ouija board baltimoreghana lotto prediction
Like the Orvis 3F, there is no hook keeper. The lock rings were a little harder than most to grip and tighten. The big reason it didnt do better than middle of the pack was the action. 2. The best 4-weight rods are superb at the short to medium distances, such as the Zephrus, the Pure, the Scott G-Series and the Orvis Helios 3F. The epoxy coatings over the wraps were surprisingly good for a one-coat finish. Cheaper rods often utilize pre-formed grips that use a lot of filler in the cork that will chunk out or erode with hard use. The quality of the cork is not too good either and it used a lot of filler. I love the way this rod tracks and the accuracy is good too. We like the looks of this new Mystic rod and the craftsmanship is better than we found on the Reaper X, but the price is a lot higher also. When you pick up this rod, youll first notice how light it is in swing weight. The Zephrus makes me a more accurate and efficient caster. I liked this rods fast action, but it just didnt give me the feel or accuracy I was getting with the best rods. We didnt award any points for this category but we know that for many people this is a factor in a decision to purchase a rod, so we wanted to list this in our Objective Observations table and also in our Final Results table. Rods are repaired, not replaced except for broken sections. Heres a mid-priced rod that put in a good performance across the board. If you do a lot of nymph fishing, the extra length will help, and this rod has enough butt and mid-section power to also chuck some smaller streamers. The reel seat is an uplocking black anodized skeleton seat with a dark gray graphite insert, (pretty plain looking but it works well). I love the handle design it tapers outward allowing you to quickly get and maintain a good grip on the handle. Once the grip of the rod is placed precisely on the foam pellet, with the rod horizontal, we apply pressure, by pressing down with a fingernail to the very end of the reel seat, and then read (and note) the weight indicated by the scale. T&T also uses a stack of thinner cork rings and the quality of the cork is as close to perfect as you can get. The quality of the standard size cork rings was very good. Pick any rod here that we rated a 9.5 or better and you have a winner! I really expected to see this new G Series 4-weight challenge the best rods. The cork handle is too thin, (for most anglers). The tips on the faster rods bend more. When Im fishing dry flies Ill use a 12-foot leader most of the time as this keeps the fly line farther away from the fish, minimizing the number of fish you spook while casting. Although the overall weight was an amazingly light 2.3 oz, the swing weight was a fairly heavy 8.0 oz about equal to the Scott G series. The 79 TFO Finesse was far better. So if you like what we are doing, the best way to thank us is to buy a rod, reel, or outfit from the Yellowstone Angler. Performance at 25 feet: 19.2 points out of 20. Distance Step back into long-distance 4 wt territory, and the Ultralite maintains castability and responsiveness. For this 4-weight Shootout, we decided to make the short distance 25 feet, the mid-distance 40 feet, and the longest distance 60 feet. #15. The Expeditor service fee for the Asquith rods is $250.00 for ground or $275 for 2-day air. With 4-weight rods, performing well at the two shorter distances is the key to determining the best rods. But in looking closely at the Hardy Zephrus, Ultralite, and the Douglas SKY, they are also definitely near the top end of the craftsmanship ladder. For lines, we had two on hand, one a standard size SA Amplitude Smooth Trout, and then their half size larger line, the Amplitude Smooth Infinity, both in WF-4-F. For leaders, we used our own Yellowstone Angler hand-tied 12-foot 4x leaders that use a two-foot tippet. For guides, there is a hook keeper followed by a single SiC stripping guide, then hard chrome snake guides. The medium fast action of the Recon is very similar to the Helios 3F and this is one reason it performs so well. The Recon is a very pleasant rod to cast wonderfully light in hand, and responsive. The epoxy coatings on the guides are pretty good but a little heavy in spots. Even better than the Helios 3F. But if you look at just the three distance performance scores, it would have finished below the top dozen rods! Casting head to head, the Zephrus, Pure and Helios 3D are all a lot better. We have experimented with the ways to measure this in past Shootouts but we still prefer our tried and true approach using the postal scale since it provides believable and meaningful results. Performance at 60 feet: 8.0 points out of 10. A big part of the score at short distances is a combination of accuracy and thefeelyou get through the handle which imparts your confidence to put the fly exactly