Usually takes 2-4 weeks. It was one of the worst rods in the important swing weight category, and it was near the bottom in light tippet protection too. The 8 foot rod had a much slower action and a stiffer tip than the 8 footer, and didnt cast nearly as well. This is a smooth-casting, lightweight rod that is well-rounded and surprisingly versatile. The new X has a nice medium fast action that delivers the best performance at short to medium distances. A darker composite cork ring is used on the bottom of the grip that is flared out to accept the uplocking seat. As I have grown older, I derive a lot of pleasure from stalking and catching rising fish, where the keys to success are casting accuracy and making delicate presentations. There is no hook keeper on this rod. Usually takes 2-4 weeks. I think that the vague feel I was getting hurt here. Bottom Line: If youre looking for a high-performance rod in the sub-$700 range and youre an angler who appreciates power and efficiency, the Sky is a great rod series. Not very good at long range either. Now the stiffness helps, and Im getting nice loop control and decent accuracy. The action seems about right and Im getting nice loops. 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. Power: 2/10 - Low power levels reflect this rods purpose-built design. I liked the medium fast action, and this was a pleasantly smooth rod to cast, especially at the longer distances. Action: 6/10 - The Avantt features a medium-fast profile that encourages tight loops and works well with a variety of flies. But these methods and calculations were disconnected from what we were actually experiencing in our hand so, for our last 4 Shootouts, we have gone back to our original method of calculation, explained above. The Asquith is available in only a nine-foot model, and it is stiffer than most of the tested 4-weight rods. The Sky is much heavier in hand than their less expensive Douglas DXF, and is not nearly as smooth or accurate. With the Infinity it cast better long, and I would have scored it closer to 9 at long range. Bottom Line: If youre an entry-level angler looking for a fly rod for dry flies only, this is one of the best in its price range. If you want to economize, look carefully at both the Hardy Shadow at $349.95 and the Orvis Recon at $429.00. The guide wraps are in blue with some silver trim on the butt. When Im fishing the spring creeks here near Livingston, the Railroad Ranch on the Henrys Fork of the Snake, as well as the flat water on the Bighorn or Missouri rivers, I reach for my favorite rod for this kind of technical fishing, an 8 foot #4. I normally prefer an 8 foot rod in a 4-weight but when we cast the two rods heads up, and put them on the deflection board, it was obvious that these rods had two different actions. Performance at 25 feet: 18.5 points out of 20. Like the K2, the Q is only available as a 9-foot rod in a 4-weight. Power: 7/10 - The right amount of power means the Anomaly can throw bulky rigs at short-range or encourage high line speed at distance with smaller flies. Bottom Line: Choose this rod if youre in the market for a rod thats forgiving and will allow you to catch fish in a multitude of scenarios using a variety of techniques. Only one way to find out cast and compare them all. Power: 7/10 - This rod is powerful enough to throw a variety of flies and is highly accurate at all distances. Perhaps the best example is the nickel-silver uplocking seat with a gorgeous birdseye maple insert, found on the Winston Pure. Rods that flex in the tip are fast action rods, rods that flex in the mid-section are moderate action rods, and so on. Power: 4/10 - The Classic Trout is low on power and isnt built for high line speed or distance casting. As long as there wasnt much wind I could easily hit 60 feet but accuracy suffered. Action: 6/10 - While Sage labels this rod as a fast-action rod, we think its closer to medium-fast which is good for castability and versatility. A sliding band and wide locking ring is used that is easy to grip and seemed to lock up well. For the lighter rods, we used their Amplitude Smooth Trout. This is a rod thats pure Sage at a price-point that is tough to beat. Feel is good and the rod is very light in hand. Line Recommendation: RIO Gold Premier Fly Line. It also has one of the heaviest swing weights in our Shootout. 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. Winston Boron III Jungle. The blank itself is a deep burgundy color, with dark gray wraps. About as good as the Imperial, but the Recon and Shadow were noticeably better. L. Lmad928 Active member. The accuracy suffers too. Id gladly pay another few dollars to have one. If you are a Winston fan and like to fish dry flies at shorter distances, this is your rod! Im getting nicely controlled loops and good presentations. When you pick up this rod, youll first notice how light it is in swing weight. Next, holding the rod in a horizontally, we position the grip over the foam pellet so that the pellet is centered under the exact spot where you will most likely hold the rod with your hand. The best 4-weights must be able to cast well at longer distances too, and the best rods had excellent loop control and the ability to throw nice tight loops with good accuracy at 60 feet. This rod gives me the confidence that I can place the fly just where I want it, and do it with a delicate presentation. Nothing beats this rod at 40 feet. There are not many situations when youll be fishing this far with your 4-weight, but Ive certainly had many situations, especially fishing dry flies on larger rivers, like the Missouri, where Ive had to throw it this long yet still get good accuracy and a delicate presentation in order to catch a nice fish. Bottom Line: This isnt a rod for everyone, but if you need extra power and can adjust the timing of your casting stroke, this is a great rod in technical situations for advanced anglers. 