Sage Fly Rods

Mainly because I just cast some of their latest

In the 80s , a seeming lifetime ago, as a grad student I ran the flyfishing section of the local hunting and fishing store in Rockville, MD. The old Rockville Trading post is now gone, its demise started by the appearance of the first Sport’s Authority and cemented a few years later by other pressures. But in those heady days of the 80s it was the “happeningest” fly shop around. When I took over running the place it was basically a struggling Orvis dealer. But the roaring, wild spending days of the second Reagan Administration brought about a sudden upsurge in flyfishing. We spread our wings a bit and started carrying tackle from everyone and anyone. One such supplier was an upstart rod company from Washington called Sage. Stan Jurecki was their sales rep and he stopped by one day with a set of rods. They were these tobacco brown rods with a rather unassuming name, the rod model with RP attached to it.

Stan asked me to step outside and cast one, and so began my lifelong affair with Sage rods. My rod racks today look like this

A walking talking advertisement for Sage.

So when Sage announced two new series of rods I couldn’t wait to get my hands on them. I finally did, and that’s what led to this story. Those first RP’s were nice rods, but they lacked a certain sprightliness to them. Then came the RPL series in about 1989. Grad school was done by then and I equipped myself with a fine arsenal of RPL and RPLX rods from 3 to 12 Weight. The 12 Weights were a disappointment. I broke 4 in 2 days at Homassassa Springs. They’d snap at the ferrule if you tried to lift a giant tarpon on 16 lb tippet.But the rest of them were extremely fine rods. I fished the 4 and 5 weights for trout all over the world. The 590 RPL made a wonderful Hopper road when fishing from a boat. I fished those trout rods into 2014 or 2015. I also fished the 8100 and 9100 RPLs for Salmon and Steelhead until about 5 years ago.

There were a whole plethora of rods in between and none that actually caught my fancy the way the RPLs had. I did pick up a few Z-axis rods along the way. They were nice enough. In fact the 390-Z Axis made for a nice little dry fly rod.

I had a lot of fun fishing BWOs with it on the Colorado River around State Bridge, poking and probing the gentle runs along the shore.

But then somewhere around 2010-2011 Sage introduced the One Series. I bought the first one of these in an emergency from Roaring Fork Anglers in Glenwood Springs in the fall of 2011. I had flown out to Colorado and left my rod bag in the car at BWI airport (that issue has now been remedied by keeping a set of tackle in Colorado). I what I thought was a compromise I bought a Sage One series 496. The next day I bought another.

Then I got my hands on its bigger brother the 10 ft 4100. Now we were getting into some serious business. This thing was a beast. It could throw a set of dries out to the Eastern Tennessee tailwater fish that won’t let you get within 70 feet, or horse in a chunky brown trying to make for the closest root ball.

I fish a lot from drift boats, and I like to have enough rods set up for whatever contingencies may arise. That normally means I’m carrying 6-8 rods on the boat. Given that we live in two different states, I have ended up with a butt load of rods. When the dust settled I did end up with half a dozen 496s and as many 4100s. I also have a smattering of 390s, 490s and then the heavier ones - the 7100s and Spey rods. The One Series was the most serious rod I had come across since the old 1980s Loomis IMXs. It did have a couple of clunkers in there - the 5100 was chunky at best. But it was uniformly the best fly rod series until then.

Then one day they stopped making it and introduced the X. They made a huge noise about it, and after having fished the One I thought we were in for a pleasant surprise. I ran out to cast some. They were a surprise indeed, but I wouldn’t use the word pleasant. How could someone who had come up with the One Series miss so badly? Every X rod I cast was designed wrong. The tips were stiff, the mid and butt sections soft. It was as if the person designing them had absolutely no clue of what happens when a fly rod is used to cast a line. I don’t know if there was a change in the design team, or what. Maybe there were a bunch of happy mushrooms, or left handed cigarettes making the rounds on Bainbridge Island, but everything about that set of rods was just plain wrong.

Being a fly rod junky I did have to keep feeding the jones. So I tried the Scott Radians - nice rods, but merely OK. I still have a couple left over in Colorado. Got rid of the rest.

Then calamity struck. We were coming off a long fall day on the Colorado, taking out at the truck rest area at Dino. Packed everything away and the next day I realized I’d lost 3 Sage Ones. I called Sage and tried to coax them into making some for me. They politely told me to go pound sand. But this young man told me to watch out for something they had coming out in a few weeks. It was the Sonic. The best thing since the One. I sometimes suspect it is just the One wrapped in a green skin and a little lighter. But it was a great rod. Seemed like Sage had redeemed themselves from the X disaster. I have a bunch of them, and they look pretty sitting next to fish.

I even got a bunch of them to with which to chase the bigger ones.

Balance had been returned to the universe. Life was good again. Before moving on I should probably touch on the TCR, TCX, Igniter side of things. I love fast fly rods. I especially love fast, light line rods. The TCR, TCX pedigree of rods has gotten successively better. There is a place for them in certain conditions and I always had a few.

I got rid of them and filled the gap with the Igniters which I fish in 4, 5 and 6 wt for tough conditions or where I need to lift some heft stuff off the water. The Igniter is worlds ahead of the TCR, TCX and Mod family. It feels like a One series on steroids and if it wasn’t for a lack of longer rods, it would probably have become a favorite.

Then Sage came out with the R8. My friend Charlie Perkins who runs Mayfly Outfitters in Michigan (and it’s one fine establishment) sent me a few to try and buy. I first went to the 4100. I had visions of the X seething through my mind. I put that guy aside and tried the 5100. Now that was a nice rod. I haven’t been able to find a nice 10ft 5 wt. The Loomis NRX+ is a little clubby, the One series 5100 was a bit of a dog, the Radian 5100 was a Radian (a little bit of a gentleman in a rough crowd), the Scott Centric should not be spoken of in polite company (It’s their X). But here was a nice 5100. So that went into the rack. I’ve fished it a lot and got a second one for out west. Next I tried the 596 (too bad Sage gave up on the 496s). The best 596 I had fished until then was actually the Sonic. The R8 was a really nice rod. So that went into the rack, as did the 490. I don’t fish many 6 wts and that region is filled with a couple of Ones and Sonic and an Igniter. We’ll see what else comes down the line.

So now to the new rods - the Sage Arrow and the Power R8. Let’s start with the Power R8. This is one for the books and a few will be acquired. It picks right up where the Igniter left off. Nice stiff mid and butt section, a responsive tip, casts like a dream. Wish they’d put a 4100 and 5100 into the line up, but I suppose you can’t get every silly thing you dream of.

The Arrow series were a mixed bag. I immediately noticed the absence of the 390. I love those rods for streams such as these.

The 490 was a yeoman sort of rod. Those things are so ubiquitous you really need something special to catch your attention. The One series, Sonic and R8 do that. The Arrow is OK. After that everything else I cast was just a X in a different set of clothes, with the possible exception of the 596. The 596 was more along the lines of what a rod should be, but it would suffer in comparison to the R8, or the Sonic if you can find one. The rest were marked by soft middles, stiff tips, this so called “progressive flex into your hand”. We used to call that a medium to slow rod. I’ll give them another shot, but at first glance seem like the X designers got their shot at effing up another series on this one. Too bad.

In the meantime here’s a picture of a nice Sonic with an old CFO. The fish isn’t too shabby either.