Craig Wilson a friend from Sydney brow beat me on the merits of the Sage" One" and how it made him a better caster (although he forgot to mention a few subtle hints might have made a difference) nonetheless it was and still is a great rod.
Craig had a scientific Wet/tip of 10wgt loaded over the 9wgt rod,whilst I can go with that I didn't get or take the chance to downsize the line due to too many fish about, in my mind it was on a par with the TCR series.
The strong winds over the last month were handy for another reason, for me anyhow.This week I spent 2 days casting a new" Method" 8wgt and a" Salt" 9wgt, without a lot of lengthy comment the "Method" was a great rod easy to cast responsive but essentially no paradigm shift for me there.
The "Method" nailed plenty of these which whilst legal looks bigger here than it actually was
.The Salt however was an entirely different story.
A recent discussion with Steve huff in Florida where he told me his friend and Chief designer at Sage Jerry Siems explained over the last two years while developing the "Salt "he had discovered when wrapping all graphite rods an inherent error of aligning the fibers can be rectified and was applied to this model. Sage has produced a very crisp workable rod for what I like doing that is picking up and casting off the water, tight loops under trees and punching in the wind and above all the important, accuracy.
Funnily enough Abel Reels show pony Colors and offset seat didn't bother the balance at all.
Sage have produced some great rods and mind you a few notable turkeys over the years, the Salt is a definitive and measurable improvement from their famous and my still favorite the TCR series.
I have used and been sponsored by Sage for 28 yrs but having said that a" dog of a rod" is a "dog of a rod" regardless of who makes it, this one is not in that category and will set a new standard so much so I just ordered 2 hopefully discounted after giving this rare review.
One Fly line line we tried was the" Rio Tropical Short", supposedly a quick casting flats line at short distances, one hour using this and excusing the french WTF, I have no idea why this line exists other than to solve somebody's casting problem in throwing to Tuna or other Pelagic schools, it did nothing for me encountering Barra on the flats, if you intend to fish both on one day you are far better using a weight forward Floating or wet/tip line, anyway it went back in the bag and got another loud WTF from both of us.
Thats 66cms (lousy photo) the" Salt" sent my fly on one pickup out 80ft (on the Bible) on Anniversary flat yesterday
Cheers Graeme
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