I’ve fly fished for over 50 years and am troubled with a repeated comment similar to, “You haven’t really enjoyed fly fishing until you’ve used a really good rod.”. I have an assortment of Fenwick glass, a Phillipson and a Granger cane and a bunch of newer graphite rods. I do not consider myself a good caster but when I went to a “Sage” demonstration I was wired up with several accelerometers and found that I only “needed work” in one area. What I need to know is what should I be looking for if I go for one of the really pricey rods? Today’s graphite rods in the $100 to $150 range seem to work well for me. Could this all be status symbol stuff with a fancier handle? Thanks.
I think it advertising. I think what is being said is that “you haven’t really enjoyed fly fishing until you’ve bought a really expensive rod, each year.”
I gave so much fun going out each time that I don’t pay attention to what advertisers say.
If I believed all the advertisers about what I need I would have to live in large whare house that I would not be able able to afford.
MU 2 cents.
Rick
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Ray,
While I’ve only been fly fishing about half as long as you have, I found out many years ago that the limitations on the rods I fish with are not due to the rods. I do have several Sage rods that I either purchased second hand or built from Sage blanks, but I also have graphite rods in the price range you mentioned and they perform just fine. I am definitely a person who likes to have good tools and good toys, but I’m also not one to fall for the latest gimmicks either. Stop and think over the last 20 years or so all of the latest and greatest must have rods from the hexagaph fly rods to the ultra-fast broomstick-like rods. They come and they go as most of them are simply attempts to revitialize rod sales. The only rod I’ve added to my arsenal in the past few years is a Ross 4 piece 3 wt to keep in my truck and I got that on sale for $41.96.
The way I look at it is anyone who thinks differently of me because I don’t have the latest status symbol gear is not a person I care what they think.
Jim Smith
Ray,
There are differences in fly rods. Aside from the actions (slow or medium or medium fast or fast or hyper space) not all fly rods are made the same. The differences in graphite design and composition really do affect the way a rod casts. Combine that with the way each caster casts, those differences can explain why some rods ‘feel better’ to some people and not to others. The far more expensive rods are built after extensive testing of the materials and how they handle various line weights and styles of casting. I suspect that some of the less expensive rods are simply built based on data collected from other rod companies so they do not have to do extensive testing. That may be an over simplification but the idea is sound. Many of the older rods were really good rods and if some other companies copy them, then they should be really good rods as well. I have a number of rods, most in the high end range, and each one fits a particular need or style of fly fishing.
You are right when you say that you only needed work in a few areas in order to cast better. All of us need some work with our casting. So, work on getting the timing down and the amount of power you apply then go out and test some rods using the same line and style (speed) of rod. If you can find a place that will allow you to do that you will be surprised at how some of the more expensive rods will actually feel better and cast better.
So, that is when you need to decide if that improvement is actually necessary with your kind of fly fishing. Otherwise, pick a lower priced rod that also feels good to you and casts decently enough to get the job done.
One thing is for sure. Until a person can cast properly, no fly rod will really feel good.
Larry —sagefisher—
This seems to be an ever-recurring question… I have found that you do, generally, get what you pay for. I believe that if you selected two rods with the same “action”…one being $150 and the other $800… and were blindfolded, you would prefer the $800 rod.
Would the better fly rod justify the $650 difference? Only the fly fisher can decide that, but I firmly believe the much higher priced rods are generally an improvement over the less expensive rods.
You can certainly question the integrity of George Anderson’s rod testers if you wish. I do not. And, I believe you will find that the highest rated rods tend to be the higher priced rods…not necessarily the highest, but higher priced.
Just my thoughts, but I have found that there generally is a relationship between cost and quality…in most products. Not always, but generally.