where you want it. Performance at 40 feet: 18.5 points out of 20. The guide wraps are a dark green to complement the rod. Douglas Lifetime warranty. The rest of the guides are their terrific nickel/titanium single foot guides that are light and flexible but will never break. This 86#4, however, is just too heavy and too stiff to perform well as a 4-weight. item 7 Hardy Ultralite SINTRIX NSX 4WT 8' Fly Rod!! Epoxy coatings on the wraps were a bit too heavy, adding unnecessary weight. Props to rod designer Howard Croston, it may be a long time before someone dethrones this new 4-weight king. This is a comfortable grip and the quality of the cork is superb. The softer tip is giving me a good amount of feel and the accuracy was better than the Zone or Nimbus. Accuracy isnt quite as good as the strongest rods, but Im surprised how well it hangs in there. The quality of the cork was surprisingly good for a less expensive rod. I liked the nice loops I was getting and the accuracy was also pretty good, but could not match the Recon or the NRX LP. A great 4-weight rod is the best tool Ive found to meet these demands. The overall craftsmanship is excellent. They have to if they want to sell. Sage could improve the MODs swing weight by using the more expensive nickel/titanium guides instead. Does the tip of the rod load well enough in close to give you the feel and accuracy you need with little line or only the leader out of the guides? No handling fee. Overall the craftsmanship was ok but not nearly as good as the best mid-priced rods like the DXF or the Recon. Performance at 60 feet: 7.0 points out of 10. The cork is a stack of thin rings, and the quality of the cork is excellent. This rod is insanely lightweight and maneuverable; in fact, it has the lightest swing weight of any rod we've tested here at Trident. The guides start with a single SiC stripping guide followed with fairly large diameter but thin wire hard chrome snake guides. Performance at 25 feet: 16.5 points out of 20. The X is a medium fast action rod built with Sages KonneticHD technology that they say delivers greater blank recovery and good dampening. The epoxy coatings on the guides were good for the most part but a little too heavy on some guides. Only you can make that decision. One year warranty on hardware and guides. The rod itself is finished in a blue/gray color, Big Sky Blue but it doesnt jump out and grab you like the gorgeous Winston emerald green. Surprisingly, this is often true. . Winston says Pure Feel, Pure Presentation and Pure Fun I cant disagree. In this years 4-weight Shootout, we found that most manufacturers are building more powerful 4-weight rods than in the past. The handle is a comfortable full wells design, and the quality of the cork was very good. The guides start out with a small hook keeper, then a single SiC stripper, followed with black, hard chrome single-foot guides. #6. Yet Hardy is within its rights to brag about the weight of the Zephrus Ultralite because its ultra-light Ultratelite-ness is immediately evident from the second you pick it up. Rods with a light swing weight are pleasant and effortless to cast. The guides are one hook keeper; a single SiC stripper and then all the rest are hard chrome snake guides that are durable but heavy. Usually takes 1-2 weeks. The Ultralite has a proportionally stiffer tip than the Zephrus, and much softer butt and mid section. The guides start out with a hook keeper, then one SiC stripper followed with hard chrome snake guides that are nice and light on the tip sections. Orvis HELIOS 3F 86 #4 $849.00. One thing I like is that there is a serial number on each rod section. Id even go so far as to say the Zephrus Ultralite deserves to be in the conversation for best fly rod on the planet, alongside rods like the Sage X, Orvis Helios 3, Loomis Asquith and NRX-LP, Scott Radian, and Winston Boron IIIx. Both offer terrific performance at half the price of the best rods in our Shootout. Guides start with a hook keeper, then two SiC stripping guides followed with fairly large diameter hard chrome snake guides. I thought the Zephrus steamrolled the other rods in terms of being the bestall-around4-weight. Rods that were very light in swing weight like the Zephrus, Avantt and Helios 3F blew the X away in both feel and performance. I was getting decent feel in close but accuracy was not that great. Its not really there when youre castingthe Zephrus Ultralite has a decidedly medium action, very similar to the old Winston GVXbut the second you hook a fish youll feel it. The stiffness did not allow much feel but the accuracy was surprisingly good. Anyone whos fished recent Hardy rods knows theyre on the faster end of the spectrum, and thats what I expected when I threw my first lawn casts. One of the things I really like is the shape of the full wells cork handle. Still not so good with