we decided to put less emphasis on the longest distance, decreasing the points available to 10 points. The reel seat is a double uplocking skeleton seat in anodized gold, with a pretty wood burl insert using green and brown highlights to complement the blank. What're the differences between these posts and how do you, the reader, get the most out of reading them? This is an attractive rod, with very good craftsmanship. The guides start with a hook keeper on the butt, then a single SiC stripping guide, followed with hard chrome single foot guides that seem sturdy enough, but are not nearly as good (or as light) as the nickel/titanium single foot guides used on the NRX LP. Action: 4/10 - Similarly, Redington built this rod with a moderate-slow action. The softness didnt allow me to make good hard backcasts in an effort to form tight loops. Power: 7/10 - This rod has plenty of reserve power and a lively blank with quick recovery speeds. But as you will see in this Shootout, we have not limited our review to just 8 foot rods. This is the best way to examine the action of each rod the faster action rods have tips that bend more, with stiffer butt and mid sections, while the more medium action rods will have softer butt and mid sections and stiffer tips. Great rods dont make great casters, but there is no doubt that they will improve any anglers casting skills and his ability to catch fish. Add to cart. Unlike some of the stiffer 4-weights, this rod performs well at the shorter distances too. This can be a huge help if you have multiple rods and the sections get mixed up. The Helios 3 rods are available in both the D and F Series with the D series more designed for distance and power. New Echo Shadow II, w next level being new Echo Shadow X. Cortland Competition. Hardy is using their best Sintrix 440 graphite in this rod, also used in the Zephrus. The feel Im getting is not that good either. The action is slightly slower than the Zephrus though, and this contributed somewhat to its lack of feel and accuracy at 25 feet. The action seems about right and Im getting nice loops. Personally I dont care much for the five inches of white just above the cork handle but this has been the Helios 3 trademark and I think that Orvis feels that it will help the rods visibility on the rod rack in fly shops or out on the stream. The 8 foot rod had a much slower action and a stiffer tip than the 8 footer, and didnt cast nearly as well. Bottom Line: Weve been recommending the DXF 5wt in this price range for a while and think it provides the most performance for the lowest cost in the mid-priced category. Howard is a great angler and knew just what he wanted for the perfect 4-weight. $25 handling fee on current rods. #3. Rods are repaired, not replaced except for broken sections. #8. Hardy has given us another magical rod that produced an absolutely stunning performance to blow away all the contenders. A dark green graphite insert is used that complements the color of the blank. Fenwick-Lifetime warranty. Pay in 4 interest-free installments of $149.50 with. Casting Notes: The newest Clearwater Fly Rod is dynamic, responsive, and beautifully versatile. The 4-weight Asquith was one of the stiffer rods in our Shootout and this hurt its scores at the shortest distance of 25 feet. Logan and Francis have worked here for many years and are both great casters and anglers. TheHardy SHADOWat $349.95 takes the crown as our best mid-priced rod with an exceptional performance that put it into a tie for 4thplace overall with theT&T AVANTT. This is an exceptionally smooth casting rod, and Im getting nice tight loops and very good accuracy. Now I can really feel the heavy swing weight. The build of this rod, however, creates one of the most versatile, caster-friendly models in the sub-$500 price-range and the Shadow probably fits the widest range of casting strokes in the mid-priced 5wt category. The casting scores were only fair to good, and in my notes I say that I am getting very little feel or accuracy in close compared to the best rods. With a blazing light swing weight and a forgiving action, this 5wt is one of the best all-around rods on the market. Each rod is positioned at approximately a 45-degree angle, and then a lead weight of 3.9 oz. The heavy swing weight is perhaps the biggest reason the SKY didnt perform so well. The Pure is a brand new rod from Winston. We have awarded scores emphasizing the lowest repair charges and the quickest repair turn around. When you pick up this rod, youll first notice how light it is in swing weight. Thomas & Thomas introduced the Contact series of Euro-nymphing rods a handful of years ago and they almost immediately garnered a cult-like following, with many an experienced nymph angler raving about their performance and build quality. For this 4-weight Shootout, we decided to make the short distance 25 feet, the mid-distance 40 feet, and the longest distance 60 feet. Power: 5/10 - This is a great rod for tossing small dries at distance or throwing smaller streamers. Douglas Lifetime warranty. 9 and 10, 4-piece, $549, Designed to trim seconds off your shot time, this rod features a particularly powerful tip that increases line speed and dampens the vibrations that reduce accuracy. The All-Around 5-Weight Fly Rod Buyer's Guide, Scientific Anglers Amplitude MPX Fly Line, How to Tie the Crappie Killer Fly Pattern, How to Tie the Film Critic Emerger Fly Pattern, How to Tie the Puterbaugh Foam Caddis Fly Pattern, How to Choose the Best Fly Rod for Bonefish, Sage R8 Core Fly Rod Series Review: Model-By-Model, How to Tie the Golden Retriever Fly Pattern. It has a pronounced swell that is slightly forward of the center of the grip much different from the more standard western style grip of the G Series. It has a sliding band and single locking ring that seems to lock up well enough but squeaks a little as you tighten it. It also sits dead last in our Fun to Fish category. With comments by the Yellowstone Angler staff. The very light swing weight confirms this. Im getting nicely controlled loops and good presentations. It is nearly impossible to cast off the tip of the rod like I can with the best 4-weights. #16. A 3-weight fly rod can be great fun on windless days, but those days seem to be rare. Anyway, I tried it out in a local store and I have to say it did not feel like a fast action rod, or even a medium-fast action rod. Little feel, and the slower action kills