i played with it and thought it was pretty nice - small mouth model but I would up getting an older 8.5' hardy fiberglass blank (progessive taper 6-8 wt) that I'm going to cut down to 7'11" that'll make it lean more towards a 6 wt with a staggered spigot ferrule. it'll be a heavier rod but will use it for big flies and the slower action of the glass is more appealing to me. plus, it'll make it more adaptible to catching carp. The sage is a fast action which imo helps accuracy but i saved $200 bucks with the amount invested in the blank and components compared to the sage. I will, however, be getting the sage bass line cause i think the taper makes more of the difference. I also plan to get a lamiglass 8' 5WT to build which i'll probably wind up using more because unfornately i wind up catching more panfish than bass anymore....man i miss the old days of fishing the perkiomen.
As far as length, it takes some getting used to and overhead casting is not as effective as keeping the rod paths at or below the shoulder. if you get it, let us know what you think...
thightlines,
skiltonian