New fly-fishing products have traditionally been introduced in the very late summer or early fall. Lately, driven in part by the lead time necessary for ordering and bringing in an increasing number of Asian-sourced products and in part by a couple of conventional-fishing-tackle trade shows to which the fly-fishing industry is paying increasing attention, the PR machine has begun cranking up a bit earlier. This year, the product-introduction cycle started in midJune, at the European Fishing Tackle Trade Association show in Amsterdam, followed in mid-July by ICAST (the International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades), the major U.S. trade show, in Las Vegas, and in mid-August by the International Fly Tackle Dealer show in New Orleans. Let’s take a look at the rods and reels introduced at those shows.
Rods: Improvements Continue
Sage’s new top-end model carries the name “ONE,” as in “the Sage ONE” It earned Best New Fly Rod awards at both the European general tackle show and the Fly Tackle Dealer Show in the United States. According to the folks on Bainbridge Island, Sage ONE rods are the product of a new, proprietary “Konnetic technology” that creates a significantly denser rod wall and rods of very light weight that track exceptionally well. I imagine “Konnetic” was chosen to suggest “kinetic” and “connect,” which are both good things. What Sage means by it is a new process by which materials are chosen and then placed and compressed on a mandrel in such a way as to eliminate anything that’s unnecessary to high performance.
Fly rod manufacturers generally aren’t shy about trumpeting the advantages of their new products — witness Hardy and G. Loomis last year. For 2012, Sage seems to be taking the same path. “Gives ultimate control” goes one of the claims for the ONEs. The question, of course, is whether these rods are as good as the hype implies. Dealers who got an early look seem to think they’re winners. When I queried retailers across California about new tackle for 2012, Bill Kiene, at Kiene’s Fly Shop in Sacramento, Tim Fox, at The Fly Shop in Redding, and Kent Rianda, at The Trout Fly in Mammoth all mentioned the Sage ONE as being among their top picks. A dealer friend from the Midwest told me he’s fished a 6-weight and thinks it tracks better than any rod he’s ever cast. The ONE is certainly an attractive piece of equipment: a pearly black blank with black wraps, a bit thinner in diameter than you’d expect, with very slim ferrules, a handsome wood-insert reel seat, and a “snub-nosed” half-Wells grip shape that fits the hand beautifully. I cast 9-foot 4-weight and 6-weight ONEs, and they were both very smooth and quick. Choosing a fly rod, however, can be as personal a decision as choosing a spouse, so you’re probably going to want to check ONEs out before you decide whether they’re game changers for you or just another line of fine rods. ONEs are available as fourpiece models only, for line weights 4 to 10, and their retail price ranges from $720 to $745. That doesn’t make them inexpensive, but they’re not the most expensive top-end rods on the market, either.
G. Loomis’s new rod offering for 2012 is based on the tapers of last year’s top-of-the-line NRX models. This year, G. Loomis Pro4x models, which won the Best New Fly Rod award at the ICAST show in Las Vegas, target the more affordable $350 price point with 11 four-piece models from 8 feet to 10 feet. Pro4x rods are very light in the hand and very quick, all of them rated as “stiff ” to “medium stiff.” Blanks are a pleasing moss-green color, with lighter-green wraps and white decaling. There’s a very cool black metal reel seat with an exposed cork section on lighter rods and a full metal version on heavier models. Nobody’s going to kick sand in your face for not having a $700 fly rod when you show up on the water with the Pro4x.
Hardy USA has three new bamboo and four new graphite rod series for 2012. The new bamboo rods are being made by Tom Moran, who worked briefly in the United States with Thomas & Thomas some years back, and Calum Gladstone. Both are fine rod makers, and each of them is responsible for a series of trout rods under their names that you can order for delivery in about six months. There’s also a retro bamboo reissue of the 7-foot 4-weight bamboo rod with which J. J. Hardy won a casting competition at the Casting Club of France in 1910. The prices of all of these rods will leave you little change from $4,000.
