Well I guess it's about time I presented the rod I've used most of the ones I have. It's a Sage 490 SP which sad to say isn't produced anymore but I guess Sage has something similar in their current lineup.
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| It's a 3 piece graphite rod for an AFTM #4 line |
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| Here are the specifications of the rod |
I consider it to be an ideal all round rod. It can equally be used fishing with large streamers as with small dry flies. Either one, and all flies in between, is a pleasure to use with this rod. Just a word of caution. It's not the easiest rod to master. SP in the name stands for "Smooth Performance" and that is really true. On the other hand it has a progressive action so the backbone of the rod is capable to handle fish up to like 10 lb. At the same time it's a pleasure to play 1 lb fish with it. So it has a wide span of uses. That means that it takes some time to master it since you can cast it with an open loop (of the fly line) and a very tight loop if needed. I was very confused the first times I fished with it.
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| The thin tip gives it a very smooth performance |
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| I use it with this LOOP Model Dry Fly Reel |
Using a Lee Wulff Triangle Taper intermediate fly line gives a very fine presentation of streamers of various sizes. Either I use that line or a Floating line with dry flies or small nymphs etc.
To sum it all up - it's an excellent rod to fish with almost any type of fly. It's a very demanding rod, so it isn't a rod I would recommend to anyone beginning to enjoy fly fishing.
The reel was primarily sold by LOOP but is now produced and sold by the inventor of the reel at: Danielsson Reels; Here in Sweden. I don't know if they have a retailer in some other country. It really is a joy to fish with the reel since it has a large arbor and is very light. So thin tippets is no problem. OK, that's all for now. Hope the info is of some use to someone. Have fun fly fishing your way ...