It's the 4-piece, 9' 8-weight. Feels lighter than a lot of 7WTs and even 6WTs in the hand, but it's perfect with a standard 8-weight line (as compared to those half a line size bigger such as the Outbounds). Kind of a neat sensation to have one that's smoother than bamboo, yet light and powerful. Ok...

Okay, I quit dithering and bought the thing! My wife got tired of my pondering and ORDERED me to do it. Now all I have to do is keep it out of her hands. Seems like she ends up claiming about every other fly rod that comes through the door. I sense a pattern, here. Funny thing is, the shop owner I w...

lucfish wrote:...it would be hard to put down that kind of dough. One never knows though.

There you have it, the reason I drove home without it. But dang.... I keep feeling that rod in my hand and watching the line loop floating out there like a dream.

Had the opportunity to cast a Sage 890-4 X for about an hour today. Gotta say it's the first Sage that's impressed me in quite a while. It was parking lot casting with an unknown WF8 "shop" line that had suffered from previous asphalt adventures, but the rod simply didn't care. It easily p...

For trout and light bass with 6's and 7's, I'm especially fond of the 4-piece Temple Fork BVK. Just an incredible mix of smooth and power, while mixing in delicacy when you need it. Almost anyone who has cast ours quickly buys their own. For banging out tough casts or long casts with bigger flies or...

Zackly. The shop has signed up for an array of demo's, so as soon as those come in I can report back. The shop owner is curious too. A friend from Sage is due in town in the next couple of weeks, so I'll be twisting arms for more details, too. For me it's going to be a cast-off between the X in an 8...

That's an insightful preview, Jeff. Thanks for posting it! This caught my eye, especially the bit about "crisper tip-top." That's the region in Sage blanks giving me the most heartburn: ...greater blank recovery and a crisper tip-top, allowing anglers to dig deeper into the rod and access ...

My shoulder and wrist can no longer take a day long beating that rod dishes out. Short sessions and Advil work ok. Hoooboy, did you ever say a mouthful there! Wait till you hit the big 65! :bananadance: Last winter the son-in-law and I paddled kayaks 4 miles into a stiff breeze for promised hot fis...

BTW, the TCR isn't the stiffest trout rod I ever cast. Try the Temple Fork TiCRX!!!! Wow. The 8WT has become the go-to salmon rod up here in the land of big winds, big flies, big fish and big casts. It's put a severe dent in local sales of Sage, and visiting Sage-o-philes come back the next year pa...

Are you floating one or two people? If just one (you and the guide) I could see having three rigged rods. If floating two (plus guide), I see an expensive disaster in the making, especially on the Big Hole during full irrigation mode. We used to float it with an inflatable which would make the chan...

Having two rods allows me to immediately react faster to a trout nearby because I have seen their behaviors go bipolar on a regular basis... That's especially true on float trips. Last time I floated the Big Hole you needed 3 rods- one with streamers, one with nymphs and one with Trico spinners. We...

Those two sentences probably sum up the differences between youth and vigor versus maturity and experience. It's a pleasant experience to sit on the edge of the river and watch your buddy work and catch fish in a good glide, much like it is in watching your child master a difficult task and proceed...

Oh, the places and species I've tossed a fly at would drive the dry fly purest to drink but I do so love the challenge of bringing a fly rod to all sorts of water. There ya go. Many places you just can't get to trout waters. I realize that I may define "dry fly" a little different than mo...

One other aspect to consider- Fishing dries can be as technical or more so than nymphing. You have to play casting and drag-fighting games like no other form of fly fishing. If you haven't been practicing your dry fly fishing and casting, you might as well keep on fishing nymphs and emergers when ce...

briansII wrote:I hope I don't fall into the crusty old pharts category....

Ah, c'mon. There's room for lots more of us!