2011 5-Weight Shoot Out!

by George Anderson, James Anderson

Robert Kovich, and Justin Bolduc

Our past 5-weight and 8-weight shootouts have been so popular over the past few years that we felt it was time to give everyone a good look at the next generation of 5-weight rods, in our latest 18-rod blockbuster shootout.

There are lots of great new rods that have been introduced in the past three years. We’ll report on these as well as compare them to the best rods we’ve tested before, which have remained essentially unchanged. New technology has played a huge role in giving us lighter, stronger, and more responsive rods than we’ve had in the past.

You, the angling public, have been bombarded with a lot of information, hype, and propaganda but now it’s time to give you the answers to what we feel are the best rods on the market today. Here at the Yellowstone Angler, we have been giving our customers honest answers on tackle and equipment for the past thirty years, and we aren’t going to pull any punches now. What you are going to read are our honest opinions. You may agree or disagree, but nearly all of the e-mails we’ve received in the past have been positive, and 85-90% of the people that have responded, agreed with our findings, and thanked us for our efforts.

You aren’t going to see direct rod comparisons like this in the fly-fishing magazines or any medium that depends on advertising to generate their income. We are going to give you winners, but there will also be losers and others that just don’t seem to measure up. We felt that someone needed to do it and we’ve tried to do it in a fair, unbiased manner. Some of the categories are objective and these are easy, but many are subjective categories and these are more difficult.

What you read here is definitely going to be controversial. Some forums are going to want to string us up by our heels, while others will give us a pat on the back. You’ll be able to read George’s opinions on the main page but you can click on the photos on the right side to read counterpoints from James Anderson, Robert Kovich and Justin Bolduc, all great anglers and casters.

Our shootouts have been a huge hit on the Internet, and we know that this new 5-weight shoot will go all over the world in just a few hours! For this reason we’ve tried to test some of the best rods made around the world as well as some of the best inexpensive rods that we’ve found. We know that the US doesn’t have the lock on the best fly rods as it once did, and a lot of US manufacturers are now building their less expensive rods overseas in places like China and Korea where labor costs are far lower. But you’ll be surprised at how well some of these inexpensive rods fared to the very best rods. It’s all a factor of rod design, the quality of materials used for the blank, components, workmanship and then of course quality control.

If you’re in the market for a good 5-weight rod, we are going to assume that you want one rod that will do it all – a rod that will cast in close with delicacy and accuracy with small drys and fine tippet, a rod that will launch larger drys like hoppers seventy feet into stiff breeze, and a rod that has enough backbone to throw a couple of nymphs, a wind resistant strike indicator and maybe a little split shot as well. It also must have the guts to chuck a streamer with a split shot clamped next to the eye, and put it on that cut bank 80 feet away.

As in our past shootouts, our intention is to try to cut through all the BS and give you our honest answers and opinions. To do this we have structured our rating system a lot like the automobile magazines, namely Car and Driver. In some categories we award a maximum of only 10 points, while in others, like the performance categories, we’ll award 20 points since we feel the real heart of the shootout is how these rods perform.

This year we dropped two categories, the X-Factor as well as Swing Weight VS Power. We felt we were able to address these concerns in other categories. We also added two categories - Warranty, and “Perfect 5”. We’ll explain these later in detail. In addition we changed the way we measure Swing Weight and then double-checked it using our old method with a digital scale to make sure we are still on the right track.

We hope you enjoy the shootout. Don’t be afraid to e-mail us with your comments. If you are in the market for a new rod, reel or other equipment, we’d appreciate your business! You can call us at 406-222-7130, e-mail us at staff@yellowstoneangler.com our visit our on-line catalog at www.yellowstoneangler.com. With your support, we can afford to spend the time and effort it takes to do more of these shootouts as well as other comparisons on tackle and equipment. Give us your thoughts on what you would like to see next!

Why trust our opinions?

Many of you know that George Anderson has a stellar reputation as a great caster and angler in both fresh and saltwater. His back-to-back wins at the Jackson Hole One-Fly in ’89 and ’90 helped to solidify his reputation as a nymph and dry fly fisherman. But you may not know that over the last twenty years, rod manufacturers like Sage, and G. Loomis have asked for George’s help in designing rods like the Sage LL 389 and 490, as well as The Loomis StreamDance GLX Presentation series of trout rods. George joined Steve Rajeff in Woodland Washington, to fine-tune all the final StreamDance GLX prototypes, both the Presentation Series and the High Line Speed Series. George also helped Tom Morgan with final prototype designs of the Tom Morgan Rodsmiths rods, and then did all the final casting and fine-tuning of the pre-production prototypes as well as approval of the finished rods.

