hardy zephrus 8' 6 4wt hardy zephrus 8' 6 4wt

The blank itself is unsanded natural graphite gray, much like the Scott rods, leaving the tape marks visible. Performance at 40 feet: 19.0 points out of 20. Good, just not great. This made it easy to judge one rod against another. The Hardy Zephrus is still the best all around 4 weight made. Then the dark green finish just sparkles. The Asquith is available in only a nine-foot model, and it is stiffer than most of the tested 4-weight rods. Category changes that improve the accuracy of the results in our latest 4-weight Shootout. The Radian placed 2ndin our last 5-weight Shootout and I was surprised to see that it was this far down the list in a 4-weight. And while each rod has its own personality, two things remained consistent throughout the new Ultralite family: unfair accuracy and strikingly smooth casting. Sage MOD 86 #4 $850.00. The blank is finished in natural graphite gray in the Scott tradition, with the blank sanded only lightly so that the tape marks remain. The Douglas Sky was both heavier and stiffer, and didnt perform as well, except out long at 60 feet. The TFO rods, the Taylor rods, the Mystic rod, and the Waterworks rods are all designed here in the U.S. and built in Asia. 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. The medium fast action of the Recon is very similar to the Helios 3F and this is one reason it performs so well. In general the SKY rods do cast well, and the SKY 9 foot #6 won our last 6-weight Shootout. The light swing weight made casting effortless, and Im getting excellent accuracy combined with delicate presentations. To my credit, I didnt throw a tailing loop, but my first cast wasnt exactly pretty. The craftsmanship of the K2 was very good. (tie) R.L. This hurt somewhat in its scores for swing weight and light tippet protection. 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. Guides start with a hook keeper, then a single titanium SiC stripping guide, followed with our favorite nickel/titanium snake guides that are flexible but unbreakable. The action of the Zone is much slower than the Avantt (and also a lot slower than the Recon or Shadow). If you are looking for that perfect saltwater outfit, then use ourFavorite Saltwater Outfitslink. The double uplocking reel seat is plain anodized aluminum dark gray with silver rings and not nearly as attractive as the better skeleton seats with good-looking wood inserts. We should have probably dropped this longer Finesse from our Shootout as the shorter 79 Finesse performed so much better. There is no reason they wouldn't sell out fast once they started getting discounted. #22. Good butt power also helps me land fish in a minimal amount of time. Since most anglers fish at shorter distances with a 4-weight rod, we decided to put less emphasis on the longest distance, decreasing the points available to 10 points. Casting head to head, the Scott rods and the Helios 3F were both a lot better. I love the handle design it tapers outward allowing you to quickly get and maintain a good grip on the handle. First, the Zephrus Ultralite's blank is surprisingly strong, stiff and stable given its weight. The rod has a small cork fighting butt installed to protect the reel from ground damage. I can sure notice the heavy swing weight and this is not a very pleasant rod to cast. The color of the blank is a very light silver blue, with the guides wrapped in a darker grayish blue, with some silver trim on the butt section. Get this rod out in the sunlight and it really lights up. Hardy Zephrus Double Handed DH Sintrix AWS Fly Rod 15'1'' # 10/11 - 4 Pieces Brand New $1,202.36 fishingonline4 (18,829) 100% Buy It Now Free shipping from Australia 5 watchers Sponsored Hardy Zephrus Double Handed DH Sintrix AWS Fly Rod 12'6'' #7/8 4 Piece +Warranty Brand New $1,055.99 fishingonline4 (18,829) 100% Buy It Now Free shipping This rod has a slower action than the fast action NRX LP, as well as a stiffer tip. Performance at 40 feet: 19.2 points out of 20. The epoxy coatings on the wraps are a little heavy, but Ive sure seen worse. The Avantt tied the Pure for the only perfect scores in Craftsmanship. For some reason they dont use a hook keeper on this rod, maybe another way to cut the cost? Rather than give us their beautiful nickel silver uplocking seat with a fancy wood spacer of birdseye maple as on the Pure, the Nimbus uses a silver anodized uplocking aluminum skeleton seat with one wide ring and sliding band. Incredibly accurate and capable of delivering the fly exactly where it needs to go, even when dealing with a moderate breeze. Standard corks are used and the quality is excellent. Usually takes 2-4 weeks. But the accuracy was still not as good as the best rods. This is a light rod in swing weight almost as good as the Zephrus. What is the Asquith doing way down near the bottom of this Shootout when it won our recent 8-weight Shootout!? The fancy burl wood insert just jumps out at you with its striking color lots of red and orange mixed in very attractive. Still not so good with very little feel or accuracy. The DXF and Imperial were much better. I also like the alignment dots. More manufacturers should use light guides like this to minimize