Guide Zack Williams lays down the ground rules.
On Wednesday I had the good fortune to participate in a 6 weight rod test / shootout with the rest of the team at the Gig Harbor Fly Shop.
Guide, instructor, shop guru and competition spey caster Zack Williams organized the 10-rod / 2-line comparison. We moseyed to the Park just down the street and cast each rod for several minutes with two different lines and then rated each rod in a host of different categories before moving on to the next.
In alphabetical order (clearly not in the order of my personal or the group’s preference) here are the rods (again all 6 weights) we tested in the gentle rain:
- Beulah Platinum 9.5’
- Echo 3S 9’
- Echo Ion 9’
- Sage One 9.5’
- Sage Response 9.5’
- Scott A4 9.5’
- Scott S4 9.5’
- Scott S4S 9’
- Winston BIIISX 9’
- Winston BIIIX 9.5’
Zack’s goal was to get everyone’s hands on a set of 6 weights representing a fairly wide array of price points, which he clearly did, as well as handle rods from a number of the major players in today’s rod world. Each rod was cast with a Royal Wulff Ambush line as well as an Airflo 40+.
I for one was fascinated to see my web-footed Pacific Northwest colleagues casting into the backing with just about every rod, throwing line farther than I’ve ever needed to do even when fishing the ‘big waters’ back home in Montana like the Missouri, Yellowstone and main stem of the Flathead.
Clearly running through a side to side casting comparison like this is far from the optimal way to test rods; a rod needs to be fished on the water you’re going to be fishing to get the very best measure of and feel for a rod’s performance – a testing protocol that is very, very difficult to objectively undertake.
That said, frankly there probably wasn’t a rod in the bunch most of us wouldn’t be (reasonably) happy to fish with for a season or two, though I and the rest of the gang had a very clear cut preference for rods in this test.
More to come…
Shopmeister Blake Merwin and Manager Erik Halom slaving away at work.