any accuracy. Flytyingonline.com.This domain provided by wildwestdomains.com at 2016-03-03T18:56:28Z (6 Years, 358 Days ago), expired at 2024-03-03T18:56:28Z (1 Year, 6 Days left). However at long range, it had no guts, and was one of the worst in our Shootout. (tie) Sage X 86 #4 $900.00. Rather than give us their beautiful nickel silver uplocking seat with a fancy wood spacer of birdseye maple as on the Pure, the Nimbus uses a silver anodized uplocking aluminum skeleton seat with one wide ring and sliding band. The 7X is a real pleasure to cast and is expertly designed with the best of contemporary fly rod technology. Ive fished with Howard here, on our Montana Spring Creeks, and better understand how and why he came up with these designs. Guides start with a hook keeper on the butt, and then two SiC stripping guides, followed with hard chrome snake guides that are large in diameter but thankfully use smaller diameter wire. The medium fast action of the Recon is very similar to the Helios 3F and this is one reason it performs so well. This rod is nice and light in hand, and performed well in close, where I was getting pretty good feel and decent accuracy. Now Im getting nice tight loops, and the rod tracks very well with better feel and accuracy. The swing weight was fairly light, but not quite as good as either the Hardy rods or the Orvis rods. At long range no rod has more power. 5wt fly rods are (by far) the most popular rod model in contemporary fly fishing. Are you comfortable showing up with a $200 rod when everyone else has one of those hotshot $750 to $1000 rods in their hands? This one is simple The least expensive rods get the highest points. The wraps are brown with some amber trim. Below are all the 4-weight rods in the order they finished. We set the casting line so that we generally had the wind at our back if possible, or at least off our left shoulder (all of us are right handed). #19. Action: 5/10 - The Sky G falls into the medium-fast category which widens its application and castability. Drop us an email at[emailprotected]or call us at(888) 413-5211. 1 Review. Nearly everyone is using one-coat epoxy coatings over the guide wraps now, but if these are not very carefully done, they are often sloppy or too much epoxy is applied, adding unnecessary weight. This is a very pleasant rod to cast, and I was especially impressed at what nice tight loops I was getting at long range, where it proved to be better than any other rod tested, even the powerful Asquith. The double uplocking, gray anodized reel skeleton seat uses two rings that are easy to grip and lock up extremely well. Power: 7.2/10 - More refined than other high-powered 5wts, the Radian has enough power for larger rivers but is a little more versatile than technical rods like the 3D. Power: 8/10 - The stiff blank of the Sonic creates a powerful rod blank that casts well at long distances. Bottom Line: If you want a high-end rod with a beautiful fit and finish that performs well in the trout game, this is a solid option, a great choice for a variety of freshwater species. Moreover, if you want to fish with a 4-weight we consider to be the optimal choice, you dont have to spend $850, $900, or $1000, but only $679 for the Hardy Zephrus. A hook keeper is used along with a single chrome SiC stripping guide. Thomas & Thomas Zone - $499 Casting Notes: The Zone is a versatile freshwater 5wt with the ability to throw a variety of flies from nymphs to dries to small streamers. Power: 6/10 - This rod has some reserve power and can definitely carry line in the air and present flies at longer distances. Then it will cast and perform much better. This rod has a stiffer tip than many of the best rods, and I felt this hurt both feel and accuracy at the two shorter distances. There are matching burgundy wraps on the guides, and the epoxy coatings were very well done. The Helios 3F and G Series Scott were also slighty better at mid-distance. Thomas & Thomas Contact Vision Nymphmaniac STATIC TESTS AND MEASUREMENTS Airflo Euro Nymph This recent Airflo rod has been specifically designed for euro nymphing. The Expeditor policy on the IMX Pro is $85.00. The single uplocking seat is gray anodized aluminum, and doesnt use a spacer, but does have some trick looking cutouts on each side. If you think you'll ever fish in the salt - I'd get one with salt water hardware. The locking ring was harder for me to grip than most. The Q was not nearly as good as their new Opti K2. Now that we have dropped our Perfect 4 category, this category gives you our opinions on the best rods and how they stack up. The locking ring is easy to grip, but Id prefer a double ring seat as this one looks like it will loosen up more easily than most. A Bonnier LLC Company. The Recon was much better. #28. This is a medium action rod, and slower action rods like this SS have never performed well for us. Light Tippet Protection 20 points available. The Recon has been one of our favorite rods, and this 4-weight version is terrific. The handle is a half wells western style grip with contrasting dark composite cork rings at both the bottom and top. Both the newWinston PUREandOrvis HELIOS 3F put in impressive performances, securing podium finishes. Very nice feel with excellent accuracy at short distances. Better than the Radian and Helios 3F in close. Orvis has totally revamped the Recon series and this is a much different (and better) rod than the original Recon 8-weight. Since it is a lot shorter than my preferred 8 foot #4, it ran up some high scores in both overall weight and swing weight. Rating: 100%. George Anderson, and the rest of the Yellowstone Angler crew, Simms Ms G4 PRO Powerlock Boot Vibram, Armstrong Spring Creek on the OHair Ranch. Dont make this mistake. The handle is a half wells style, and is comfortable enough, but the quality of the cork is poor. The 8 foot Pure had a much heavier swing weight, and would not be as much fun to false cast all day as this 8 footer. On the market multiple rods and the accuracy was not nearly as good as their new Opti K2 in or. Power also helps me land fish in a dark green graphite insert is used along with a single chrome stripping! Short distances performances, securing podium finishes generate line speed but you get a brand new rod from.... A hook keeper is used along with a single chrome SiC stripping guide perform so well and Helios and... 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