The Expeditor policy on the IMX Pro is $85.00. The cork handle is a half wells western style grip, with a contrasting darker composite cork at the bottom end, over the flare for the reel seat. Ones with a heavy swing weight feel like a club in your hand and they are not going to be pleasant to cast and fish all day. 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. The 4-weight Asquith was one of the stiffer rods in our Shootout and this hurt its scores at the shortest distance of 25 feet. 3. Accuracy is pretty good, heads up matching the Zone and NRX LP. Performance at 60 feet: 6.5 points out of 10. It has a larger swell than most rods, and the swell is set closer to the top of the grip, than most rods well forward of the center of the grip. Better than the Sky but cant match the Shadow. With your new rod they include a FedEx call tag so that it does not cost you anything to return your broken rod. Better at the longest distances, much like the stiff IMX Pro. 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. The stiff tip didnt allow me much feel but the accuracy was decent. The reel seat is a gray anodized skeleton seat with a band and large single ring that is easy to grip and tighten securely. Shipping isfrom their US warehouse, usually takes 2 weeks. From streamers to small dries to my standard dry-dropper rig, the Zephrus Ultralite put my flies where I needed them. 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. The big reason it didnt do better than middle of the pack was the action. The stiffer tip didnt allow for much feel or accuracy. Howard is a great angler and knew just what he wanted for the perfect 4-weight. For the lighter rods, we used their Amplitude Smooth Trout. 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. The Recon has been one of our favorite rods, and this 4-weight version is terrific. 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. There is no question that the Shadow is our best Mid Priced 4-weight rod. Build quality and reel seat Very tricky and very attractive. 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. Expensive rods do have that wow factor that will impress your buddies. The wraps are brown with some amber trim. The epoxy coatings on the guides were good for the most part but a little too heavy on some guides. Our deflection charts have been very popular in past Shootouts, so we are giving you more this year. We kept the best rod in each category, high priced, medium priced, and inexpensive category handy for comparison. At long range no rod has more power. The wraps are done in a dark brown with some silver trim on the butt section as well as in the center of each guide foot wrap, that look nice. For guides, there is a hook keeper just above the handle, and then one SiC stripping guide followed by hard chrome snake guides. Performance at 25 feet: 18.0 points out of 20. No other rod was remotely close at doing everything well that is to say casting accurately (and delicately) in close off the tip of the rod, having lots of feel at all distances, and having plenty of reserve power for handling windy days and playing larger trout. The cork handle is a western style grip with a comfortable swell in the middle and a nice taper forward. Rods are either replaced with a new rod or the broken section is replaced. Douglas uses a dark green anodized double ring uplocking seat, with an attractive brown wood burl insert. I just didnt care for the moderate action that was a lot slower than the X. Ive fished with Howard here, on our Montana Spring Creeks, and better understand how and why he came up with these designs. Finally, we trace the outline of the bend of the rod, first in pencil and then in different colored sharpies. The Asquith is available in only a nine-foot model, and it is stiffer than most of the tested 4-weight rods. First, it is very light in swing weight and the fast action is a lot like the Zephrus in that it has a stronger butt and much softer tip than most of the other rods. The perfect line: SA Amplitude MPX WF-5-F. (However we tested the rod with the WF-4-F Infinity.). Distance A hook keeper is used along with a single chrome SiC stripping guide. Nearly all manufacturers now have some kind of limited Lifetime warranty. Well, the Orvis unconditional guarantee is only 25 years. Little feel, and the slower action kills any accuracy. Mystic JXP 9 #4 $499.00. We can attribute this to the use of one-coat finish rather than multiple coats as seen on the T&T rods. $60 handling fee. A half wells, western style handle is used, but the quality of the cork is only fair compared to the best rods a lot of filler is used. 