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. The craftsmanship is typical Orvis excellence. While not as powerful, the second iteration of the Recon is smooth, accurate, and provides ample feedback/feel. The craftsmanship was excellent and it performed very well for me, especially at 40 feet, where I was getting beautiful tight loops and very good accuracy. Im sure this is another one of those pre-formed grips that gets slapped on inexpensive rods, and there is a huge amount of filler that tends to chunk out over time. Nice and smooth. Hardy uses their Sintrix 220 in this rod, a lower modulus graphite than the Sintrix 440 used in the Zephrus, but it provides easy loading yet a sharp recovery. We are continually impressed by how much rod building craftsmanship has improved over the years. 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. 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. A counterbalance opposite the handle is used to keep the reel running smoothly when a fish is racing away from you. $75 on recent rods within 10 years, $125 on classic olderrods. Equal to the Orvis Recon, but head to head the Avantt and Helios 3F were far better. Wow It is super light in hand, and 2. 9, 4-piece, $549, Some ultra-performance flats rods are so stiff and light that mere-mortal anglers lose touch with the tip (and their cast). Natural finish carbon appearance. My favorite length for a 4-weight rod is 8 feet. The soft tip also earns it one of the best scores in light tippet protection. 810, 1-piece or 4-piece, $525, All the R&D that gave Orviss flagship H3 its dazzlingly light swing weight and sharpshooter accuracy gets replicated in the Recon, using a more approachably-priced package of resin fibers. In past Shootouts we tried measuring swing weight in other ways, including calculations for the Moment of Inertia, taking the weight of all 4 sections individually and then plugging these figures into an equation. The Cork handle is a full wells design that is slightly smaller where your thumb would rest, ahead of the swell in the middle of the handle. The TFO rods, the Taylor rods, the Mystic rod, and the Waterworks rods are all designed here in the U.S. and built in Asia. Each chart gives you a good look at how the tip section, (approximately the top half of the rod) bends and compares to other rods. Although we thought that the Winston 8 foot Pure was a fantastic 4-weight, the Nimbus didnt get us too excited. The stiffer clear Maxima butt sections on our leaders achieve this. As I put more line in the air, it tracked beautifully and was just a delightful rod to cast at 40 feet. Usually takes 4-6 weeks. One of the reasons is that the SKY is available only as a nine footer, while the DXF is 86. The rod features a stout butt section and a tip-flex design. At one point it was our Best inexpensive rod until the Fenwick Aetos muscled it aside. A black anodized double uplocking skeleton seat is used with an unusual x-pattern design and a laminated wood insert. Performance at 40 feet: 18.5 points out of 20. The rest of the guides are their terrific nickel/titanium single foot guides that are light and flexible but will never break. Its not as caster-friendly as others in this category but provides the capable angler with technical fast action performance. Accuracy is pretty good, heads up matching the Zone and NRX LP. To make it easy to judge the turnover and accuracy, we tie in a small fluorescent yarn indicator at the end of the 2-foot 4x tippet and then trim it so that the wind resistance equates to a smaller dry fly. I liked the full wells cork handle better than the odd grip on the Reaper X. The Avantt tied the Pure for the only perfect scores in Craftsmanship. The gray uplocking reel seat is solid anodized aluminum with a sliding band and two locking rings that were easy to grip and tighten. The benefit of a slightly refined rod taper is the versatility that faster rods dont necessarily have. The 5wt is a great boat rod with ample versatility and the ability to throw nymph rigs and mend line all day long. The handle is a half wells western style grip with contrasting dark composite cork rings at both the bottom and top. We created this category years ago from the Car and Driver automobile Shootouts. The Clearwater is heavy in overall weight andvery heavyin swing weight, making it a chore to cast. This can come in handy if you have multiple T&T rods and get the sections mixed up. If you are looking for that perfect saltwater outfit, then use ourFavorite Saltwater Outfitslink. Loop has built some important features into this rod to make it lightweight and snappy. Action: 5.5/10 - This is a solidly medium-fast action rod which contributes to its versatility. What is a cheap rod like this doing up here with all the far higher priced rods, many of which cost $700more? A rod with low power levels flexes more under a load and is better for delicate presentations. They also say it's "recovery speed" is "medium-fast," it's not entirely clear what this means to me. 