George as well as the staff here at the Yellowstone Angler have done a lot of fly-fishing all over the world, for a variety of game fish in both fresh and saltwater. This has given us ample opportunities to test rods and other tackle in a huge variety of conditions and fishing situations. The best rods, reels and other products that have proven themselves time and time again are the ones that rise to the top and the ones we want to report on in our shootouts and other tackle comparisons. We’ll try to give you our unbiased opinions so that you can make the best buying decision for your needs.

Lighter is Better

In terms of rods, I’ve always felt that lighter is better, as long as manufacturers can give us rods that have the right amount of power to load a rod well with the designated line size. As you'll read here, we feel some have gone overboard. There have been huge advances in technology and materials in the past ten years. A lot of the advances in graphite technology have been taken from the aerospace industry, and this is even truer this year. Graphite modulus has jumped up dramatically in the past several years and even more dramatic improvements this year in resin systems from 3M developed with individual rods companies have given us some of the most incredible rods we've seen in years!

Just when you think that fly rods cannot possibly get any better, some totally new technology pops up, and other manufacturers scramble to meet or beat the competition. All this R & D costs a lot of money, not to speak of the materials and workmanship that goes into building a great fly rod, so don’t flinch when the top rods in the world cost $650 to $800. Getting the world's best fly rod for under $1000 is a real bargain if you compare it to buying one of the world's best sports cars at $200,000.00. And you might have more fun with that fly rod!

Great Rods are not always expensive

As you’ll see in our shootout, we included some terrific rods that are very light and perform surprisingly well for less than $250.00. You are not going to find the highest tech materials, the very best components, cork handles or guides on these less expensive rods, and they are not going to cast quite as well as the very best rods in our shootout, but the gap is closing fast!

What we have seen in the past few years is that the quality of these inexpensive rods has increased dramatically. Most of the inexpensive rods are imported but better components are being used, and the wraps, coatings and the way the rods are finished is quickly catching up to the best rods. Rod design has improved by leaps and bounds and some of these inexpensive rods are very impressive casting tools.

Don’t believe everything you read!

Manufacturers have done their best to convince us that their rods are better than anything else on the market. I don’t blame them for trying to beef up their market share, but some of their claims are pretty far fetched and in some cases just old-fashioned BS. The more you get pounded with fancy big ads in the magazines the more you begin to believe this stuff. It’s just human nature.

That’s where we come in. At the Yellowstone Angler, we’ve always tried to give our customers well-informed, unbiased answers that help them cut through this avalanche of propaganda, and steer them to the right rods, reels, and other products that fit their needs and price considerations.

You might disagree with us on a few things, but we feel that most experienced anglers and good casters are going to agree with our findings.  Our conclusions have been borne out by the response we have gotten from anglers all over the world!

Great anglers design the best rods

After casting, fishing and testing thousands of rods over the past thirty years, one thing has become very apparent to me – the very best rods have come from rod designers who were also great anglers.

These guys that know exactly how rods need to perform for whatever type of fishing they have been designed, and the little tweaks and design changes they need to make give us rods that approach perfection. A lot of people come to mind and many I’ve known and fished with personally. Steve Rajeff at G. Loomis, Tom Morgan who has given us the Tom Morgan Rodsmith line but who was formerly the owner of Winston Rods, Jerry Siem at Sage, and of course Don Green who started Sage as well as the late Jimmy Green of Fenwick (and later Sage). Lefty Kreh, now helping design rods for TFO, is renowned for his angling ability. Howard Croston, who is now the head of the design team at Hardy, who have given us the spectacular Zenith series of rods, is also a great angler, whom I’ve fished with here in Montana. Many of these great anglers are also some of the world’s finest competition casters, and this has also helped them in the design process to give us such outstanding rods.

There are many other great anglers and rod designers that I don’t know personally and I’m sorry I can’t mention them all. What all these people have in common is that the knowledge and ability they have gained as anglers and casters has produced the best rod designers the world has ever known.

