I’m looking for a new fast-action 5 weight. i recently had a day of guided fishing up near Estes Park, CO, where the drill was indicator nymphing with 2 beadhead nymphs. I brought a J Kennedy Fisher GT-40 5 wt rod (kinda medium action), but when the guide put a Sage VXP in my hands, my casting (and fishing of that rig) improved. He said my casting stroke was more suited to a fast action rod.
The VXP may have been effective, but it wasn’t particularly FUN. I couldn’t feel the thing load and unload, and if I can’t feel that, I don’t want to be fly fishing. So I found the 2015 and the 2013 5 weight shootouts by George Anderson, and started thinking. His preferences are always for fast action rods, but that’s OK, 'cause I’m looking for that . . . as long as it has feel, right?
Rod preferences have always been a matter of individual preference of course, but I feel the same as you. When fast action rods became more common, I didn’t care for most of them because of the lack of feel that you describe. There are some that would challenge me to a duel over the statement, but the Sage XP (which I think is the same blank reincarnated as the VXP now) was definitely one of those lifeless fast action rods in my hands. The good news is that manufacturers seem to have gotten much more sensitive to that, offering actions that promise fast with feel, power with enough finesse for in-close work. It has been awhile since I’ve bought a new rod, so there are many more out there than this, but I found the old Winston BIIX to be a great action, as with the newer BIIIX, the Sage One, the TFO BVK and others. Either way, don’t judge all fast action rods based on the VXP.
Good luck finding a Grey XF2 Streamflex, if that is what is really what you want. Had heard that Hardy/Grey had withdrawn them from the US market, and while that may just be hearsay, they sure have gotten scarce.
As far as fast rods, there is only a limited amount of information that you are going to get from other’s subjective viewpoints…including the infamous ‘shoot-out’ guys. John_N’s is a nice example, because the Sage XP is often considered one of Sage’s best modern rods, and while the Winston BIIx/BIIIx are nice rods, I’ve always considered them a bit too soft for serious nymph fishing. Your best approach is to try as many as you can to find the one you like…not the ‘best’ one out there, just the best one for you of the choices available.
Further, I would personally not let a guide’s offhand comment drive me to get a new rod…although it is funny how one can use it as a rationalization – I know, I’ve done it too. One’s ‘cast’ is not an absolute. You can always adjust your cast with practice, and not knowing anything about your skill level it is hard to say what else might be a problem. Buying a rod to improve your cast never quite made much sense to me, although it is an approach the fly shops love.
Of course you have to keep the importance of fly lines in mind as well. The line companies are playing around quite a bit with the weights these days, partially in response to the rise of the faster rods, partially to aid struggling casters. So a fast rod that you cannot feel load with one line, might load just fine with a slightly heavier one. Pretty much everyone makes fast action rods these days, at pretty much every price point you can imagine, so finding one you like is not that hard. Not sure what part of the Hooiser State you are in, but there’s a shop in Indy which seems to have all the usual suspects which you might want to check out.
That would be Flymaster’s in the Castleton area. He used to carry Hardys and Greys. But Hardy/Grey got sold to Pure Fishing (which markets Berkley and Fenwick, among others.) Greys is now only available in Europe, it seems. Jim Murphy, the President at Greys jumped off when it got sold, and formed his own rod company, Douglas Outdoors. Their DXF rod is supposedly the new Streamflex, but it didn’t rate as high as the original Greys in the shootout, so I ask.
While whatfly and I probably have different tastes in rods, we’re in complete agreement on the main points. As we both said, it’s personal preference. My broomstick is your outstanding rod. My primary nymphing rod may be too soft for your liking. There’s no way to really tell from someone else’s recommendations. Additionally, he’s spot on about the difference that different lines can make. There are all kinds of overweighted and/or specially tapered lines that will dramatically change the feel of any given rod.
VXP is a totally different rod and has not connection to the XP. A connection has been assumed and spread through blogs and posts, but is mistaken.
Mark Bale from Sage explains the VXP at its introduction at the International Fly Tackle Dealer & Manufacturers Show in Denver. The VXP replaced the Sage VT2. I have a 9 ft 5 wt VXP and love it.
Not sure you understood what John_N and I were saying. It is all subjective, including the ‘shootout’ which pretends to be scientific but is really just an exhaustive list of impressions about a wide, but not universal, sample of rods.
Considering that the DXF is not matched against the XF2, not sure how you come to the conclusion that one is better than the other. Further they both were #7 in the rankings, so I can argue they were the same. If you want to take it further, author writes how the XF2 is like the Fenwick Aetos, which ranked LOWER than the DXF, so one could also conclude the DXF is better. This study is also idiosyncratic, and while I’m not sure I trust the methodology each year, I certainly would not trust these studies across years.
Regardless, it would be a mistake to use this as more than a general guide of rods you might like, and considering the number of rods both new and old missing from the lists, I’m not sure it is much more than just an interesting article. Sort of the equivalent of walking into the fly shop and asking the guy behind the counter what the ‘best’ rod is.
If I told you the XF2 in #5 is a fast-ish rod with a softer tip than I would usually like, what does that mean to you in terms of whether or not you will like the rod? Until you get one in your hands and cast it, you will not really know if you like the action. Then comes the debate on how well the rod actually fishes, although I have yet to find a rod that I liked to cast that did not also fish well, but others might disagree.
By the way, if you really want to muddy the waters, Grey’s/Hardy’s had/have an awful reputation on warranty issues. Not sure they ever cleared it up before the most recent sale, but the stories were bad enough that I refrained from ever buying one of their rods or reels…and this was after hearing a lot of good comments about the XF2.