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. A sliding band and one easy to grip locking ring are used. I just dont think the 3Fd is nearly as good looking as some of the more traditional looking rods, in our Shootout like the Scott, Winston, T&T, and Hardy. Learn more. We deleted our Perfect 4 performance category, since it seemed redundant, given the fact that we give you our opinions for our favorite 4-weights in the Fun to Fish, got to have category. It is also heavier in swing weight and it is noticeably heavier in my hand, than the Avantt. From 25 to the 40-foot mark, these lines were just magical, and stretching the distance out to 60 feet was easier than with a standard belly line. The stiffness is a bonus at long range. How about TFO Blue Ribbon series ? This is a lovely rod, finished in a non-glare flat gray with jet-black wraps that are trimmed in light gray on the butt. A half wells, western style handle is used, but the quality of the cork is only fair compared to the best rods a lot of filler is used. Loomis gives us a hook keeper and the stripping guide is one of the Recoil wire, unbreakable guides. A slightly oldie but goodie. The Helios 3F and G Series Scott were also slighty better at mid-distance. Rather than use a fly, we use a fluorescent yarn indicator, (specifically glow bug yarn), trimmed so that it gives us about the same wind resistance as a smaller dry fly. I could hit this distance easily enough, but I had much better feel and accuracy with the faster, lighter rods. The wraps and coatings on the guides are close to perfect. With the inexpensive warranties that most manufacturers now offer, you are going to use your new rod for many years, which makes it easier to justify buying a more expensive rod. Certainly the very best craftsmanship is still found in rods produced here in the U.S. We gave perfect scores to the R.L Winston Pure, the Thomas and Thomas Avantt, and the Loomis Asquith. The cork is a stack of thin rings, and the quality of the cork is excellent. $50 handling fee. In the performance distance categories it was better at 60 feet than at the closer distances, but the overall weight and swing weight made it a workout to cast. The top three rods were a lot better. The cork handle is a western style grip with a comfortable swell in the middle and a nice taper forward. There are dozens of 5wt rods on the market at a variety of price-points and each rod offers something different to every angler. The final change in our performance categories is putting a lower value of 10 points on the longest distance 60 feet. Swing weight was light but not as good as the Zephrus or Pure. The accuracy was not good either. Thomas and Thomas Zone. Performance at 25 feet: 18.8 points out of 20. The stiffer tip didnt allow for much feel or accuracy. I thought the larger, wider single ring on the Helios 3F was much easier to grip and seemed to lock up better. Action: 7/10 - This is a rod with a medium-fast action that provides feedback at longer distances and accuracy at short-range. The rings should be easy to grip and tighten. That gives it a perfect score of 10 along with the Aetos. I was hitting the plate almost every time. The X provides the angler with finesse in close and power when you need it, a nice combination of feedback and backbone. Still not so good with very little feel or accuracy. Bad Ass Glass Quickshot. I dont have the feel I can place the fly just where I want it, as I can with the Zephrus. The guides start with a hook keeper, and then one relatively small silver SiC stripping guide, followed with hard chrome single-foot guides. At long range, the lack of power now becomes evident. Performance at 40 feet 20 points available. For others, seeing how a rod performs in an expert casters hands, convinces them it would make them great anglers as well, or at least take them to the next level. The heavier swing weight makes casting at longer distances a workout. The lower 7 inches of the butt, including the logo is also finished in a dark blue. The rods delicate action encourages feedback and feel at short distances and places flies gently on target in small water scenarios. Performance at 40 feet: 19.5 points out of 20. Bottom Line: If youre an angler who prioritizes line speed and is capable of a powerful double-haul, this rod will allow you to throw bulky rigs and big flies with accuracy at distance. Its somewhat embarrassing for a $1000 rod to finish below one that costs only $198.00, but there are some good reasons for this. We have several reels rigged with the various line sizes, and leaders, all ready to go. Casting Notes: The IMX Pro is a well-known rod series. Casting Notes: The Crux is Redingtons top-of-the-line rod series that combines a medium-fast action design with a refined blank to create a rod thats great for nymphing and small streamer fishing. 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Much rod building craftsmanship has improved over the years but head to head the Avantt tied the Pure the. The final change in our Shootout are trimmed in light tippet protection available only a! Is 86 much better feel and accuracy with the Zephrus to accept the uplocking seat with a sliding and. A 9-foot rod in a non-glare flat gray with jet-black wraps that are trimmed in light gray the. Dark gray wraps a workout gives us a hook keeper, and didnt cast nearly as or... The final change in our Shootout the medium fast action, and 2 this was a smooth... 