Our Testing Procedures

Keeping it Apples to Apples

In testing rods like these that often very close in the way they perform, even small variables can skew the results. We’ve found that just taking the time to strip the line off one rod and re-string another rod is enough time to loose your feel for minute differences in flex or accuracy. So for this shootout we wanted to have at least six of the exact same brand reels and size set up with the exact same line and leader set up. This way we could switch immediately from one rod to another, even with 50 feet of line out lying on the floor or grass and be able to detect subtle differences in the way these rods performed. It also allowed us to keep a couple of the best rods loaded up as benchmarks with which we could compare the other rods.

Reels

In our last 5-weight shootout, we used the Ross Evolution #2 reels, which were the most popular reels we have ever sold here in our shop. For our new 5-weight shootout, we chose the new Ross Evolution LT #2. The LT is a wonderful reel, even lighter than the Evolution, and has an improved drag design that makes the adjustments easier and more dependable. The frame and spool have been re-designed to allow for more ventilation as well as reducing even more weight. Even better, the price has been reduced from $300 to $275, and you can pick from four attractive colors! The new 5-weight rods are lighter than ever before, so a nice light reel is the perfect compliment to a light rod. The Evolution LT #2 weighs only 4.1 oz. empty and about 5.4 oz. with a #5 line and 100 yards of 20 lb. micron backing. Remember – Lighter is Better! When I put this reel (with line) on the Hardy Zenith, our lightest rod in the test, the balance point was 1-½ inches back from the top of the grip, or just about where my index finger rests when I’m casting the rod. With these light rods, having a little weight out in front of my hand feels a lot better to me and gives me more control than having a heavier reel balance the rod in the middle of the grip.  Also, the Slate Grey perfectly matches the Zenith and the green looks fantastic on the Z-axis and BIIIx.

Lines

Again this year, we decided to use the standard Scientific Anglers Mastery GPX lines for all our test reels. We used mostly #5’s but had one #6 GPX on hand to try out on the stiffest rods (some of them needed it!) The GPX taper is more suited to the stiffer, medium fast and fast action rods we are testing since it is about a half line size heavier than a more normal Trout Taper and with a 26-foot belly; it has more weight in the forward part of the line. Front tapers are a short 6.5 feet that allows for a quicker turnover with longer leaders and in a stiff wind.

We discussed using the Sharkskin GPX or the Sharkskin Ultimate Trout taper, but none of us here like these Sharkskin lines very much. They make a lot of noise going through the guides and we find this distasteful in a sport where quiet seems more appropriate. Also, you can easily burn your fingers just stretching these lines not to mention what happens if you grab them when a fish is running. Personally I don’t like to fish with a stripping glove over my finger either. When I’m handling these Sharkskin lines or making a hand retrieve, it feels like I have sand or dirt in my hands or on the line, and that’s not a good feeling. In addition, we have pretty well proven to ourselves that these lines do not shoot any better, or cast any longer than the standard GPX lines.

Leaders

Once again, we used some of our own Yellowstone Angler 12 foot hand tied leaders with stiffer Maxima butt and midsections and Rio 3X nylon tippets. Our hand tied 12 foot leaders will turn over better than ANY of the 9 foot knotless tapered leaders we’ve found. On my own 5-weight rods, I’m normally using a 12-14 foot leader, unless I’m fishing a big wind resistant hopper in the wind and then I’ll cut it down to around 9 feet. For fishing nymphs I’ll also use a 12-14 foot leader, but one of Hot Butt leaders with five feet of fluorescent red butt section. For our shootout, we felt that using long 12 foot leaders would give us a better feeling of how these rods would turn over the fly, especially at shorter distances. We did use a small fluorescent yarn indicator at the end of the leader so we could judge the turnover and fly placement.

Wintertime Testing

December can be pretty nasty here in Livingston, Montana but some days it will be up near 50 degrees F, with no snow on our lawn. Casting out on the lawn is certainly our preference, but our fallback position was to make arrangements to do the casting indoors, at the spacious gym at our local Civic Center. This year that proved to be our best bet, especially since it was a comfortable 65 degrees with no wind. But later in the afternoons we were able to do some of the casting at a lawn near the Civic Center, and on the lawn by our shop. This was perfect way to evaluate longer distance performance of the rods. Luckily we had only a light wind of 5-15 mph. In Montana you learn to fish in the wind, so this was more or less standard fishing conditions, making it even better for our testing. When the wind is blowing 20 mph or more and gusting to 40 mph, it is almost impossible to judge casting performance, and we needed to avoid that at all costs.