very little feel or accuracy. The Hardy Zephrus series of fly rods features our award winning Sintrix . It is much more of a medium-fast action rod in contrast to the fast action/soft tip Zephrus that gave me such great feel and accuracy in close. The back half has a thin bit of hardwood veneer, striking a unique balance between the classy look of wood and the light weight of cork. I just wish that the performance was as good as its looks. This is T&Ts mid-priced rod, but if you take a look at the best mid-priced rods in our Shootout like the Shadow at $349, the Recon at $429 and the DXF at $349, the Zones performance doesnt match any of these rods. The wraps are all in blue, and the epoxy coatings are all extremely well done. In our important swing weight category, this rod was one of the worst. Below the final results charts we give you the exact repair charges for each manufacturer. (tie) Scott G SERIES 84 #4 $845.00. LINE RATING: 4WT. The epoxy coatings over the wraps are very good but a little heavy in spots, as around the feet of the guides. Rods are repaired or sections replaced. The matte gray blank does look nice, and the guide wraps are a dark gray, trimmed in black on the butt section. R.L. Performance at 60 feet: 9.5 points out of 10. $75 handling fee. Some anglers know Todd Tanner as the author of hundreds of fly fishing stories, essays and columns. Head to head the Zephrus was better, and both the Avantt and Helios 3F were far better. The Avantt tied the Pure for the only perfect scores in Craftsmanship. It also has one of the heaviest swing weights in our Shootout. Conversely, looking at the most expensive rods in our Shootout, the G. Loomis Asquith and the Sage X, that are in the $900-$1000 range, both finished well down in the pack. Nothing beats this rod at 40 feet. A sliding band and wide locking ring is used that is easy to grip and seemed to lock up well. The epoxy coatings on the wraps were excellent. Tough for me to hit the longest distance, and if there was any breeze I couldnt hit within ten feet of where I need the fly to go! Howard Croston, Hardys rod design genius in England, has given us another outstanding rod that performs extremely well at all distances. WinstonLifetime warranty to original owner. With the inexpensive warranties that most manufacturers offer, your new rod is one that will last you for many years. What gives? From 25 to the 40-foot mark, these lines were just magical, and stretching the distance out to 60 feet was easier than with a standard belly line. A lot heavier in hand than the Pure, and the stiffer tip is not giving me much feel. I enjoyed the amount of reserve power it has, and I was making great casts at the longer distances. There is a lot to like about the SKY though, and foremost is its appearance. 1stimpressions: Sweetest all-around 4-weight rod here. hardy zenith. Ive fished this Zephrus myself for the past two years, and it has been my go-to rod when Im fishing small dries, emergers and spinners in the surface film. Well come out with you and give you some help to fine tune your casting stroke, or just help you with the basics. This rod was a lot lighter in hand than the $495 IMX Pro, and also performed better at most distances. This rod is absolutely the winner for our Best Buy (best inexpensive) 4-weight Rod. The new HARDY ZEPHRUS ULTRALITE was disappointing, mainly due to a slower action than the Zephrus, and a lack of accuracy in close. Unbeatable performance, this rod deserves the win. Thomas and Thomas $55 repair charges for the original owner, includes shipping. The blank is an attractive dark blue, with a matte non-glare finish. My favorite length for a 4-weight rod is 8 feet. Once we determine how the rods perform at the various distances and compile these point values, we then add in points earned from all the other categories to determine the final finishing order. The handle is a western style grip, without much of a swell in the middle but a flare on the lower end to accommodate the uplocking reel seat. Sure, most of these 4-weight rods will turn over a 9-foot leader, but having to turn over a 12-foot leader requires a rod to perform at a higher level. And if there was any wind, I couldnt make good enough back cast loops to hit the distance. Both the Zephrus and Pure were far lighter in hand, and far better in performance at 40 feet. NUMBER OF PIECES: 4. But this is a fairly soft rod, and didnt have the butt power to handle the long distance quite as well as the more powerful rods. This rod has a medium fast action with tons of power in the butt and mid-section, which allowed it to perform pretty well at the longest distance. The best Korean built rods now rival what is produced here in the US. Sage Lifetime warranty to original owner. This was the best distance for me with the Zone. Nice and light in hand and pretty good feel, but