SAGE 7130-4 MOD
One spey rod. Choose just one…..
That is a tall order. In fact, it might be easier to hypothetically design the perfect spey rod in your mind, then wiggle a bunch of commercially made sticks to find the one that conforms to your idea of perfect. Good luck with that.
The absolute one and only spey rod in my mind possesses two distinct qualities: It bends more in the middle than in the tip and possesses a damp tip section. The other design features would include the latest graphite layup and resin technologies. The handle would feature a full wells. It would be 13 feet long and be rated as a 7 weight. The action would inherently be powerful and progressive, but the soft middle section would make it friendly to cast. I like a rod that does some of the work when you load it up. A soulful stick makes efficient use of the mass in the rod to reduce the effort you apply. A soulful stick keep the works moving along. A super fast action rod loads and unloads so quickly that sustaining the load requires a faster pace and quicker timing. This might help drive full floating fly lines into the wind with authority, but I fish Skagit style lines most of the time and prefer the more languid tempo of a sweep that begins slowly, builds to a stop at the end of the casting stroke and is immediately damp as the line rockets out over the run. Stiff rods oscillate. Soft rods lack the pop. The SAGE 7130-4 MOD rod is the only spey rod I’ve fished lately that fits the bill as the all-around spey rod. It’s the one rod I would pick for most of my fishing: The Konnetic soul stick: Light as a 5 weight: Bendy in the middle but powerful in the top hand: Lazer loops or lazy loops. You decide. If you fish Skagit heads and Scandi lines for steelhead and salmon, the SAGE 7130-4 MOD is the one rod you need, if in fact you need one rod. But if you’re a multi-stick, load the quiver kind of angler, the 7130-4 MOD rod is the only 7 weight you need, which leaves more room for other sticks, like a 5 weight switch rod, and 8 weight 14 footer, an 8 weight switch rod for tight quarters…you get my drift.
JM