Gear » Fly Rods

In this recent post over at Troubitten, Domenick Swentosky dives into the never-ending debate about whether an expensive fly rod will catch you more trout. As with most everything Dom writes, I appreciate the way he looks at this question, and he does a wonderful job explaining his position. I particularly like that he spends time talking about the period...

My local small streams finally opened up the past week or so, calming down from the runoff we had this year. They're still high, and a bit tricky to wade, but it's not impossible. And just as these small streams came into shape, I got a nice surprise in the mail. I'd sent in a BIIIx 9' 5-weight to Winston for repair in March, and it turned up just in time...

On the heels of releasing their new Evos rods, St. Croix has debuted another new fly rod family, dubbed the Technica. Available in weights 3-5, and lengths from 7'9" to 9', these rods are primarily dry-fly focused, though from a first glance through their marketing materials, I bet they'll handle dry-dropper rigs, as well. St. Croix says the Technica is...

Last week, I shared some of my honest thoughts on fly rods. Namely, that a great fly rod doesn't do you much good if you're not an adequate caster. I stand by that, but one of our readers made a comment along the lines of "it's hard to focus on learning to cast if you're fighting your gear all day." His argument is that you should buy a decent rod when...

In my almost-decade of fly fishing writing, I've had the opportunity to review a few fly rods. Without fail, the question most folks ask me is "are the expensive rods really worth it?" I've addressed this before in some gear reviews, but I wanted to give the topic some space here as well, because it's been on my mind a lot lately. The shortest answer to...

The folks over at Field & Stream had the chance to take the new Hardy Marksman Z saltwater rod out for a spin in Florida. The Marksman Z is Hardy's premier saltwater rod, so expectations for its performance were high. You can read about how the rod performed here.

Douglas Outdoors has announced the release of their new DXF Gen 2 fly rods. These rods are the "next step" in the DXF lineup, according to the company, and feature a completely redesigned rod. The blank has been tweaked from the ground up with new materials, component have been updated, and Douglas claims this leads to a fly rod with "unparalleled feel...

Scott Rods has debuted a new rod family, dubbed the Session. Session rods are built to "bring together high line speed and exceptional loop control with a light and lively feel in the hand," per Scott's website. Session rods feature a new cork grip and a striking bright-green color theme that I think looks sharp. You'll also get low-glare snake guides and...

The Helios 3 was, arguably, the best rod Orvis ever built. Today, they're releasing the next rod in their flagship series, simply dubbed "Helios" (not Helios 4). The new Helios is billed as "4 times more accurate than the H3" according to Orvis. Now, if that sounds like standard marketing-speak designed to sell more fly rods, I understand you apprehension...

Sage recently announced the release of their newest flagship spey rod - the Spey R8. Built on their new and innovative Revolution 8 (R8) technology, the Spey R8 line has rods from weights 5 through 10, giving spey anglers across the spectrum a rod for their favorite style of two-handed angling. Per a Sage press release, all Spey R8 rods will "heighten the...