the accuracy is not as good as I was getting with the Aetos. Im amazed that I can cast off the tip nearly as well as the Zephrus. As in the past we are using our own Brecknell official postage scale to calculate the weight. The Hardy Zephrus comes in a hard rod tube and wrapped in a nice rod sock. Smooth, light in hand, excellent accuracy and feel. The epoxy coatings on the guides are top notch. Rods that have good power and backbone help me fire my cast accurately. These stiffer 4-weight rods require lines that are slightly heavier than a standard AFTMA 4-weight line. You know it has power when the rod almost effortlessly shoots line. The feel Im getting is not that good either. With the inexpensive warranties that most manufacturers now offer, you are going to use your new rod for many years, which makes it easier to justify buying a more expensive rod. Im able to form fairly tight loops, but the accuracy is not as good as what Im getting with the Helios 3F or the Avantt. The Pure is a brand new rod from Winston. Rods are repaired or sections replaced. The heavy swing weight is perhaps the biggest reason the SKY didnt perform so well. Part of the light swing weight can be attributed to the use of the superb REC nickel/titanium single-foot guides. The Zephrus Ultralite just doesnt live up to that level of wind-beating performance. A dark gray wood burl insert is used that matches the blank. This goes to show what a rod with a softer tip and stiff butt section can do. The Hardy Zephrus series of fly rods features our award winning Sintrix material . The reel seat is an unusual, triangular shaped silver anodized seat with no spacer. #8. Here the lack of butt power hurts a bit but it was better than the Shadow out long and matched the Scott G-Series. Vintage Hardy C C de France Bamboo Fly Rod Circa 1939 2 Piece Hardy C C de France Vintage Bamboo Fly Rod Great eye appeal for this vintage rod and rod bag serial number E50405 dates the rod manufacture to circa1939 2 piece rod. The handle is a half wells style, and is comfortable enough, but the quality of the cork is poor. The craftsmanship on the LP is typical Loomis excellence. Nothing Ive cast yet is better in terms of feel and accuracy from in close right out to 40 feet. Price is always a major factor when buying a rod and as you will see in this Shootout, the best rod was not the most expensive. Hell, I landed a 20-inch whitefish on the 99 2wt and even on that light tackle I got the fish to hand in a reasonable amount of time. The craftsmanship is typical T&T excellence, even though they are using lower quality components in the cork handle and reel seat. The guide wraps are in blue with some silver trim on the butt. Take a look at the deflection board if you want a hint of the secret to Hardys success. This is the best way to examine the action of each rod the faster action rods have tips that bend more, with stiffer butt and mid sections, while the more medium action rods will have softer butt and mid sections and stiffer tips. This is a sharp looking rod. For this we downgraded the craftsmanship a half a point. A 3-weight fly rod can be great fun on windless days, but those days seem to be rare. Good, just not great. As they are reviewing 5wt rods in this article they do not talk about why it is their favourite 4wt rod. For sure, one of the worst in our Shootout. This is a fast action rod, a tiny bit stiffer and a tad slower in action than the Helios 3F, but still a very good casting rod. The guides start with a hook keeper, and then one huge stripping guide that looks way too big, followed with thin wire hard chrome snake guides. If you look at the deflection chart, youll see that the Zehprus has one of the stiffest butt and midsections, yet then it progresses to a nice soft tip. Here Im getting nice loops and decent accuracy, but Im working a lot harder than with the Avantt or the Helios 3F. Scott Lifetime warranty to original owner, $50 handling fee. The craftsmanship is typical Orvis excellence. As part of the Expeditor policy, Loomis includes a FedEx call tag so that you dont have to spend any money to send the broken rod back. Rods are repaired, not replaced, except for broken sections. In all the rods of any manufacture weve sold with these guides, we have yet to see one break! The single uplocking seat is gray anodized aluminum, and doesnt use a spacer, but does have some trick looking cutouts on each side. A beautiful birdseye maple insert is used. The epoxy coatings are painstakingly done and close to perfect. To improve on the previous Zenith, which won our original 4-weight Shootout, Howard gave the Zephrus a slightly stronger butt and mid section as well as a softer tip. #2. The reel seat is a black anodized, single uplocking skeleton seat with a dark wood insert. Opens in a new window or tab. Guides start with a hook keeper, and then