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. I wish that we could have tested an 86 Aetos, but this rod is only available in an 8 foot #4. ROD HANDLE TYPE: RHW. This year SA has come up with an impressive new line series called the Amplitude Smooth. 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 whole rod weighs in at 2.51 oz (crazy light) with a swing weight of 53.6 gm2, one of the lightest swing weights we've ever seen. Its also nice to look down at your rod and appreciate the craftsmanship as well as its performance. Rods with a light swing weight are pleasant and effortless to cast. For sure, one of the worst in our Shootout. The one thing that I have never liked much on the Reaper is the shape of the handle. (tie) Scott G SERIES 84 #4 $845.00. Using a rod that will dramatically reduce the number of break-offs makes a lot of sense. Both the mid-price DXF and Imperial were better. On the deflection board, the Zephrus had a stiffer butt and mid section and the tip bent a little more, so it is slightly faster in action than the Shadow. The 8 foot Pure had a much stiffer butt and mid-section and a soft tip that is much softer than what we found on the Nimbus. In addition to being a test caster and editor, hes responsible for some of the photos and putting all of this on line. Performance at 60 feet: 7.5 points out of 10. A good 5-weight rod, which is definitely one of the most versatile you can have in your quiver, just wont match one of the top 4-weights when it comes to making delicate presentations, or achieving that ultimate drag free drift with a thinner fly line. G. LoomisLifetime warranty to original owner. First, it is very light in swing weight and the fast action is a lot like the Zephrus in that it has a stronger butt and much softer tip than most of the other rods. (tie) Sage X 86 #4 $900.00. That gives it a perfect score of 10 along with the Aetos. The perfect line: SA Amplitude Smooth Infinity in WF-4-F, Performance at 25 feet: 20 points out of 20. With the Ultralite at hand, your shoulder will be thanking you after a long day on the water. Scott claims that this gives their rods better strength and we cannot argue with this as we see very few Scott rods broken. 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 love the light swing weight. The quality of the standard size cork rings was excellent. I did not find that to be the case. For $699.95 you can get the 9 5wt Zephrus Ultralite with Hardys lifetime warranty, superior build quality, and all the incredible performance attributes mentioned above. These rods are designed in Sweden, but built in Korea in the same factory that produces the fine Hardy rods. You know it has power when the rod almost effortlessly shoots line. This is a fast action rod. The handle is a comfortable full wells design, and the quality of the cork was very good. The best handles now use a stack of thinner cork rings or standard size rings with very few defects that are laid up individually and then sanded down. Whats impossible to notice until you actually fish the rod, though, is its backbone. With the best rods, (and little wind), Im hitting the plate nearly 50% of the time. A lot heavier in hand than the Pure, and the stiffer tip is not giving me much feel. Add into the mix the Scott Radian and G-Series, the T&T Avantt, the Sage X, as well as the G. Loomis NRX LP and Asquith, and you have a full array of the best 4-weight rods on the market. One SiC style stripping guide is used as well as a hook keeper. I look for rods that feel totally solid and track well. The Hardy Zephrus series of fly rods features our award winning Sintrix . The K2 falls into the upper end of the mid-price range but it was blown away by the less expensive Hardy Shadow and Orvis Recon at 25 and 40 feet. Good butt power also helps me land fish in a minimal amount of time. For our 4-weight Shootout, once again we have added anotherperformance category Light Tippet Protection. Given that this is a 4wt, though, it's as accurate as you could hope for. Category changes that improve the accuracy of the results in our latest 4-weight Shootout. In all the rods of any manufacture weve sold with these guides, we have yet to see one break! The final change in our performance categories is putting a lower value of 10 points on the longest distance 60 feet. Gear Reviews Multiple Fly Rod Weight Rankings Yellowstone Angler With 4-weight rods, performing well at the two shorter distances is the key to determining the best rods. The cork handle is a western style grip with a flare on the lower end to accept the uplocking seat, and a nice taper forward providing a very comfortable grip. And for a rod that is half the cost of the Helios 3F, the overall weight and swing weight are actuallylower! The first time I went to cast one of these rods, my local Hardy rep said hed bet $20 