Testing the best all around 5-weights

With such a tremendous number of 5-weight rods on the market today, we needed to find a way to limit the number of rods we would test to around twenty rods, which would make our shootout somewhat manageable. What we were looking for were the best all around 5-weight rods – rods that could perform well in close at 25 feet but also have the power to do well at 70 feet and beyond, with the capability to throw 100 feet in the hands of an expert caster. We also wanted to limit the test to 4-piece rods, which have become so much more popular today. With all the traveling that most anglers are doing, it is easy and legal to hand carry several 9-foot 4-piece rods in their cloth cases inside one of the multi-rod travel cases.

For these reasons we declined to test many of the lighter action 5-weight rods like the Sage ZXL series or the Loomis WhisperCreek GLX series, both of which are terrific shorter distance rods. We also decided not to test the Tom Morgan rods, which are a max. of 8 ½ feet and are only two-piece rods. However, the Tom Morgan Rodsmiths 8 ½ foot #5 has been one of the sweetest 5 weight rods we’ve ever cast and you’ll read more on this rod later in the shootout. It is still one of the very best!

We were disappointed that we were not able to get one of the Echo rods for our test despite numerous attempts on our part to obtain one. We know these are very good rods from all reports we get, so hopefully Tim Rajeff will finally send us one and we can report on it in a future Yellowstone Angler Newsletter.

We also eliminated most of the less expensive rods and mid-priced rods from different manufacturers except a few that we knew that performed exceptionally well. In the future, we hope to have a “Biggest Bang for the Buck” shootout to address only these inexpensive rods that are priced at under $300.00.

Categories Explained

Objective categories

Price in US $ - 10 points available

This is simple - the least expensive rods get the highest points. So the Grays GRXi, St. Croix Imperial, and Winston’s Passport, all at $200 or less pick up 10 points. The most expensive rods we tested, like the Orvis Helios, Winston’s BIIIx and the Loomis NRX, all well over $700, earned the lowest score of 6 points.

Try not to let price be the deciding factor in buying a rod. Today with all the lifetime warranties the manufacturers offer, even if you break a $700 rod, it may cost you only $50-60 to replace it! If you consider how much enjoyment you will get fishing one of the best rods over even a few years is may make sense to save up a little more money and go for the best. The best rods will also help you improve your casting and fishing dramatically, and help you step up to that next level more quickly.

Overall Weight – 10 points available

We don’t take the manufacturer’s word for how much these rods weigh – we weigh them ourselves. This was done on a new digital scale that was calibrated down to .0001 oz. To make things easy, we rounded up to .01 oz. You’ll find all this information in our table on statistics. Overall weight is one factor for sure, but more important for and angler is the swing weight of the rod - how heavy it really feels in your hand when you are casting and fishing.

Swing Weight – 10 points available

You have heard this term if you are a golfer. Every pro shop has a simple scale that measures swing weight – the weight of the head of the club in relation to the shaft when you waggle the club. Since a scale like this won’t work with a fly rod, we had to come up with a better way to measure swing weight – that weight you feel out ahead of your hand when you hold the rod in a horizontal position.

Rods with a low swing weight are a joy to use and fish all day. False casting while fishing dry flies all day becomes effortless. Rods with lower swing weights help protect light tippets too, as there is less inertia to overcome as the rod tip gets jerked around while you try to set the hook. Rods with a high swing weight are not nearly as pleasant to fish, and will extract their payment in arm pump and fatigue by the end of the day. We devised a better method of determining swing weight this year and double checked it with our old method to make sure we were still on the right track.

Swing Weight – our new calculations

We intend this term to mean the weight you feel when you flex the rod in your hand, with the rod held in a horizontal position. (without the reel attached to the rod).  In the past we figured out a good way to measure this on a postage scale, by placing the rod on a fulcrum that was positioned about 1 ½ inches back from the top of the grip with the rod in a horizontal position.  Then we simply placed enough weight on the very back end of the reel seat to keep the rod horizontal and read the weight on the scale.

