Mthwsolcam wrote:
I have the sage flight right now that i ordered it is a nice looking rod and casts well a little stiffer than i want, also it is the diameter of most 5wt or 6wt rods not what i think a true 4 wt should be and it is slightly heavy. I need all the help i can get.
Mthwsolcam,
I guessing from your moniker, you’re a bow hunter or shooter….Mattews Solo Cam? (BTW, I’m a Mattews guy too). The reason I bring this up, fly rods are a lot like bows. Many will tell you the high-end bows or fly rods are overpriced and hyped, and a lower-end one is every bit as good. Well there is a difference in performance as well as the quality of components and often aesthetics. As the price increases, though, the rule of diminishing returns kicks in. Whether the high-end rod or bow worth the increased cost for a little bit of performance increase is up to the buyer.
You’ve picked up on the fact that faster rods in the low and mid-priced range are heavier in weight and/or larger in diameter than the more expensive rods. It’s amazing you picked up on it above, the Sage Flight (according to Sage) uses has a larger diameter blank to achieve lightness and stiffness.
I’m a hobbyist rod builder. Rod building sites publish the specs (diameters of tips and butts, weights of blanks, etc.) in order for builders to buy the proper size and weight components for building a rod. If look at the specs of fly rod blanks you will notice the fast high-end blanks tend to weigh less and are thinner in diameter than the cheaper blanks that are rated as fast. The reason for this is because of the modulus (stiffness) of the graphite (carbon) fiber used to build the rod. High-end fast rods generally use a higher modulus graphite to build the blank. A fast rod (one the flexes most at the tip) is usually tapered with a fairly thin tip with a progressively larger diameter towards the butt. Blanks built with high modulus material rely on the stiffness of the fiber to keep the flex of the rod near the tip and have little flex towards the butt, whereas the cheaper rods, built with lower modulus fiber, generally increase the diameter and/or thickness of wall of the blank to achieve the same effect. Because of this, the faster rods at lower prices tend to weigh more and/or are a larger diameter.
All rod manufacturers will tell you that high modulus graphite is much more expensive, but I too don’t believe the cost of the material is a huge factor. Even if the cost is 10x higher, say $5 of material vs. $50, the difference is still on $45. The cost is higher mostly because of increased quality control needed to produce thin-walled high modulus graphite rods. Any minor error in manufacturing will cause the rod to fail. Also, also if you read all the literature and ads from the rod companies, each has a proprietary manufacturing process to produce these rods. If you notice, for all rod mfg, the lightest fastest rods in their line are in the high price range.
To sum it all up, I’m really not trying to discourage you; I’m just giving you some info and insight on fly rods. There are a lot of great rods out there today, but don’t expect to find the lightest and thinnest rods in the rack at the $300 price point, just like you wouldn’t expect a Mattews Solo Cam to have the same specs as mid-priced bow. Quite frankly no one really NEEDS to buy the latest and greatest rod to cast or fish well, just as with a decent bow, a good shooter will hit the bullseye every time. My suggestion to you is go out and cast a whole bunch of rods that fit into your budget and find the one that works bests for you and enjoy your fishin’.
Good luck.
BTW, stick to a 4wt. A 3wt rod is more of a specialty rod, and 4 wt is more of a bread and butter rod for fishing most streams in PA.