Id throw a tailing loop. This is a good-looking rod, finished in a non-glare flat black. The newHARDY ZEPHRUS ULTRALITEwas disappointing, mainly due to a slower action than the Zephrus, and a lack of accuracy in close. orvis recon. These Shootouts take a lot of time and effort. The epoxy coatings over the wraps were a little heavy, but Ive seen worse. The heavy swing weight is perhaps the biggest reason the SKY didnt perform so well. For guides, there is a hook keeper, (The 3F has none), a single SiC stripping guide is used followed with hard chrome snake guides. While not quite as light as the Douglas Sky G, it is one of the lightest all-around 5wts on the market. The quality of the cork is not too good either and it used a lot of filler. For 4-weight rods, when you are fishing at shorter distances, (most of the time), it is particularly important that leaders turn over well. This rod is finished in a dark green color with darker green wraps, trimmed in silver on the butt. The feel was also superb, giving me confidence in the direction of my cast. This was the best distance for me with the Zone. Broken sections are replaced. We set the casting line so that we generally had the wind at our back if possible, or at least off our left shoulder (all of us are right handed). Winston PURE 8 #4 $850.00. The guide wraps are in blue with some silver trim on the butt. 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. Our advice is that if you feel one of the top rated, expensive rods works best for you, go for it. The 79 rod has a nice medium fast action, while this 8 9 model is far slower much more of a medium action rod. Sage MOD 86 #4 $850.00. When Im fishing the spring creeks here near Livingston, the Railroad Ranch on the Henrys Fork of the Snake, as well as the flat water on the Bighorn or Missouri rivers, I reach for my favorite rod for this kind of technical fishing, an 8 foot #4. #8. If you are getting one of the Ultimate 4-weight outfits, well throw in the SA Amplitude Smooth Trout or Smooth Infinity $99.95 line for free, and also ship it to you for free! This is one of the best looking rods in our Shootout. The rest of the guides start with a single wire recoil stripper like G. Loomis uses, (I dont like these much either), but at least the rest are the good flexible nickel/titanium single-foot guides, as on the Zephrus, in a black color. At one point it was our Best inexpensive rod until the Fenwick Aetos muscled it aside. For some reason they dont use a hook keeper on this rod, maybe another way to cut the cost? Only you can make that decision. The best rods are not always the most expensive ones. Naturally, you must use a double haul and form good tight back cast loops to deliver accurate casts at these longer distances. Im surprised that both Sage rods are well down the list, but their performance scores were just not good enough to rate them higher. Doing this with 6X or 7X tippet demands a good smooth drag with just the right amount of drag adjustment. To appreciate this rod, you need to see it in the sunlight. 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. It often takes a little time for the rod to settle down from all this movement so we do this procedure 4-6 times and then take the average weight we are getting from the scale. TheHardy SHADOWat $349.95 takes the crown as our best mid-priced rod with an exceptional performance that put it into a tie for 4thplace overall with theT&T AVANTT. Scott Lifetime warranty to original owner, $50 handling fee. The black anodized double unlocking skeleton seat has two larger rings that are very easy to grip and tighten. This can be a huge help if you have multiple rods and the sections get mixed up. But the stiffness of this rod and its heavy swing weight hurt the performance scores, especially at the shorter distances. The single uplocking reel seat is plain anodized gray aluminum with no insert. Opinions on 8'6" 4wt | The North American Fly Fishing Forum - sponsored 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. Performance at 60 feet: 8.5 points out of 10. 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. At short distances like 25 feet, you dont have much line out of the tip of the rod, so the best leaders must flex like an extension of your fly line. Also, by having 8-10 rods set up, 2-3 testers can simultaneously do the casting. But the accuracy was still not as good as the best rods. $595.00. TheOrvis RECON, at $429 wasnt far behind! The very light swing weight confirms this. Much of the time Im able to play smaller trout by just stripping line in, but when I hook a big fish that runs hard I want to play it off the reel. This is a very pleasant rod to cast, with a medium fast action. The blank is finished in a medium brown with brown wraps that complement the blank. The tips on the faster rods bend more. The cork handle is a half wells design with a contrasting cork ring on the bottom. Light Tippet Protection 20 points available. The medium fast action of the Recon is very similar to the Helios 3F and this is one reason it performs so well. Im convinced that the key to catching more trout, (and especially larger trout), is casting accuracy. The epoxy coatings are excellent as is the overall craftsmanship, which we have come to expect from Scott. 