This year Justin was examining a formula for the Moment of Inertia and found that these calculations very closely matched what I was coming up with by positioning the rod on the scale.  With the new method we weighed each section of each rod and then applied the formula.  This formula puts more importance in the weight of the 2nd half of the rod (the tip).  Some of the manufacturers are designing very light rods in overall weight,  and promoting them as the lightest, but they are heavier in the tip and heavier in swing weight than several of the other rods. A rod with a little extra weight in the butt can still have a low swing weight, while a rod with a heavy 2nd half and a light butt will have a heavy swing weight. 

By waggling the rods in our hand it was apparent that the new calculations were confirming what we were feeling.   You could really tell a big difference from the lightest swing weight (Hardy Zenith) to the heaviest swing weight (Thomas & Thomas).

Warranty – 10 points available

Previously this was part of the “X Factor” but this year we decided to give you a more thorough idea of how each manufacturer handles their warranty program and how much they charge. Virtually every manufacturer has a “Lifetime Warranty” but this doesn’t mean you get another rod for free. Almost everyone charges a “handling fee”, and this differs from one manufacturer to another. We tried to simplify this as much as we could, but only a few manufacturers make this straightforward and easy.

Bottom line is that it can cost you as little as $25-30 for the best warranties, or as much as $100-$200 for others if the breakage was your fault or neglect and not a defect. Also, nearly all warranties apply only to the original owner, so if you break a rod you have bought second-hand you can be out big bucks, especially on rods that have serial numbers the manufactures can track.

Warranties

Since Warranty is one of our categories we are rating this year, we wanted to give you a relatively concise explanation so that you can see how we judged this category.  Some manufacturers, like G. Loomis are making this very complicated but we’ll do our best to give you the short version.

Every manufacturer offers a “Lifetime Warranty”, but this applies only to the original owner.   In almost every instance, the manufacturer charges a handling fee, and you also need to know that it will cost you a minimum of $10-15 to send the rod in to the manufacturer, or have your local shop ship the rod,  in addition to that handling fee.    In most instances your rod will be repaired, not replaced but this varies from one manufacturer to another. 

Hardy – Lifetime warranty to original owner.  $25 handling fee plus 10% retail cost of rod.   Shipping is from their US warehouse, normally about 10 days.  

G. Loomis – Lifetime warranty to original owner.  You send in rod and their warranty dept examines rod.  If rod broke because of a defect, replacement is free. No handling fee.  If from neglect, charges can be well over $100.  One time Expeditor service, no questions asked - $100. Gets you a new rod in 3-5 days.   NRX owners get a one time Wild Card that gives them a free replacement, 3-5 days. After that, if NRX break is deemed a defect, replacement is free.  From neglect charges will vary but over $150.  Defect claims usually take 1-2 weeks.

Orvis -  25 year warranty to original owner.  $30 handling fee.  Rod is repaired, not replaced.  Usually takes 2-4 weeks.

Redington – Lifetime warranty to original owner, $30 handling fee. Rod is replaced with a new rod.  Usually takes 2 weeks.

R.L. Winston – Lifetime warranty to original owner, $50 handling fee. Older rods not under warranty cost $120 or more. Rods are repaired, not replaced.  Usually takes 2-4 weeks.

Sage – Lifetime warranty to original owner. $50 handling fee.  Rods are repaired, not replaced.   Usually takes 2-4 weeks.

Scott – Lifetime warranty to original owner, $45 handling fee. Rods are repaired, not replaced. Usually takes 2-4 weeks.

St. Croix – Lifetime warranty to original owner, $50 handling fee. Rods are repaired, not replaced.  Usually takes 2-4 weeks.

Thomas & Thomas – Lifetime warranty to original owner, $50 handling fee.  Rods are repaired, not replaced.  Usually takes 2-4 weeks.

Temple Fork Outfitters (TFO) -  Lifetime warranty to original owner.  $25 handling fee.  Rods are replaced with a new rod.  Usually takes 1 week.  