Last year’s Hardy Zenith graphites, built with a new nano-titanium Sintrix resin system, earned praise from everybody who tried one. I cast a 9-foot four-piece 5weight Zenith the other day and liked it as much as I’ve liked any of today’s fast-action rods. For 2012, Hardy has expanded the Zenith line with five new four-piece models ($599 to $799), four new one-piece Zenith freshwater models for line weights 4 through 7 ($639 to $679), and four fast-action double-handed Zeniths ($949 to $1,099). There’s also an Artisan Sintrix line of rods in single-handed trout ($1,299) and double-handed salmon models ($1,999.) The high price of these latter rods is due as much to their being rolled and finished in Alnwick, rather than in Korea, as to the very high-quality components used. And for the traditionalist among the double-handed brotherhood, there’s a new a line of Spey rods under the Marksman2 name ($599 to $949) that are meant to handle long floating fly lines.
Winston, who had a significant number of new models last year, has only three for 2012, but they’re definitely going for the fat-wallet end of the market. New 4-weight, 5-weight, and 6-weight 9-foot five-piece models in the Boron IIIx lineup (with boron in the bottom end, but not so fast as the Boron III-MX series) will go for $895. I’ve not tried one yet, but few Winstons at any price level fail to deliver fine performance. And five sections at 9 feet means a rod tube that’s in the 24-inch length range. That’s going to fit in just about any duffel or suitcase, or if you’re rich and famous, any ostrich-skin or alligator-skin briefcase. The rods have the usual fine Winston cosmetics. ’Nuff said.
Adopting a different strategy, Orvis’s goal for 2012 is to introduce ten thousand new people to fly fishing — a noble undertaking, unless they all show up on your favorite river. At any rate, along with more schools, classes, and podcasts, Orvis decided they needed a modestly priced rod that is better than what they’ve offered in the past. And, in a change from past practice, in which every Orvis rod has been built in the United States, Orvis went offshore to come up with a rod line that they say “revolutionizes performance for price.” The new Clearwater line of rods is made in Asia to Orvis’s design specifications and on tapers used in Orvis’s top-end Helios line. Clearwater cosmetics and components are very nice, with emerald-green blanks that have green wraps and smoke-colored reel seats with emerald-green woven composite inserts. All 20 models, from a 6-foot 2weight to a 9-foot 12-weight, come with a Cordura-covered rod case and cost between $198 and $225. All are covered by Orvis’s 25-year guarantee and worth a look.
Ross, now firmly in the competent hands of the folks at 3M, has added to their RX series four-piece saltwater rods for 9-weight, 10-weight, 11-weight and 12-weight lines. These are lightweight, fast-action rods with classy amber colored blanks and wraps. They have quality cork grips and anodized aluminum reel seats with woven carbon fiber spacers, come in a Cordura-covered tube, and have a lifetime guarantee. At $319, Ross bills the RX line as premium rods without premium prices. In the value-priced Essence FS series, Ross has new 4-piece 9-foot, 6-inch fly rods for 5, 6 and 7 weight lines configurations ideal for lots of heavy trouting and light steelheading. The FS models have medium-fast actions with black blanks and wraps, and are nicely fitted-out with anodized aluminum reel seats and decent quality cork grips. At $145 with a Cordura tube and a lifetime warranty, they’re more than affordable for someone who wants a rod that will get limited use, or as a functional backup to spendier tackle.
