Hello
friends and thanks for checking in at the O’Grady Fly Fishing Adventures. If
you have been a long-time follower of the blog and have read my many product
reviews, then you know that my reviews are anything but normal. Rather than just
tossing out a bunch of technical specs, I try to paint a picture of the usability
of a product. I have been a trout guide and a part time fly shop employee for
about ten years and although it may be sacrilegious, personally I don’t think
castability is the most important part of a fly rod. This is a review of the new
Sage Igniter fly rod.
I wanted to start by giving my first
impressions of the Igniter. As a long-time shop rat and an obsessed fly
fisherman, every time a new rod comes into the shop I have to pick it up and get
that initial impression. I have picked up and examined hundreds and hundreds of rods over the years and came away with a whole array of first impressions. The first Igniter I got to play with was my wife Cat’s
9 foot 5 wt. The color was interesting to say the least. I have never been one
to think that color will ever make the difference in catching fish but if you
are going to spend that much money on a rod, then you want it to look good. Cat
liked the color so much that she matched her fingernails to the rod. Picking up
the rod the first thing I noticed was that it felt a slight bit heavier than
the Sage X. Looking at the specs, it is about quarter of an ounce heavier. Once
we added a reel, the weight difference was negligible and when holding upright
I didn’t feel the weight but could definitely feel the stability. The next
thing I did was give it a good shake and there was absolutely no jiggle in the
rod, it flexed down and up and came back to center almost immediately. I loved
the feel and the look but was worried the flex may be a little stiffer than I
like.
Now here is the part of the review
that I hope the rod designers never read. In the opening of this blog I stated
that personally as a trout guide, I don’t think castability is the most
important part of a fly rod. A few weeks back we had a client that was getting
ready for his trip to Colorado and was telling my wife that he had been
practicing and he was pretty confident at casting up to about sixty feet. When
Cat told me that I laughed and asked if she explained we were only going to be
fishing one river at a time. The majority of my fishing is done at twenty-five
feet or less. I have guided many clients over the years that can cast a mile but
the most successful trout anglers are the ones that can control their flies
once they hit the water.
Last week I headed to the Western
Slope to visit my son and spend some quality time on the water with him, I
brought Cat’s new Igniter to give it a test run. The rod was set up with a Sage
Spectrum Lt and a Rio Grand line and I began with 5x fluoro. The river was
super low and really clear so the majority of our fish were sighted out. I
started by landing a few cutties in the 14 or 15 inch range that had been
sitting about fifteen feet away. I use a roll/flip cast and found the rod to be
deadly accurate. The fight on the smaller fish was more enjoyable that I
expected. I can’t stand the super stiff rods that don’t give you the
ability to feel the fish. The wind picked up early afternoon and the rod never
lost a beat even tossing it into the wind. The second day we found some bigger
fish and eventually had to go down to 6x, I hooked a pretty big fish but he got
me into the rocks before I could really get a feel for him, but caught several
in the 14 to 17inch range and the tippet was protected fine. When I got home, I
enjoyed the rod enough that I ordered my own in a 4wt and have now had the
chance to fish it several times. Now here is the thing that I don’t really
understand and am trying to wrap my head around, when I have fished really fast
rods in the past, the energy from the fish ends up going straight into my forearm.
And sometimes the slower rods get to a certain flex and then stop and I end up
with the same forearm strain. Here is what I absolutely love about the Igniter
the most. I have now landed a few fish over twenty and today landed one that
measured 23 and was a fatty. I fight fish quick and got this one landed
quickly. I hooked him on 5x fluoro and the DMZ was the soft seam between the
current and the dead water I was standing in, he didn’t want to leave the
current and I wasn’t going in. I kept the 5x as close to the breaking point as
I could and I could feel the flex deep into the rod, but never felt like the flex was at its end. When I finally got his
face to the surface I steered him across the surface and into my incredible wife’s
net. After a few quick pics and a healthy release, I began to think about the rods
performance and I am still smiling. The rod not only protected the 5x tippet
but it also absorbed the strength of the fish and kept the stress from my arm.
Now as for the casting of the rod, we
have taken it out a few times testing and it really casts well, a haul or double haul can cast as far as you want. We were really
happy that the rod doesn’t seem to be stuck as a one-line pony. A Rio Gold line
still loads the rod but just lands a little softer, and the Rio Grand line can turn
over a fly even if it has to go through a wall, but how often do you really
cast to fish behind a wall.
Now is the new Igniter for you, that
is hard to say but I am a huge fan of both the X and the new Igniter. I think Sage
has put it in the specialty category but personally I think it’s a great all
around nymphing and Colorado rod. If you want to toss more dries then stick
with the X, but if you want a beast to go head to head with the piggies, this
rod might just be for you. Stop by the shop and give one a cast, or better yet,
fish one and feel the excitement for yourself. As always, Connell, Cat, Winston,
and the Drift Fly Shop want to thank you for reading……..
