“I don’t know, but I’ve been told” by very reliable fly fishers in the know, that fly fishing is not permitted in B.A.S.S. tourneys. Its use is banned in their events. So being a doubting “Thomas” and always wanting to check my sources accuracy, I went looking on Google and here’s what I found at
2006-2007 OFFICAL RULES, BASS FEDERATION NATION TOURNAMENTS:
7. TACKLE AND EQUIPMENT: The use of grippers in landing bass is prohibited. Only artificial lures and biodegradable artificial lures may be used. No “live bait” or “prepared bait” will be permitted during official practice and competition, with the exception of pork strips or rinds. Only ONE casting, spin-casting or spinning rod (8-foot maximum length from butt of handle to rod tip) and reel may be used at any one time. Other rigs as specified above may be in boat ready for use; however, only ONE is permitted in use at any given time. All bass must be caught live and in a conventional sporting manner. Anyone guilty of snatching or snagging visible fish will have his/her catch disqualified. When visually fishing for bedding bass, to be counted as a legal fish all bass must be hooked inside the mouth and must be verified by your partner before being unhooked.
That’s the complete paragraph. What do you know; my sources were right; by rule: fly fishing rods and reels can’t be used in BASS tournaments. And please notice that to get to the 8-foot max length rule, Sage personnel had to read right past the fact that ONLY casting and spinning rods & reels are allowed to be used. It’s in the same sentence. And according to the next sentence, “Other rigs as specified above may be in boat ready for use”. By implication fly fishing equipment is not “as specified above” and therefore not even allowed in the boat. One can only assume that if found with fly fishing equipment on board, the angler would be disqualified for having illegal equipment.
This begs the question, what is Sage’s implication in their statement that “both rods measure 7'11", which slides them just under the strict bass tournament rules for rod length.” Are they misleading the fly fishing public by implying a fly rod, if less then 8’ in length, is legal in BASS tournaments? When clearly by BASS rule fly fishing equipment, no matter what the length, is not even permitted in the boat. Sage even calls them “the strict bass tournament rules”.
Fred, I don’t mean to rain on your parade, I just hate being mislead. IMHO, at best Sage is misleading us with the idea that somehow their bass rods can be used in a BASS tournament, when clearly they cannot. Previous posters on this thread, who are certainly more knowledgeable then me in fly rod design, have pointed out other fly rod specifications, for example length to properly load the rod, that would provide a better designed rod for the purpose of casting bass flies. Yet, Sage starts the discussion with, and rather conspiratorially I might add, as if this is all top secret, Hush! Hush! We’re the only ones who know, “After working with a small, tight-lipped group of serious bass anglers, we’ve developed two new rods”. This “small, tight lipped group” must all be in the marketing dept, because they sure came up with a whopper for advertisement copy.
So my conclusion is simply Sage is not being sage at all (Please excuse the pun, I couldn’t help myself). Except for increasing their sales revenue, Sage has not come up with anything better in the way of casting bass flies. Maybe new, but on the surface, not better. They just want to mislead you into thinking you need another fly rod. And there’s a lot of misleading going along in the fishing business. Take, for example, the implication that the larger the circumference of a single action fly reel the faster it will retrieve line. Mind you, there are other “real” advantages to a large arbor reel, but faster retrieve is not one of them. It’s a single action reel folks! There is no mechanical action. There is no gearing. The input is at the circumference of the reel, not it’s axis as on say a car wheel or a bicycle wheel or for that matter even, let me think, ah yes, even the first fly reel Charles F. Orvis designed. The one that started the Orvis Empire. Check it out, Orvis’s reel has the handle connected to the axle of the reel, like on a casting reel, not it’s rim. We’re going backwards in reel design. But that’s a whole ‘nother discussion. I’ve gone on to long with this.
Tight lines,
Larry