Well, folks, it has taken me some time to finally get out and try the new Sage Smallmouth Bass rod I won from FAOL in the September drawing. I received the rod about the 2nd week of November and it is a real beauty! My rod building friend here played with it in his back yard and he really thought it should be a real winner for Sage. He said it was about time I got a 4 pc rod! He knows that I have always liked 2pc rods and this would be my first 4pc. I had him put alignment dots on it for me. Today the weather here was overcast, light rain and only in the 40’s. I decided to drive to one of the bridges over the lake and just walk the rip rap around the bridge pilings and play with different flies with the rod. Now I know that I will not be using this rod for what Sage intended it to be used for, but, since I am a nymph, streamer, bugger fisherman, that is what I wanted to try with the rod. I had tied up some #4 streamers and buggers plus I had the #10-12’s that I normanly use for trout. To begin with, I was afraid the rod would be real stiff and heavy, but, when I received it, I noticed that it only weighs 3.5 oz and it is very light in the hand. One could use it all day with no problems. I also found out that I did not own a reel that would be large enough to hold the fly line that came with the rod. Another friend of mine here had some fly fishing gear he wanted me to try and sell for him and he had a STH reel preloaded with backing and Rio 8wt floating line that he wanted $75 for so I bought it and put it on the new rod. I have not tried the fly line that comes with the rod yet nor have I tried casting any larger poppers with the rod. I did cast the larger streamer/buggers with the rod today and the smaller 10-12’s I had with me. This rod with the 8wt line cast them very smoothly and with no problems! This is a very nice casting rod and I will probably never use my 6 weight again! You could cast a 10-12 size bugger a country mile! I know the rod is over kill for the rivers, but, it is so light and it casts so well that I will probably use it on the rivers and try and hunt down some of the larger rainbows and browns that I know live there. This rod feels just like fishing with my 5 weight and just knowing that it has the backbone for larger fish is a good thing. I really do like this rod and I think for the price, it is a good investment for anyone who wants a nice casting light rod that has the backbone for landing larger fish. I will be spending a lot of time with this rod. I have another warm water river here that has largemouth and smallmouth bass in it and I plan to spend more time on it and have a ball with my new Sage Smallmouth Bass rod!
I would highly recommend this rod! By the way, I did catch 2 smallmouth bass today on my new fly rod and hopefully you will be able to see one of the pictures here.
I did manage to catch 2 crappie that were around the 14" mark and then the rain, wind and cold air just got to be too much and I came home. Overall, this Sage Smallmouth rod with its own line casts like a dream and it also handled the 8wt line very well, but, nothing compared to how it casts with the line that comes with it! The 8wt Rio line I was using was not marked and the gentleman I purchased the STH Cayuga M reel from said it was an Rio 8wt line. I did put a fly line scale on my Christmas list and if “Santa” brings it, I plan to check the line plus several others I have that I cannot remember what size they are!!