Redington introduced three new fly rod families for 2012. The Torrent series are all-around fast-action rods in a four-piece configuration for line weights 3 through 10. Priced at $249.95, they come with an aluminum case. The Predator series is a saltwater-specific rod line for 6-weight through 14-weight lines, with butt sections and ferrules enhanced by an extra layer of woven graphite for strength and durability. There aren’t many 12-through14-weight rods on the market at low-to-midrange prices, so bluewater anglers will want to cast the new Predators, which sell for $249.95 and come with an internally divided, fabric-covered rod tube. Redington’s other new rod line is called Voyant and is available in 15 four-piece models for line weights 3 through 10. They’re available individually at $189.95 and as 4weight, 5-weight, 6-weight, and 8-weight outfits, paired with a Redington Surge fly reel and RIO Mainstream fly line, at $299.95. Temple Fork Outfitters, with Lefty Kreh’s imprimatur, some very savvy marketing, and solid rod designs, has crept inexorably into the top ranks of flyrodding. It’s not rare to hear someone talking about having to make a decision between one of TFO’s $250 to $300 rods or a model from another brand that sells for twice as much. Last year, TFO hit a winner with their BVK line (for Bernard Victor Kreh), a series of rods that isn’t quite as beefy in the bottom section — and therefore quite a bit smoother casting — than their other series of single-handed rods. This year, they extended the BVK line to include seven more models: 10-footers for 4-weight and — weight lines, 9-foot 6-inch models for — weight and 7-weight lines, all four-piece models, and three five-piece models, for 5weight, 6-weight, and 8-weight lines. Lincoln Gray at Sierra Stream and Mountain was particularly fond of the new BVK 9foot 6-inch 6-weight: “a $500 rod that goes for $249.95 and a truly great stick.”
Scott’s new A4 models are the company’s least-expensive offerings at $375, but they’re still built at the company’s Montrose, Colorado, facility. They’re made from multi-modulus layups on compound-taper mandrels, with low-profile tip-over-butt ferrules, self-aligning TiCh-coated reel seats (plated with hard chrome, then coated with titanium carbide), with wood inserts on lighter models, and silicon-carbide-insert (SiC) stripping guides. “High line speed, progressive action rods with very low physical weight” says the catalogue, which lists 21 four-piece A4 models, from a 7-foot 6-inch 4-weight to a 10-foot 8-weight. Scott also has nine new L4 series two-handed and switch rods that, at $475 to $575, fall in the midprice category. From 11 feet to 15 feet for line weights 5 through 10, they’re billed as being optimized for today’s line tapers and casting styles.
This year’s new M-series Scotts are an instant gratification offshoot of last year’s Custom Shop program, which let customers, at a price of course, pretty much pick the components with which they wanted a rod to be finished and then wait a while to get it. M-series rods are built on the blanks from popular models in Scott’s G2, S4, and S4S series, fitted with “heirloom-quality” components, special wrap and grip schemes, and the Custom Shop’s exceptional attention to detail. At $975, they aren’t cheap, but the models are all classic Scotts, and they’re awfully pretty.
Finally, while we’re talking expensive and attractive, it’s worth mentioning that Thomas & Thomas is now firmly back in business after some confused years. T&T rods never sold particularly well in the West, due just as much to the impression, fostered by T&T’s lackluster marketing, that these were “East Coast rods” requiring a coat and tie to cast, as to their top-end-only price points. But Tom Dorsey, who’s stayed on as rod designer, has been around for a long time, is very good at his craft, and has as much experience building fine rods in bamboo, glass, and graphite as anyone in the game. The 2012 T&T lineup includes time-tested rods in all those materials, but also introduces a number of new graphite models, including a fast-action 9-foot four-piece 5-weight and a couple of 9-foot 6-inch 6-weight and 7weight four-piece steelhead rods. At $775 and $800, they’re not inexpensive, but they’re impeccably finished and should do their jobs very nicely. Of course, if $4,600 is burning a hole in your pocket, T&T also raised the curtain on a gorgeous 10-foot two-piece 7-weight split-bamboo switch rod. Along with your dollars, it’ll take a 62-inch rod case, which may limit you a bit in traveling. Then again, if you can afford to buy it, you can afford to get it to where you’re going. I’ve called my broker.