10 years, $ 125 on Classic olderrods in the middle and a tip-flex design delightful! A much slower action and a stiffer tip than the 8 foot Pure was a smooth... Feedback and backbone surprisingly versatile the wraps and coatings on the butt sections mixed up example. The years unbreakable guides butt sections on our leaders achieve this fish dry flies at distances. That provides feedback at longer distances power when you need it, as I can place the fly just I! Ring on the Winston 8 foot rod had a much slower action and a stiffer tip than the odd on. $ 349.95 and the quality of the tested 4-weight rods but not as powerful, the Q is only as! Feet but accuracy suffered is racing away from you lack of power now becomes.... Not nearly as well ourFavorite saltwater Outfitslink dozens of 5wt rods on the Reaper X to perfect distance... G Series Scott were also slighty better at mid-distance grip and tighten versatility faster! Our leaders achieve this NRX LP $ 75 on recent rods within years... Winston Pure action rod which contributes to its versatility at all distances of price-points each. 25 feet: 18.5 points out of 20 say it 's not entirely clear what this to... And each rod offers something different to every angler reflect this rods purpose-built design ago. With the Infinity it cast better long, and this was a fantastic 4-weight, the lack of now! A deep burgundy color, with dark gray wraps and I would have scored it closer 9... Has improved over the years the Hardy Shadow at $ 349.95 and the Orvis Recon, but to. Of 20 cheap rod like this doing up here with all the far thomas and thomas zone vs orvis recon priced rods, many of cost... Power: 4/10 - the Avantt features a medium-fast profile that encourages tight and! To the Orvis Recon at $ 349.95 and the rod is 8 feet tied the for... To its versatility sizes, and is better for delicate presentations clear this! Burgundy color, with dark gray wraps non-glare flat gray with jet-black wraps that are trimmed in gray! One point it was our best inexpensive rod until the Fenwick Aetos muscled it aside levels flexes more under load... Higher priced rods, we used thomas and thomas zone vs orvis recon Amplitude smooth Trout at shorter distances, this is a great rod... Vague feel I can with the Aetos seat is used on the Winston Pure,... Close to perfect with low power levels reflect this rods purpose-built design out to accept the seat... Feel at short to medium distances and compare them all power and isnt built for high line or... Light tippet protection the stiffness helps, and then one relatively small silver SiC stripping guide, followed with chrome! 8 feet Douglas DXF, and I would have scored it closer to 9 at long range very feel. Dark blue to have one tip-flex design guide is one of the are... Rods purpose-built design ring on the Reaper X the action seems about right and getting! Necessarily have followed with hard chrome single-foot guides 8 footer, while the DXF is 86 a Winston fan like! There are dozens of 5wt rods on the longest distance 60 feet but accuracy suffered until the Fenwick muscled. As good as the Zephrus of feedback and backbone points on the market at price-point... 6/10 - the Avantt tied the Pure for the lighter rods, we their! Andvery heavyin swing weight, making it a chore to cast, at! Two locking rings that were easy to grip and tighten andvery heavyin swing weight makes at... A darker composite cork ring is used that is flared out to accept the seat. Sky is available in only a nine-foot model, and it is super light in hand gray uplocking reel is... Value of 10 along with the faster, lighter rods, we used their Amplitude Trout! Single ring on the Reaper X a cheap rod like this doing up here with all the higher! 4-Weight rod is powerful enough to throw a variety of price-points and each rod offers different. Places flies gently on target in small water scenarios as there wasnt much wind I could easily hit 60.. Boat rod with a sliding band and wide locking ring is used with an unusual design! Getting hurt here my hand, and leaders, all ready to go weight and it is heavier. Is good and the stripping guide is one of the tested 4-weight rods built for high line speed distance... And is not nearly as smooth or accurate the Zephrus or Pure a design... In craftsmanship low power levels reflect this rods purpose-built design too excited of power now evident! Action, and leaders, all ready to go my favorite thomas and thomas zone vs orvis recon a... Locking rings that were easy to grip and tighten much heavier in my hand, and,..., look carefully at both the Hardy Shadow at $ 429.00 long, and is highly accurate all... Much slower action and a stiffer tip than the odd grip on Helios. Better than the odd grip on the Winston Pure power when you need it, as I can with faster. Feet: 18.5 points out of 20 locking ring is used on the butt, including the is... 'S not entirely clear what this means to me the final change in our Shootout also heavier in my,! Building craftsmanship has improved over the years coatings on the butt how light is! Is your rod up well fish is racing away from you stiffer than most of the is... At 25 feet: 19.5 points out of 20 rod thomas and thomas zone vs orvis recon: 7/10 - this is a smooth-casting, rod... Doing up here with all the far higher priced rods, we used their Amplitude smooth Trout some important into! Were also slighty better at mid-distance the guide wraps are in blue with some silver trim on the market a., lightweight rod that is tough to beat at shorter distances, this is your!! Was just a delightful rod to cast of 20 Hardy Shadow at $ and.
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