Sage Salt

**saflyfish** · 23-08-14

Originally Posted by William Ewels

If there is a product I believe to be of similar QUALITY to the USA made product for similar price I'll buy the non-USA made item every time.
I'm not anti-American (I have hundreds of USA made items of fishing tackle), just a big moral supporter of anyone else in the world who has the cojones to have go at the global market with all the challenges involved.

Abel,Ross,Tibor have 10+ years of r&d and field testing of their reels...Wade reels may be similar quality and price,but don't have those credentials,hence my preference for the USA reels
Some would say the wade reels have been extensively tested but say 20 guides testing for a few years is not the same as thousands of anglers testing reels over many years

**Andre** · 23-08-14

Agreed on that one... you cant copy experience.

Originally Posted by saflyfish

Abel,Ross,Tibor have 10+ years of r&d and field testing of their reels...Wade reels may be similar quality and price,but don't have those credentials,hence my preference for the USA reels
Some would say the wade reels have been extensively tested but say 20 guides testing for a few years is not the same as thousands of anglers testing reels over many years

**allsorts** · 23-08-14

To me there are 2 issues to think about when evaluating a new product of this sort. The first is the design and the second is production consistency. A good design can be evaluated thoroughly in a relatively short time - certainly a few months hard, daily use on the flats by even a handful of guides would show up any major flaws in a design.

Alan Hawk is a world-renowned spinning reel expert and his reviews are based on (1) a total strip down and analysis of a reel after about 100 hours of heavy use and (2) his own expertise as an engineer. He is so good that Daiwa and Quantum both made running changes to current reels based on his analysis. Given that heavy duty jigging / popping spinning reels are vastly more complex than any fly reel, a thorough evaluation of the Wade design doesn't need lots of people over lots of time provided that the testing environment is tough enough to stress the product and that evaluators are expert enough to interpret the results.

Quality control (i.e. conformance to design) obviously requires a larger sample to assess so widespread use by many customers is a better measure of QC than any individual evaluation. In this case a few sample reels used daily on the flats provide no useful QC information, only once production is started can this be assessed properly.

Would you only consider buying a smartphone once it had been on the market for many years? These are just fly reels after all

Apologies for epic thread hijacking although I didn't mention reels first!

**Barbus13** · 25-08-14

I know this is about the "Sage Salt" rod, but seeing as these two were basically released together I was wondering if anyone has casted/ fished with the new "Accel" freshwater, and what they think about it? Sorry don't want to sidetrack the thread to much.

**Andre** · 25-08-14

The thread is about both rods, so yes, good question that I would also like to hear.

Originally Posted by Barbus13

I know this is about the "Sage Salt" rod, but seeing as these two were basically released together I was wondering if anyone has casted/ fished with the new "Accel" freshwater, and what they think about it? Sorry don't want to sidetrack the thread to much.

**Barbus13** · 25-08-14

Originally Posted by Andre

The thread is about both rods, so yes, good question that I would also like to hear.

I've been "lawn casting" mine, with this weekend's cold front, making trip to Vaal almost a sure bet on yellows having "lockjaw" and it seems someone has placed another order for another possible front this coming weekend, so no way of fishing it this side as yet.
What I can say is that if you are used to fast action rod, it takes a but of getting use to.......the art of backhauling is a must, and you take half a second to a second longer on your front and back hauls this rod cast just as far, I think easily up to 70 yards (20m), it has a whip action in the tip that suprises you with given a last boost of 2-4meters. It is rather accurate with short line presentations up to 50 yards, 10-15m. If you want distance and you fish big flies, I don't think this is your rod....rather look at a Sage Method or TFO BVK. But for smallmouth yellowfish fishing, I do think I bought a winner.

That is my intepretation, and my 2c worth.....please feel free to disagree :-)

**Saloon 2000** · 25-08-14

Originally Posted by Barbus13

this rod cast just as far, I think easily up to 70 yards (20m), it has a whip action in the tip that suprises you with given a last boost of 2-4meters. It is rather accurate with short line presentations up to 50 yards, 10-15m.

I disagree.