I found the Zephrus to be a really versatile, do-it-all 4-weight! Are you comfortable showing up with a $200 rod when everyone else has one of those hotshot $750 to $1000 rods in their hands? 5. The blank is finished in natural graphite gray in the Scott tradition, with the blank sanded only lightly so that the tape marks remain. I was getting far better presentations and accuracy with both the Hardy Zephrus and Winston Pure. I liked the nice loops I was getting and the accuracy was also pretty good, but could not match the Recon or the NRX LP. Our deflection charts have been very popular in past Shootouts, so we are giving you more this year. Connect with him on Twitter/Instagram, @Spencer_Durrant. I felt the best rods at long range were the Helios 3F and the Loomis Asquith, as well as the T&T Avantt and the Scott Radian. Here, any rods that rate 9.5 -10 are superb, and would be at the top of a Perfect 4 category. . The double uplocking reel seat is plain anodized aluminum dark gray with silver rings and not nearly as attractive as the better skeleton seats with good-looking wood inserts. Usually takes 1-2 weeks. Like the Orvis 3F, there is no hook keeper. LINE RATING: 4WT. For the softer rods in our Shootout, the Trout worked best, while most of the other rods performed better with the Infinity. Since the blank fares so well, the accuracy does too. At long range no rod has more power. Good, just not nearly as precise but the Zephrus and Pure. TheOrvis RECON, at $429 wasnt far behind! Hardy SHADOW 8'6" #4 $349.95 George's Comments: Wow - It is hard to believe that this mid-priced Hardy finished up with the top rods! The skeleton uplocking seat is one of the most unusual Ive seen. The skeleton reel seat is a gray anodized double uplocking with a dark gray laminated wood insert. Much of the time Im able to play smaller trout by just stripping line in, but when I hook a big fish that runs hard I want to play it off the reel. The TFO rods, the Taylor rods, the Mystic rod, and the Waterworks rods are all designed here in the U.S. and built in Asia. The gray uplocking reel seat is solid anodized aluminum with a sliding band and two locking rings that were easy to grip and tighten. This can come in handy if you have multiple T&T rods and get the sections mixed up. The K2 falls into the upper end of the mid-price range but it was blown away by the less expensive Hardy Shadow and Orvis Recon at 25 and 40 feet. The quality of the standard size cork rings was excellent. The reel seat is a double uplocking skeleton seat in anodized gold, with a pretty wood burl insert using green and brown highlights to complement the blank. Im getting effortless tight loops, and I had complete confidence on where the fly was going on every cast. And while each rod has its own personality, two things remained consistent throughout the new Ultralite family: unfair accuracy and strikingly smooth casting. #16. It was a little better than the Avantt here, but not as good as the H3F. This rod has the gusto to launch it out to 60 and then some! Gear Reviews Multiple Fly Rod Weight Rankings Yellowstone Angler The rods rated 9.5 rods had a $50 fee. My advice has always been if you can afford it, buy the best performing rod you can find. As long as there wasnt much wind I could easily hit 60 feet but accuracy suffered. Performance at 40 feet: 19.5 points out of 20. A counterbalance opposite the handle is used to keep the reel running smoothly when a fish is racing away from you. Anyone whos fished recent Hardy rods knows theyre on the faster end of the spectrum, and thats what I expected when I threw my first lawn casts. If a rod looks like a million bucks and casts like it too, fly fishermen are going to lust for it. It is trimmed top and bottom with contrasting, composite cork rings. The overall craftsmanship is excellent. Feedback. The quality of the cork is not too good either and it used a lot of filler. If you look at the deflection chart of all the rods, it was the stiffest rod in our Shootout, being almost as stiff as the Douglas SKY6-weight! R.L. The JXP was also better. Hardy has given us another magical rod that produced an absolutely stunning performance to blow away all the contenders. But that was about all I liked, other than the very light overall weight that earned it a perfect score. In the past we have used the Scientific Anglers lines since they shoot better and hold up longer than any other line we have found. That might be the answer, but then it would likely be more of a 3-weight rod than a 4-weight. The NRX LP has proven to be an outstanding rod as a 5-weight, winning our 5-weight Shootout several times. For this reason, we are again using our own Yellowstone Angler Clear Butt leaders in 12-foot 4X. Rods are repaired, not replaced except for broken sections. Pretty good, but not quite as accurate or as much feel as with the Shadow. So if you like what we are doing, the best way to thank us is to buy a rod, reel, or outfit from the Yellowstone Angler. Dont fret about the price youll find some ingenious way to sneak it into your collection of rods without the mrs. (or mr.) finding out. This and the Pure were the only two rods I scored a perfect 20 out of 20 at 45 feet. At 60 feet the Zephrus was still performing extremely well. It is important for any fly line to shoot well, and even clear well, when you have extra line at your feet and a fish is streaking for the horizon. This is a soft rod, with a slower action than the Pure.

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