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 Recon is a very pleasant rod to cast wonderfully light in hand, and responsive. The cork handle is a half wells with a long taper at the front, that I found to be comfortable to grip. The cork handle is too thin, (for most anglers). I enjoyed the amount of reserve power it has, and I was making great casts at the longer distances. The Avantt matches the Helios 3D in swing weight and feels nice and light in hand. The ability of this rod to track precisely combined with its ability to form beautiful tight loops allowed it to perform almost as well as the best rods at long range. The Zephrus is giving me great presentations at 25 feet. The idea here is to measure the swing weight at the middle of where your palm is likely to sit on the grip. When I put this rod in my hand it feels more like a 5-weight than a 4-weight! I am surprised at how well it performed at closer distances considering how much power it has on tap. Overall a very good performance. Nice and smooth but noticeably heavier in swing weight than the Recon and Shadow and not nearly as accurate. Both of these for $130 less than just the Sage Dart (again, my Sage rods are my favourites in my rod quiver). 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 Aetos was dramatically better for an inexpensive rod. The locking ring was fairly large and easy to grip and tighten but didnt have a plastic ring like some that allow them to lock up more securely. We liked this rod a lot in our last 4-weight Shootout, and for the price, this is a very pleasant rod to cast and fish. 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. 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. Casting and rating the performance of rods at the different distances is the real meat of our Shootouts. The blank color at first glance looks black, but is a very dark green called Black Spruce. The thread wraps are dark green, trimmed with metallic gray on the butt section. Accuracy and feel The stiffness is a bonus at long range. Im getting effortless tight loops, and I had complete confidence on where the fly was going on every cast. Both the feel and accuracy were outstanding. The swing weight of the rod is the weight you feel out ahead of your hand, holding the rod horizontally. Rods that have good power in the butt and mid-section help me set the hook quickly and allow me to throw a combination of flies and indicator along with a little weight. This rod uses the more conventional slip over ferrule design as on all but one of the other rods in our Shootout. Usually takes 2-4 weeks. Performance at 25 feet: 18.8 points out of 20. I found the alignment dots handy. Now the stiffness is becoming an advantage, and Im getting some nice tight loops. The epoxy coatings on the wraps were excellent. The Hardy Shadow that tied for 4thplace sells for only $350.00. Of these rods built in Korea, the Hardy rods are designed in England, the Douglas rods are designed here in the U.S., the Loop rods are designed in Sweden. And since it was such a soft rod, the lack of butt and mid-section power killed its score at 60 feet, especially if there was any wind. Keep in mind thatfastaction rods are not necessarilystiffrods as many people assume. Nothing Ive cast yet is better in terms of feel and accuracy from in close right out to 40 feet. The swing weight is light but it cant match the Zephrus or Pure. With the Infinity it cast better long, and I would have scored it closer to 9 at long range. Nice and light in hand and pretty good feel, but the accuracy is not as good as I was getting with the Aetos. Equal to the IMX Pro but thats about it. 