2011 8wt Shootout.

[briansII]

The much anticipated , Yellowstone Angler Shootout, is now online.

http://yellowstoneangler.com/8weightsho ... ageXi3.asp

.....yeah, I know. The most expensive rod.....that Yellowstone Angler sells, came out on top AGAIN. So, you can choose not to read the shootout this year. Me, I like the article(s) and read it for some basic info on 8wt rods......and more so for the entertainment factor. Good stuff George. Keep em' coming. BTW, plenty of statements to raise your eyebrows, or make you shake your head. BTW, BTW, I already know what the best 8 weight is, but it wasn't rated #1.

briansII

[1mocast]

Brian, Thanks...

I might go shopping for a Bernard Victor...

[NorcalBob]

Yeppers, don't forget to click on the "Buy Now" buttons prominently placed in strategic locations! Actually, I'm quite surprised as to how high my favorite rod placed, given the obvious bias' towards the so called "shootout". The one thing I don't understand (well, actually I do understand!) is how you can give the Loomis NRX a 9 on warranty with it's one and done warranty limitation. For me, even though the NRX is a fine rod, it's a deal breaker.

[1mocast]

Bob,
Good Point. vs. $25 No Fault for the TFO. And you get one back within the week.

[flybob]

At first they make it look like these are the ONLY 8wts on the market, then you read on and it says this:

In doing our shootouts, we try to pick the best rods we can find on the market that will meet our requirements and this often means getting rods that we do not sell in our shop and from manufacturers we don't do business with. This is not always easy and we apologize for not testing a rod you wanted to see. E-mail us and we can usually give you some answers as to how these rods perform as even if we didn't test it, we may have well cast it against these other rods in our shootout.

From the sound of it, they TEST the rods before they test the rods?

In the end, it always ends up being one persons/groups perspective.

Good stuff though!

[briansII]

There are plenty of nuggets in the article to make you go, hmmmmm........... Clearly biased? IMHO, probably to some extent......how could it not be? Besides the warranty rating Loomis got, the workmanship rating for the NRX seems odd. Even NRX owners have said publicly, the workmanship is poor, but the rod is very good. One other thing that sticks out, is the mention of the cost of the BVK during the testing. Cost is an issue in the overall ranking, but why do they have to mention it so often when rating the performance? To me, the cost is irrelevant when testing it's performance. Even with all that, and more, I think the article is informative, and entertaining.

briansII

[RiverRat]

Their paragraph titled.......

Don’t believe everything you read!

....should include their article.

They say the same thing about St Croix Legend Elite rods, every year. Cut and paste kings.

shane

[Pete]

To make any shoot out fair, all rods should be painted black including the hardware. And the performance testing should be blind. That gets rid of the name bias. Then they can do the price, cosmetics and hardware comparisions.

jmo

[briansII]

To make any shoot out fair, all rods should be painted black including the hardware. And the performance testing should be blind. That gets rid of the name bias. Then they can do the price, cosmetics and hardware comparisions.

jmo

Agreed. The only way to get a reasonably unbiased review is to do a blind test. Problem with most 8 weights is, they have some distinctive hardware. Even if you paint all of them black, most fly shop guys will be able to tell which rod is which. Not sure how you would pull off a true "blind test"(without adding weight to the rod), but I think it would have a lot of value.

briansII