When is Sage going to come out with a Carp specific rod? How about a warmouth rod, then a speckled trout rod. You know you can’t fish for any of those fish with those regular fly rods.
Sorry, I actually think the marketing guys deserve a pat on the back because they are drawing attention to the new rods and getting people to talk about them. That’s half the battle. More power to them.
Seriously too, I know many of the guys who actually do create and design and yes, ‘improve’ these rods. They are very intense and dedicated to making better tapers, more specific rods designed to cast/land for specific situations. The newest materials they can ‘weedle’ out of the dark recesses of the cutting edges of industry. Yes, they actually do improve these rods. I sure wouldn’t want the job of how to make a better rod than today’s sticks. Not even design a better mousetrap for that matter.
Just out of curiosity, doesn’t 230 grains come out to about a 9wt?
Yes 230 grains is just short of a 9wt. However many people who have not actually cast and fished the Sage bass series rods are assuming that they are powerful brutish things and try to equate the Largemouth to an 11wt, Smallmouth to a 10wt and Bluegill to a 9wt. I own two and have tried the other and in actual application they are about a 6/7, 7/8, and 8/9. I base this assessment on comparisons to othetr 19 rods in the 6 through 11wt range that I own and fish, plus many others that I have tried.
The special lines that Sage includes with these rods are a heavy front weighted and loaded taper and really part of the story. These lines are exceptional at tossing big, wind resistant bugs, even better than standard bass and pike taper lines that I have used. The effect is similar to going up two line wts, something that many anglers already do when consistently making short presentations with bulky flies. The new taper in the line also facilitates delivery and seems to be an improvement on similar sized bass taper lines.
The Sage Bass lines work well on other rods - I have used the 330gr line on 8 and 9wt rods. The Sage Bass rods work well with standard lines too. I have used a 9wt Bass Taper on the Largemouth rod.
The combination of Sage Bass rod and Lines are the best combinations that I have ever used for tossing bulky windresistant flies at short to medium ranges. They are fun to use and I have used them in fresh and saltwater.
Sage isn’t unique in the development of shorter, heavier rods, but their naming convention seems to draw a lot more attention as Clay noted. I see much less discussion on the web of the Scott Warmwater, G. Loomis Shorestalker, Redingtion Predator, Ross Worldwide FlyStik, and TFO TiCrX 7.5 ft and Mini Magnum models.
I want to get a couple more of this type of rod and am strongly considering the Redington and Ross models because they are half the cost of the Sage.
I had an 8 foot fiberglass “Green Sunfish” rod that I used for many years, but sadly it caught too many bass, bluegill, chubs, redear, crappies and eventually trout, so I had to retire it in favor of a graphite “Trout” rod…
I have that rods sister made by Redington called the Predator. Same length and weight. I had it for sale but took it to the coast a few weeks ago(that’s right!! midwinter surf fishing!!) only caught one small drum and one ladyfish but I really liked the way the rod handled heavier flies in the 15-20mph wind that we had.
Ok, I had a chance cast my “Bluegill” rod w/ a 8’ hand tied leader (my formula) and a large hard-boddied popper. The rod is a med-fast action and loads very well w/ the 230 grain line supplied w/ the setup. You can easily carry 30-45’ feet of line in the false cast and shoot the entire line with a small double haul. The stiffness of this rod is very similar to my 6wt GLX with a stiffer tip. Man, this rod will be perfect for my application (small-med river Smallmouth). Great product that PERFORMS!! I can see why the Smallmouth and Largemouth Sage rods are becoming very popular in the salt for Snook, Bones, etc. I might be tempted to pickup the Largemouth version before my next trip to the Bahamas.