Good question Ray. I must have about 15 rods, including the first fiberglass rod I ever owned and an expensive bamboo rod. I have pricey rods, mid-range rods and not so pricey rods. Granted, most of them are different weights for specific purposes, but my favorite is not one of those pricey rods. So, what should you be looking for in a pricey rod? I don’t know. I can’t put a fly in a coffee cup with any of them, so I think it is more me than the rod. I have to agree with some of the other post about advertising. Look at the advertising for golf clubs for example. I know some golfers who have to have the latest thing being advertised every year for distance. I can normally out drive them with an old persimmon head driver regardless of the club they purchased. So I’ll stick with what I have in Fly Rods given the number of years I have left on earth.
Lefty Krey said many years ago most $100 rods were capable of better performance than most fly fishers could get out of them. The dollar amount may have risen with inflation but I think it is still true. A competition caster may get a couple more feet from a high priced rod but I don’t think it’s that important for my fishing.
Much of the costs and "improvements with today’s rods are built around the survivability of a rod companies business model. Probably the pinnacle of Orvis rods was their original Far-and-Fine. But do you think they would have been able to stay in business had they stopped there and not developed new models to sell? Fat chance…that’s reality. Same with Sage’s LL series of rods. Is there a difference in quality of assembly/components? Sure. But what you really pay for begins to dwindle after that point. That’s where your return of investment gets seriously narrowed. “Best rod” is a subjective term at best person to person. I do not like today’s graphite much at all. Most are not worth half of their cost…In my opinion. 
I’ve bought and sold to many rods and reels in my life to this point…it’s embarrassing to admit. Chasing the new years technology or model. And I’ve come to a conclusion a little while back. There is no rod technology out there that will magically “make me a better fish catching fly fisherman”, any more than a 1970’s Fenglass in competent hands will. These days, the majority of my fishing is done with a $100 Cabelas CGR glass rod. And not because of finances. Its because I absolutely love the rods.
Find the rod you like, ignore the price tag, and fish.
it is not just distance you want from a rod. Most fish are hooked within 30 feet. Other rod factors, even more important, are accuracy, lightness of the rod, and a somewhat subjective “feel” of the rod while casting and after hooking a fish.
As to the rod making someone a better fisher: they won’t but, it should always be compared “all other things equal”, take a good caster and give him a $100 rod to fish all day…and an $800 rod. Ask him at the end of the day which rod he enjoyed fishing more.
[QUOTE=Byron haugh;519544
As to the rod making someone a better fisher: they won’t but, it should always be compared “all other things equal”, take a good caster and give him a $100 rod to fish all day…and an $800 rod. Ask him at the end of the day which rod he enjoyed fishing more.[/QUOTE]
I would agree with you…at times. But I would not say the top end price. Because I don’t find much difference between the $800 rods and most $400 rods. Most of those $800 rods carry 50% of their value in their Brand.
But again, for somebody who likes a slower action rod or glass, it doesn’t matter how expensive the graphite is, it still won’t feel better casting. Much of it is subjective.
Not just to pick on Graphite either. There are some expensive custom glass brands out there. But when you start casting many of them, though the furniture and assembly is top notch and head and shoulders above the cheaper rods for the most part…the blanks don’t cast much different. And dependent on tastes some seem to cast worse than the cheaper glass.
I understand buying a brand. I do in many things as well. But in reality you are spending a lot of that money on vanity. Not a bad thing, to each his own. But it is what it is. When I drop $50 for a Fishpond accouterments that would cost $30 at Cabelas…I’m not doing it because it’s made twice as good. I’m doing it because I want my stuff to match.
You can buy a relatively inexpensive bamboo rod for $400 or so. My guess is it won’t be as enjoyable to fish as one costing 4-5 times as much. The best bamboo artisans charge a lot more for their work.
No, you can’t compare glass rods with Graphite or Boron. But, I can pretty much guarantee you that you would enjoy fishing a really nice glass rod by a company like Hardy (regardless of where they are made) more than a low priced Lamiglass. I think my very first fly rod was an old fiberglass made by Fenwick. Compared to today’s good glass rods, it was pretty bad.
