I think that some rod manufacturers have confused fast action versus stiff rods and I think Sage in particular has done this, especially if you look at some of their saltwater rods. I don’t think that they’re as fast as stiff so on some of their rods you could actually argue that you could throw a nine weight line with a seven weight rod. I think that that further confuses fishermen.
The wall thickness in the tip section was just under a millimetre, which is just absolutely crazy by modern standards.
Just a short comparison; I had a couple of mates cast an old Sage RPL blank. It’s probably about twenty-five years old (I have a couple of old rods or blanks around still). We compared that to the Sage X and I must say that in terms of the sweetness of the blank the RPL was just as good as the X. The only difference was that the RPL was a fair bit heavier.
DS: I do have two customers who break more than anyone else. Horst [Fliter] ,but I guess he fishes a lot, and another customer who doesn't look after rods - he has broken 3 rods in electric windows alone.
SAFFM: Do you do a lot of repairs? Are there some guys that are just more prone to breaking rods than anyone else? There must be a few perpetually clumsy guys out there.
I've had boats, dogs, horses, kids, electric fans, etc. break rods, but the craziest was a friend of mine who twice left his tip section on the roof of his car .
I think that what has happened is that as carbon has got stiffer over the years the wall thickness has become thinner and thinner so you’re getting a similar action rod, but it’s a lot lighter. As a compromise for the lightness you’re getting so many more rods breaking because the wall thickness is so much thinner. I did a fourpiece conversion on an old Orvis Western series, a rod of at least twenty-five to thirty years old. In the tip section the wall thickness was so great that I could hardly put a spigot in to complete the four-piece conversion.
SAFFM: I have a friend who lost the third section each of two different fairly collectible old Orvis rods on consecutive weekends and who broke a new rod before he even fished them - once in New Zealand and once in Slovenia. Some guys have a knack for it or something. Luckilly we don't travel light. How many rods do you own?
DS: I have about fifteen rods (CTS, Epic, Sage and Scott) and thirty reels (Shilton and Galvan). SAFFM: And are you a reel nut? Do you like the bench made stuff and oddities? We just love them and can never understand people who don’t.
An acrylic reel seat insert to match a Galvan reel www.saflyfishingmag.co.za
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