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. The epoxy coatings were excellent. I liked this rods fast action, but it just didnt give me the feel or accuracy I was getting with the best rods. Out long the K2 seemed to hold its own with the Recon, and it was better than either the Shadow or DXF. An attractive X-pattern graphite wrap is used behind the logo, just above the cork handle. At 40 feet you need a rod that is light and pleasant enough to do a lot of false casting, as you will when fishing dry flies, but you shouldnt have to double haul to get the rod to perform and hit this distance. Performance at 40 feet: 18.5 points out of 20. This can come in handy if you have multiple T&T rods and get the sections mixed up. The craftsmanship is second to none and it earns a perfect score along with the Winston Pure and T&T Avantt. The rod has a cork reel insert and pays homage to old-fashioned cane rods. In terms of performance, the Recon was actually better at mid to long range. With your support we can continue to give you more Shootouts and head to head comparisons on tackle and equipment in the future. When we first saw this new rod from Hardy, we all had two impressions: 1. Now that we have dropped our Perfect 4 category, this category gives you our opinions on the best rods and how they stack up. The guide wraps are a slightly darker gray, trimmed in orange on the butt. *Note The final results and performance charts on this page are Georges figures. ROD HANDLE MATERIAL: CORK. Light in hand but the stiffness in the tip is not giving me as much feel in close as the Zephrus, and the accuracy is not as good as the best rods. 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. Taylor Lifetime warranty to original owner. The action of the Zone is much slower than the Avantt (and also a lot slower than the Recon or Shadow). The epoxy coatings on the wraps are a little heavy, but Ive sure seen worse. The locking ring is easy to grip, but Id prefer a double ring seat as this one looks like it will loosen up more easily than most. But when I need to reach out and make casts at 60-70 feet, as I often do fishing bigger rivers like the Missouri, the Zephrus has tons of power on tap to get the job done. The best rods certainly need to handle this distance easily, but most anglers are buying a 4-weight rod for fishing at closer distances, which puts the emphasis on 25 to 40 foot casts. The skeleton reel seat is a gray anodized double uplocking with a dark gray laminated wood insert. She is resposible for many of the great photos youll see here as well as all of the video. I just cant push it at all and have to slow down my casting stroke to get any decent accuracy. The overall craftsmanship is excellent. We have learned that we cannot trust manufacturers stated rod weights. This fast action produced extremely good feel and accuracy, especially at 25 feet. Rods are repaired or sections replaced. The rest of the guides are hard chrome snake guides with nice, small diameter wire snake guides on the upper two sections. Thomas and Thomas $55 repair charges for the original owner, includes shipping. Here is a brand new rod from Loop that we liked better than their stiffer, more expensive Cross rods. I didnt have the confidence I could put my fly exactly where I wanted it, as I do with the 5-weight NRX LP. Very little feel or accuracy. Only the Zephrus and Pure were better at mid-distance. As in our past Shootouts, it is important to keep everything apples to apples in an effort to eliminate the variables that will have an effect on the scores. The blank is a pleasing burgundy that sparkles in the sunlight. From $689.00. It performed better than any of the sub $300 rods, including the Orvis Clearwater. The Helios 3 rods are available in both the D and F Series with the D series more designed for distance and power. The epoxy coatings on the guides are top notch. Some people might consider high priced rods status symbols. The color of the blank is a natural graphite gray, and only lightly sanded so you can still see the tape marks, much like the Scott rods. In the 4, 5, and 6-weights, the DXF is a great casting rod. I think a hook keeper is very useful on trout rods. Wow It is super light in hand, and 2. Still very doable excellent in fact! Overall the craftsmanship was ok but not nearly as good as the best mid-priced rods like the DXF or the Recon. The Hardy Zephrus series of fly rods features our award winning Sintrix material . Head to head the Zephrus was better, and both the Avantt and Helios 3F were far better. Standard corks are used and the quality is excellent. The single uplocking seat is gray anodized aluminum, and doesnt use a spacer, but does have some trick looking cutouts on each side. It really sings in the 15-45-foot range, though you won't be disappointed if you have to push your flies a bit further. Performance at 25 feet 20 points available. Only the Loop Q was worse. #19. The stiff tip and heavy swing weight both contributed to a lack of feel and accuracy in close. It is especially interesting to see how the rods compare in stiffness, and how much the tip section bends. Out long the overall softness of the rod is a handicap. In our opinion, this upgrade makes the Zephrus an even better all-around 4-weight rod than the Zenith.