Easy now!..LOL. One of my favorite rods is a 7’ 3wt built on a Lamiglass Honey blank. And I owned a Hardy Test for about 6 months and traded it. It was a quality rod, and darned pretty though.
I said “a low priced Lamiglass rod”…,
If you only fish with one rod…you will get very very good with THAT rod. You will not need any other rod. I mean intentionally landing a fly on a big streamside rock…slowly tug till falls into water naturally…bouncing flies off a log over a stream…tossing over the log and dangling the fly just above top water…casting a quiet line out completely horizontal and letting it float gently softly down to the surface…stealth…etc. If you golf, rent clubs, get a different set of clubs each time you go…it will be a long long time getting good.
By necessity I’ve had to frequent the lower end pricing of the fly rod market. And when I’ve had the means to step up a little higher priced I chose instead to expand in different weights. For example, a 5wt is my main stay (so much so I have three - 8’, 9’, med action, fast action), plus a 7wt (windy river rod), and a 9wt for heavy weight action I get into from time to time.
In my comparing the proverbial bargain priced $150.00 fly rod to the upscale $800.00 brand, there’s no doubt in my mind the upscale has some superior qualities. (Hey, I’ve even “fondled” a few of them!) - But before I would plunk down my hard earned money for the more expensive rod, my guiding principle would have to be is it worth five times as much to me? Is the quality of the rod worth five times as much? That is the question.
Folks with the where-with-all, and the belief the more expensive rod is indeed worth it, God bless you, and I’m all in favor of your right to have same.
Ray, got your answer yet? You probably won’t because of the excellent points made by all above. I guess you could look at this way. If someone was giving away a number of rods and gave you a choice between expensive rods and inexpensive rods, which one would you choose without trying them? I would say all of us own at least one expensive rod, but is it our favorite? Maybe so and maybe not. The answer, I think, is that it is highly personal for many reasons. Because of that, you probably won’t get a consistent answer to your question. Have a good and enjoyable year.
This is the point. The high-end rods are better. They’re lighter, crisper, more responsive, recover faster, and most have nicer components. But the way to think about it is if the best fly rods cost $800 and are a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, then most $400 rods are a 9, and rods in the $200 range are an 8. You start to pay a lot for a small incremental improvement. Is it worth it? Well, we all spend it on something. It up to you what you spend it on.
I just thought of an analogy that just might clarify things a bit. I suspect that many others, like me, served in the Army back in the Vietnam era. When I was in infantry training, we trained with the old M-14 rifle. It was basically the same rifle carried back during WWII. It was quite heavy and really packed a mean recoil.
As we were about to finish our training, we were finally issued an M-16 (current civilian version called an AR-15). Anyway, the M-16 was such a great improvement. It was much lighter. It had hardly any recoil which made it much more comfortable and, more importantly, kept you on target much better.
Did the old M-14 work? Yes. Was the new, advanced M-16 a great improvement? Yes.
Ahh…But the M-14 was retained and much preferred as the M21 sniper system, due to the accuracy of both the action and the .308 caliber. Still more accurate than anything built on the M16 .223 platform even today.
But, you did make your point either way…The M-16 was not “better”, it did however have modern attributes that the masses preferred.
Where I do my practice casting, there are many very good casters and some instructors. One, of whom, was casting to the other end of the pond. I asked him to cast my rod to feel if it was balanced rod to line. He was able to cast my rod almost into the backing. He said to cast his rod and I cast it about as far as I was casting mine. He did say my back cast was to hurried and I was overpowering my front cast. He was using a double haul while casting my rod, of which I am lousy at. It all comes down to much practice and more practice. I just am not getting all the resources out of my rod that is possible. It seems it’s not the newer and better materials that can bring a good performance out of a rod, but the big nut holding the cork has a lot to do with the performance. Practice, practice, practice is the only way to bring out the best in any rod.
Crunchy