one SiC stripping guide, followed with black hard chrome snake guides. It is one of the few rods in the Shootout that excels at casting a size 24 midge on 7X tippet, yet still has the ability to chuck a size #6 lead eye streamer on 2X tippet. Usually takes 1-2 weeks. Part of the light swing weight can be attributed to the use of the superb REC nickel/titanium single-foot guides. Forty feet was definitely the sweet spot for this rod. The DXF has been one of our top mid-priced rods, but there was no denying the Hardy Shadow and Orvis Recon were better. This rod gives me the confidence that I can place the fly just where I want it, and do it with a delicate presentation. The blank itself is unsanded natural graphite gray, much like the Scott rods, leaving the tape marks visible. The DXF was better and the Shadow was far better. The perfect line: SA Amplitude MPX WF-5-F. (However we tested the rod with the WF-4-F Infinity.). Then it will cast and perform much better. I was tempted to give it a perfect score for craftsmanship. Of the two TFO Finesse rods, I like this 79 rod as a 4-weight a whole lot better than the longer 89 model. Loomis designed these IMX Pro rods to be tough and very durable, and pro guides love them because they are so hard for clients to break. It had the power to hit 60 feet easily enough but my accuracy was not very good. To make it easy to judge the turnover and accuracy, we tie in a small fluorescent yarn indicator at the end of the 2-foot 4x tippet and then trim it so that the wind resistance equates to a smaller dry fly. The heavier swing weight makes casting at longer distances a workout. The swing weight of the rod is the weight you feel out ahead of your hand, holding the rod horizontally. Performance at 25 feet: 18.5 points out of 20. TFO FINESSE TROUT 89 #4 $229.95. It tracks well and I was getting very nice loops and good control, especially at mid to longer distances. The new $700 offering from Hardy puts itself in the conversation for best fly rod on the market, The future of fly fishing rests in our hands, Fishtamatic: Ditching the SLR for the iPhone, A small ship cruise of Alaska's Inside Passage, Win a Free Permit Trip: Land Permit Numro 1,000, As glaciers retreat, new streams for salmon, More evidence that releasing hatchery-reared native fish is harmful, Patagonia continues fight to protect Bears Ears with interactive film series, Review: Shell 583Wh Portable Power Station, Redington releases new WRANGLER fly rod + combo kit, Rig Up Faster with Loon's New Rigging Foams, Guides Ask for Halt to Trinity River Restoration Efforts. The skeleton reel seat is a gray anodized double uplocking with a dark gray laminated wood insert. Scott uses a stack of thinner cork rings on this handle and the quality was excellent. Single-foot guides, a unique reel seat, and the companys proprietary Sintrix 440 resin combine to create a 95wt rod thats a paltry 2.5oz, while the 99 5wt tips the scales at whopping 2.8oz. For most of my fishing with a 4-weight rod in critical conditions Im using one of our 12-foot leaders down to a 5X or 6X tippet, but in the Shootout we stick with 4X Rio Powerflex as a tippet in order to minimize breaking off the yarn indicator. *Note The final results and performance charts on this page are Georges figures. Only the Zephrus and Pure were better at mid-distance. Hardy SHADOW 8'6" #4 $349.95 George's Comments: Wow - It is hard to believe that this mid-priced Hardy finished up with the top rods! A contrasting dark composite cork ring is used at the top of the grip. #26. Features Sintrix 440 Blank construction REC Black pearl recoil guides Fuji Titanium stripper guides #27. The cork handle is Winstons cigar grip, like the Pure, with the center swell a little forward of the center of the grip and a flare on the bottom end. The accuracy suffers too. Hardy Ultralite LL Fly Rod. The ability of this rod to form and maintain very tight loops helped it give me slightly more accuracy than the Helios 3F or Scott G series at mid-range. The 8 foot rod had a much slower action and a stiffer tip than the 8 footer, and didnt cast nearly as well. These Shootouts take a lot of time and effort. The cork handle is a half wells with a long taper at the front, that I found to be comfortable to grip. But this power and the stiffer tip hurt the performance in close, where it is similar to the Avantt but not nearly as good as the Zephrus, Pure or Helios 3F. The epoxy coatings were excellent. The handle is a half wells western style grip with contrasting dark composite cork rings at both the bottom and top. Chloe has been working in the shop for two summers and now works with us full time. A little wiggle helps you to feel this. Good reserve power in the wind, perfect blend of power and feel for a 4-weight rod.
ouija board baltimore
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!