swing weight if they arent using the more expensive nickel-titanium guides. If Fenwick determines that there was a defect, the rod will be repaired or replaced at no charge. They have to if they want to sell. The quality of the cork was surprisingly good for a less expensive rod. The stiffness is a bonus at long range. The quality of the cork was much better too, but still not in the class of what we found on the Recon or Shadow. Ive fished with Howard here, on our Montana Spring Creeks, and better understand how and why he came up with these designs. $50 handing fee. The double uplocking, gray anodized reel skeleton seat uses two rings that are easy to grip and lock up extremely well. Here, any rods that rate 9.5 -10 are superb, and would be at the top of a Perfect 4 category. I found the rings harder to grip than most and without any nylon spacer they will likely loosen up more easily than other rings with them. Unfortunately like a few other rods, it is only available in a 9-foot model as a 4-weight, and this hurt its performance scores a bit. The Pure is a brand new rod from Winston. The matte gray blank does look nice, and the guide wraps are a dark gray, trimmed in black on the butt section. Since this is a softer rod than the Zephrus, we settled on using the lighter Trout line but this rod had the power to handle the heavier Infinity nearly as well. I did like the flat, non-glare black finish used on the blank. An absolute dream to cast. I wish they would had used the lighter, flexible nickel/titanium snake guides found on the Helios 3F, or even better, the nickel titanium single-foot guides found on the Hardy Zephrus, which would have improved its heavy swing weight. $595.00. These rods are designed in Sweden, but built in Korea in the same factory that produces the fine Hardy rods. Finally, we trace the outline of the bend of the rod, first in pencil and then in different colored sharpies. But even with the lighter line, the accuracy was not very good. If you have something about the right size and color, you can often force-feed a selective fish by making repeated accurate and delicate presentations that are right in the fishs window. No other rods were as good. It tracks well and I was getting very nice loops and good control, especially at mid to longer distances. 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. The quality of the standard size cork rings was very good. Performance at 40 feet: 19.3 points out of 20. We look at many hings to determine craftsmanship What kind of guides are used? In our important swing weight category, this rod was one of the worst. The stiffness hurt in close but this is one of the very best performing rods at long range. Both of these lines utilize a slightly longer rear taper that allows superior mending ability as well as enhancing the ability to make medium to longer casts. Accuracy isnt quite as good as the strongest rods, but Im surprised how well it hangs in there. That might be the answer, but then it would likely be more of a 3-weight rod than a 4-weight. This fast action produced extremely good feel and accuracy, especially at 25 feet. I also liked the 12-inch mark on the butt but I wish they had also given us one at 18 or 20 inches. The thing that killed this for me was the cheap looking reel seat. Francis Comments:Its the Hardy Zephrus for the win! Usually takes 2-4 weeks. 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. Nothing Ive cast yet is better in terms of feel and accuracy from in close right out to 40 feet. 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. Mystic JXP 9 #4 $499.00. This is one fantastic looking rod one of the very best in our Shootout. Orvis HELIOS 3F 86 #4 $849.00. With your support we can continue to give you more Shootouts and head to head comparisons on tackle and equipment in the future. The action is medium fast not as fast as the Pure but still feels very nice in my hand and produced some respectable performance scores. In this Shootout, we again used the Scientific Anglers lines, which we have found to cast better and last longer than other brands. I found the alignment dots handy. The Loomis NRX LP gets a perfect score of 10 for their excellent Expeditor repair program which costs $100, but returns the angler a brand new rod, not a repaired one, in just a few days! Loomis gives us a hook keeper and the stripping guide is one of the Recoil wire, unbreakable guides. The quality of epoxy coatings on the guide wraps was excellent and almost the equal of the T&T rods. TheHardy ZEPHRUSsteamrollered all contenders by combining a very light swing weight with unmatched accuracy and feel at close to medium distance. The guides start with a single SiC stripping guide followed with fairly large diameter but thin wire hard chrome snake guides. With 4-weight rods the emphasis is on the shorter distances, as rarely would an angler be casting a 4-weight at 60 feet or more. The craftsmanship is typical Orvis excellence. Accuracy and feel The epoxy coatings on the wraps were excellent. The Zephrus makes me a more accurate and efficient caster. Unbeatable performance, this rod deserves the win. The best rods are not always the most expensive ones. But superior craftsmanship