Sage Circa Update

So I've been fishing the Circa 379 for a little while now. I'm still loving this rod, so much that I bought a used 5wt as well. The thing that blows me away the most about these rods are how well they protect light tippet. I've hooked some big cutties (up to around 19") on these rods using 5X tippet and had the rod bent in a horseshoe without breaking off. Actually now that I think about it, I don't think I've broken off a single fish with either of these rods. I've had a few shake the fly but no break offs that I can recall.

The 3wt still seems to be money with the Airflo River & Stream on it. Loads nicely at short distances but is also capable of casting further. The 5wt I've played around with a few different lines just for fun. The first line I put on it was the Rio Gold. I've never been a big fan of this line and I'm still not. Second was the SA VPT line. It's a terrible overhead casting line for small streams because the head is so long on it. But! This line has a great taper for single-handed spey casting. I was able to cast a Fat Albert ridiculous distances on the Elk river around Fernie with the Circa and VPT. It's a fun line for spey casts so I think I'll hang onto it even if it doesn't see a ton of use. At the very least it'll be a good line to take on a windy day. So that leaves it down to two similar lines - the Rio Trout LT in a WF and a DT. The WF is nice, but the DT really sings on this rod. The DT is the line I've been using on it the past few weeks and I've really enjoyed it. Hopefully I can put it to more use before the weather gets too cold and the snow starts to fly.

Quick 3wt comparison

This summer I've started fishing the mountain streams a lot more. In the past I didn't really bother with them as much because the Bow is so close and is such an amazing fishery. I think this year with the low flows, high water temps, and lack of dry fly fishing on the Bow I started looking to the cutty streams to get my dry fly fix. The one problem I had on the smaller streams was that all my rods are medium-fast to very fast action, so they don't load very well at some of the shorter distances you're going to be casting. Any excuse to buy another rod really. I decided on a 3wt because I figured it would be light enough to make smaller fish fun to catch but still be able to handle the bigger cutties and throw a hopper in the wind.

I went down to the fly shop and looked around at the 3wt rods they had in the 7'6" to 8'6" range to test. The three rods I ended up casting were the G. Loomis NRX LP 8'8" 3wt, Sage Accel 7'6" 3wt, and Sage Circa 7'9" 3wt. (I realize there are lots of other 3wt rods that probably fit my criteria, but either the fly shop didn't have them in stock or they were not carbon rods.) I have to admit that I already had a bias going into this. A few people I know raved about the NRX LP rods, and I own a Sage Accel that I really like. At the same time I had cast a Circa once before when it first came out and didn't care much for the slow action. I fully expected that I would be walking away with the NRX or Accel but boy was I wrong.

Rather than bore anyone with a long description of how I tested the three rods I'll just sum it up. The Accel was nice when casting 20 feet or farther. At short distances the med-fast action just didn't load well at all. It's a nice rod, just not suited to the water I'd be fishing with it. Next up, the NRX LP was much better than the Accel at short distances but once you got to 20 feet or more I felt it didn't cast as well and lost a lot of accuracy. Maybe this was just because of my shitty casting and the wind that was blowing, but that was my experience with it.

So the Circa. Like I said, I cast one before (can't even remember which length/weight it was) and didn't care for it. I think when I did try it before I was probably trying to cast it like a fast action rod or maybe it was just poorly lined. When I tested it at shorter distances it loaded up no problem but was still able to cast up to 50 feet easily. If you try double hauling hard or muscling this rod it will end up being a mess, but with a smooth casting stroke it'll lay line down in a straight line every time. It feels a little strange going from something like a One or Accel to the Circa, but once you adjust your cast it's a sweetheart of a rod. I used it on the Livingstone last Sunday and had a blast. I don't think I've ever had a rod place my dry flies on the water as gently before. I caught cutties between 6" and around 12-14" and had fun, which is all that really matters. I currently have it lined with an Airflo Super-Dri River and Stream, which seems to be a great delicate presentation combo, but I'm still able to toss something foamy like a Fat Albert.

Rio Single Handed Spey line

I ran into Simon Gawesworth (yeah I'm name dropping already) today while he was giving a spey casting course on the Bow. He had a Sage One 590 lined with the new Rio Single Handed Spey line with him and he was kind enough to let me try it out. Ok, really he's a nice enough guy that he'd let anyone walking by give it a try if they asked. Seriously, one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet.

Right, so back to the line. I played around with it for a little while doing some double speys, snap Ts, and Perry pokes. All these casts were incredibly easy to perform with the taper on this line. Even a "turbo spey" - adding a haul to the cast - was so easy because the line loads the rod well making the timing pretty easy to nail. Even overhead casts work with this line making some pretty tight loops.

I think this line will work well for hopper-dropper and streamers. It should do ok for some dry fly fishing, but I don't think you're going to want to use it for tricos and little BWOs. From what I experienced it isn't the most delicate presentation line compared to something like the Trout LT or River & Stream. I'll have to see how it works for indicator nymphing, but right now there's no line out there that'll beat the Xtreme Indicator for that in my opinion.

If you already use a lot of single hand spey casts you're going to like this line. If you already know how to do spey casts on a switch or spey rod, this line will make it easier for you to transfer those casts to a single handed rod. If you don't know how to spey cast at all, you might want to pass this one by. It roll casts nicely, but so do other lines out there that are more versatile. I have one on order for my 5wt rod so I'll see how it really fishes when I get it.

Why?

So what's the point of this blog? 

Lately I've noticed there aren't a lot of unbiased gear reviews, especially for fly fishing gear. Sure, there are reviews by online shops and magazines but they're looking to sell stuff or for advertising dollars so they never truly give a negative review (unless it's a brand they don't carry or who doesn't advertise with them of course). Last week I was looking for a 3wt rod to use on some of the smaller mountain streams around here. Now granted you need to cast a rod to know for sure if it's right for you, but where to start? I'd love to have unlimited time to visit every fly shop in the area and test every 3wt rod they have on the rack, but that just isn't going to happen. Asking the staff at your local fly shop can be hit and miss too. At one shop the guy working there started going on about how this one 3wt rod was great because he could cast the whole line with it. I think he's missing the point of a short 3wt rod for cutties in small mountain streams...

So I'll post up some reviews for fishing gear I've actually used, camping gear, and maybe some cameras and lenses as well. I might throw in some trip reports, rants, and ramblings too. Maybe later today I'll start out with a post about the 3wt rods I tested.