Without any doubt , Jerry Siem is probably one of the greatest rod designer of all the time, if not the greatest one.
All together with Bruce Richards , Fly Line designer , they established modern Fly Casting /Fishing with their rods and lines.
Many of us grew up with Sage rods , and these carbon sticks are second to none by all means .
But, he must pay his bills as anyone else ,so I understand that dark (and hopefully short) period of making a few wet broomsticks models :biggrin:
I still think (in #5 class) that Sage XP is the greatest ever produced rod (industrial, mass production, not small series, hand made designed rods) .
He never managed to make decent replacement of XP , since market went to wet broomstick direction at the time after XP cancellation .
Judging only by description, I hope X is that long awaited XP replacement , proper replacement .
Of course this is only speculation ,for the purpose of carrying on this nice discussion with the Gentlemen on this Board , only once we cast the X , we will know.
Another very important thing in the Sage X advert is that statement about "water casts ".
That was a reason for my first post written on that way
Why anyone need to say - this rod is suitable for water casts ?
Any fly rod must be suitable for water casts (say simple Roll Cast on the first place, not to mention huge variety of Single Hand Spey casts )
Any proper rod must be good enough ( to be loaded enough) for easy execution of Roll Cast with 5-12 meters of line outside rod tip , depending of skills .
So why suddenly , Sage X become a rod suitable for water casts , having that statement in its advert ?
Because some of the previous models were just useless for any Roll (Spey) Cast, that's why .
5 -10 m of line is just not enough to load such a kind of stiff rods , and Rolls and Speys are impossible without pain and unnecessary effort.
If I cannot do a nice Roll with 5-6 meters of line outside rod tip , that is not rod for me , period.
Just take a look in a ,probably the best ever #6 carbon rod made- Sexyloops Hot Torpedo .
Designed by Paul Arden , one of the best fly casters ever , and big lover and specialist in the Single Spey Hand Casting.
One can do the Roll with just few meters of line , and then to carry 22 (or full 28 meters as Paul do) meters of the line in the air and then to shoot that damn fly over 30- 40 meters of distance .
Wet broomstick can do only second part , to throw the line beyond the horizon , but they are useless for close Roll /Speys, fine presentation ...
Soft , slow rods can do only the first part , nice Rolls and Speys , but with limited distance.
They are useless if you need to present that small CDC fly 27-30 meters in the wind on arising Yellow on Sterkies .
Knowing it very well, Jerry obviously get back to his roots and designed the rod which can do both things with easy , canceling the need to carry two rods ,one for distance , one for the water casts and fine presentation.
Sage management probably didn't immune and blind in regards of amazing penetration in rod market by the New Kid in the block (Epic Fly Rods by Swift Fly Fishing ).
Epic philosophy is very simple - full progressive flex , cast and present close and distance with easy ,great pleasure during casting and AMAZING , UNBELIEVABLE fast recovery for glass rod , equal to many carbon rods with big names on the handle.
(an example - the leader lenght on each and everyone of my 4 Epic rods are about 10-20 % LONGER than leaders on my premium acrbon Sage and other rods .
Why ? Because of some weird reason , my Epic Glass rods are easier and more effective on leader turnover than carbon rods !!!??? )
And remember , Epic rods are also designed by one of the finest caster /fly casting teacher on the World .
That's why they are so successful , threatening to become a very, very serious player in this game .
So , that's why I understand Sage X design like Sage management apologize to (temporarily ) abandoned part of the market .
Also X could be comeback to the fly casting fly fishing roots .
In my World , these roots are : " Hey you, Fly Rod ! Present that bloody fly on 5 and 30 meters with easy and pleasure ,or I gonna sell you right now ! :biggrin:"
And finally , X could be the answer on never answered simple question : how the proper fly rod should looks like ?
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