commands a much higher price! We were all especially anxious to see how the Orvis Helios 3F and the new Winston Pure would fare, compared to our favorite 4-weight, the Hardy Zephrus. The action seems about right and Im getting nice loops. It also sits dead last in our Fun to Fish category. Nice and light in hand with very good feel and accuracy in close. Yellowstone Angler in their 2016 5wt Shootout name the Zephrus 8'6" 4wt as their current favourite 4wt rod. This makes it easier to justify buying the best performing rod. A half wells cork handle is used, but the size is a little small in diameter as I noted. The rings on the seat were fairly large and easy to tighten, giving a secure lock up. I was hitting the plate almost every time. The stiffer clear Maxima butt sections on our leaders achieve this. The guides start with one SiC stripping guide followed with very large diameter hard chrome snake guides. The best thing I found about the Clearwater is the price. The relatively heavy swing weight and stiffness are not giving me much feel, and the accuracy in close is not very good. Those rods are both a lot lighter in swing weight and faster in action. A lot of this can be attributed to the nice action good butt and mid section power combined with a lighter, softer tip, much like the Zephrus. Sure, the best rods are generally in the higher price bracket, and are usually worth spending the extra dough, even if you have to save up to buy the one you really want. 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. A sliding band and wide locking ring is used that is easy to grip and seemed to lock up well. In general, the Zephrus was very popular as Hardy's all purpose fast action rod. Like the K2, the Q is only available as a 9-foot rod in a 4-weight. ROD HANDLE TYPE: RHW. Performance at 25 feet: 17.5 points out of 20. You can read about these warranty policies later in our Shootout. The Asquith tracks beautifully and is giving me nice accurate tight loops. The 8 foot Pure had a much heavier swing weight, and would not be as much fun to false cast all day as this 8 footer. If I remember correctly, the 864 also won YA's 4wt shootout, adding to its popularity. The epoxy coatings are excellent as is the overall craftsmanship, which we have come to expect from Scott. Aesthetically it wasnt my favorite, but I appreciated the high quality components, guides and finish work. It also has one of the heaviest swing weights in our Shootout. Performance at 25 feet: 18.5 points out of 20. Awesome! Good, just not nearly as precise but the Zephrus and Pure. The best Korean built rods now rival what is produced here in the US. We have several reels rigged with the various line sizes, and leaders, all ready to go. I liked the use of alignment dots. I think that this can be attributed to the slower action of this rod compared to the Zephrus. Nickel silver is used for the winding check and rear grip check as well as the hardware on the reel seat, which is a sliding band and one wide locking ring. And for a rod that is half the cost of the Helios 3F, the overall weight and swing weight are actuallylower! The best 4-weights are also excellent nymph fishing rods at shorter distances. But that was about all I liked, other than the very light overall weight that earned it a perfect score. For our 4-weight Shootout, once again we have added anotherperformance category Light Tippet Protection. This rod has good power in the butt and mid sections and a softer tip, much like the action on some of our top rated rods. The epoxy coatings over the wraps were surprisingly good for a one-coat finish. Connect with him on Twitter/Instagram, @Spencer_Durrant. This is a comfortable grip and the quality of the cork is superb. And thats saying something, given that the past half-decade or so has seen most rod makers touting the light weight of their blanks. Hardy Ultralite NSX DH Fly Rod. When I first picked the rod up, the overall weight was good but then when I wiggled the rod in my hand, I could see that the swing weight was heavier than almost all of the other 4-weight rods. An attractive X-pattern graphite wrap is used on the butt, behind the logo. As youll shortly read, our top rated rod, the Hardy Zephrus is $679.00, nearly two hundred dollars less than the next three rods, which are each close to $850.00. While not quite as light as the Douglas Sky G, it is one of the lightest all-around 5wts on the market. Some people might consider high priced rods status symbols. The wraps are dark blue to match the blank and the epoxy coatings are excellent. Opens in a new window or tab. Then it will cast and perform much better. NUMBER OF PIECES: 4. Scott Lifetime warranty to original owner, $50 handling fee. HardyLifetime warranty to original owner. And since we are in Montana, there is no sales tax.Once you get your new rod or outfit, do some casting on the lawn, and if you feel it is not just what you want, (and has not been fished), well allow you to return it to us for a full refund, less the shipping charges. For this Shootout, we were able to do the casting here on our lawn at the shop. Beautiful presentation with terrific accuracy. 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.