Reels: Choices Widen
Hardy’s new Ultralite reels earned Best of Show honors at the recent International Fly Tackle Dealer show in New Orleans. These reels are modern in look, fully machined, and highly ported, with ultra large arbors, narrow quick-release spools, and toolless conversion from righthand to left-hand wind. CC models ($169 to $199) feature adjustable click drags, while DD models ($199 to $349) feature adjustable composite-fiber disc drags.
TFO’s new BVK reel won top honors for a freshwater fly reel at the ICAST show in Las Vegas. BVKs are silver anodized, fully machined, ported, superlarge-arbor reels with Delrin–stainless steel stacked drags and a one-way clutch bearing for instant engagement. They are available in three models for line weights 4 through 8. I’d like a bit larger handle, but other than that, I was impressed. If these reels continue to perform as other TFO products have, prices of $229.95 to $249.95 should make them very popular.
Nautilus and Tibor both introduced supersized big-game reels for 2012, though Nautilus’s NV Monster edged the Tibor Signature 11-12 for Best of Show at the recent International Fly Tackle Dealer show. The NV Monster is just that: 5 inches in diameter, with a super large arbor, and a capacity of 250 yards of 30-pound Dacron backing and a full weight-forward 12-weight line. With a carefully thought-out and strengthened frame and spool, it will exert as much as 15 pounds of drag pressure and pick up a full 14 inches of line with each turn of the spool. At 9.9 ounces, it’s 4.6 ounces lighter than Nautilus’s other 5-inch-diameter reel, the CCF Atlantic. The NV Monster is priced at $850.
Tibor’s Signature 11-12 model ($865) has the same 5-inch diameter as the Monster, but has a deeper, wider spool and a greater capacity of 400 yards of 30-pound Dacron with a weight-forward 12-weight line. It’s also a bit more than an ounce heavier, though I doubt that’s particularly significant. Both the Tibor and the Nautilus feature quick-change spools and sealed drag systems, and a big-game angler will be hard-pressed to choose between them unless line capacity (Tibor) or retrieve rate (Nautilus) is the deciding issue. Ross’s new fly reel for 2012 is an addition to the company’s top-end F1 family of large arbor reels. The F1#5 is a big reel, at 4.375 inches in diameter with a 1.5-inch wide spool, suitable for all but the largest spey lines, and for saltwater lines up through 11 weights. Like the rest of the F1 family, the #5 has a drag system that utilizes eight independent contact points and two square inches of carbon fiber drag surface for stopping power and heat dissipation. The spool fits on a carbon fiber stabilizer with two fully sealed stainless steel ball bearings for precision fit and smooth rotation, and employs a proprietary clutch bearing that’s fully sealed and enables retrieve conversion without removing the bearing. Ten separate O-rings seal the system, making it impervious to the drag changing effects of water that might otherwise get on the spool. In a market that’s full of high-quality big game fly reels, the F1 represents a lot of reel for $625.
Abel has introduced new Spey ($500) and Switch ($480) reels for 2012. These are handsome, traditionally styled standard-arbor reels with adjustable click drags and quick-release spools. The Spey is 3.9 inches in diameter and 1.1 inches wide and designed for 8-weight through 10weight Spey lines. The Switch is 3.7 inches in diameter and 1.0 inches wide and designed for 5-weight through 7-weight Spey or switch lines. Both come in black, but can be ordered, at additional cost, in many of Abel’s specialty anodized colors.
To go with its inexpensive new Clearwater rods, Orvis has come up with three new inexpensive fly reels. Their Clearwater Large Arbor models (for 4-weight through 6-weight or 7-weight through 9-weight lines, and just $79 each) are die-cast reels with disc drags, outgoing clicks, easy left-hand-to-righthand conversion, and easily changed spools. The Clearwater Large Arbor Cartridge reel ($125) shares the same features, will handle up to an 8-weight weight forward floating line, and comes with three plastic spool cartridges. Orvis also has a new molded composite Encounter line of reels in two sizes ($49 each for the 4-weight through 6-weight or 7-weight through 9-weight models) that looks to provide a lot of reel for the money.