Subjective categories

Craftsmanship - 10 points available

We look at a lot of things on a rod to determine craftsmanship. Some things are pretty obvious, like the quality of the cork handle – is it individual laid up corks that are turned down on a lathe, and how good is the quality of the cork? Is it nearly perfect with few defects or did they have to use a lot of filler? Are they using pre-shaped cork handles, which are almost always inferior to individual cork rings, and of what quality? Is the reel seat well designed for the use intended and how good does it look? Are the thread wraps tight and coated smoothly? A lot of manufacturers use a one-coat finish and often this can be applied too heavily, looking sloppy and adding weight. Or it can be too thin, exposing enough of the thread to fray over time. If you want to see something close to perfection in wraps and coatings, take a look at the best T&T rods, or a Tom Morgan rod.

Little things like beautifully made nickel silver winding checks mean a lot over plastic or rubber. The overall craftsmanship of rods has improved a lot over the past several years, especially on the least expensive rods. If you look closely, you’ll notice that we didn’t award anyone a score of 10 in this shootout. That would have gone to the Tom Morgan Rodsmiths rod that we didn’t include in our shootout this year.

Fun to Fish/Got to Have – 10 points available

This category comes straight from the Car and Driver shootouts, but you know all about this one. If the rod looks like a million bucks and casts like it too, then any normal fly fisherman will lust for this rod. For some, it might even be considered a status symbol. I keep thinking this may be why Loomis went with those gaudy blue wraps on the NRX? For others, they see how this rod performs in their guide’s hands and they know that if they get the same rod, it will take them to that next level. Surprisingly enough, often they are right. Great rods don’t make great casters, but they can sure help an average caster get a lot better in a hurry. Good anglers know the value of an exceptional rod, and price usually doesn’t slow them down one bit. After all, an angler can never have too many rods, can they?

Double points for the performance categories

We have always felt that the most important factor in determining the best overall 5-weight rod is how the rod performs. Sure, craftsmanship, price and all these other categories need to enter into the final equation, but the real meat of these shootouts are the performance categories, and this is why we double the points here.

“Perfect 5 Performance” – 20 points available

A new category this year, and one we felt was needed to reward the best #5 line rods for their superior performance and that special feel that gives you total confidence in putting your fly just where you want it at any distance. We’re looking for rods that can do it all, at any distance, with a 5-weight GPX line.  So that hurts rods that are only good in close or at short to medium distances. It also puts a big hit on rods we feel are just too stiff to be called 5-weight rods. Good examples here are the Sage TCX and Scott’s S4. Other rods are more borderline 5’s, like the VXP and the TFO BVK. They get down rated accordingly. Light but overly stiff rods was the main reason we dumped our Swing weight VS power category. The TCX would have probably won this category, but it really isn’t a 5-weight rod to our thinking.

Performance at 25 feet – 20 points available

The first thing that most people do when we rig up a rod for them to cast out on our lawn is to see how far they can cast! What they should be more concerned about is to see how the rod performs at 25 to 45 feet, the distance that most anglers are fishing the majority of the time they spend on the water. Does the rod load well enough to give you the feel and accuracy needed at close range? Does the rod bend enough in the tip and mid section to allow easy casting off the tip of the rod, using just your wrist and very little arm movement to power the tip of the rod through the casting stroke? The best rods are usually the lightest rods, especially if you are doing a lot of false casting as you would fishing dry flies.

A rod’s ability to make delicate and accurate presentations with small flies and long leaders is one of the keys to scoring well here. At short distance, casting accuracy is the number one factor I used in rating these rods. And a big part of accuracy is the feel you get through the handle that gives you the confidence to put the fly where you want it. I’m convinced that the key to catching more trout and especially larger trout, is casting accuracy. Fly selection is far less important. If you have something about the right size and color, you can often force-feed a selective fish with perfect presentations.

Performance at 45 feet – 20 points available

This is perhaps the most important of all the performance categories for picking the best all around 5-weight rod. At 45 feet you want a rod that will be light and pleasant enough to do a lot of false casting, fishing smaller dry flies all day long, yet have the power to launch more wind resistant hoppers and big attractor drys into a 20 mph wind and get your leader to turn over. You shouldn’t have to double-haul at 45 feet to get the rod to perform. The best rods will have the ability to throw very tight loops at this range with consistent accuracy. They should feel totally solid at this distance and the line should track perfectly. With the best rods, a good caster can place a dry fly within a foot of the exact target (at 45 feet) on most casts. On the other hand, the best 5 line rods also need to have excellent loop control so that you can form the more open loops you’ll need fishing nymphs. The rods that seem to do this best are nearly always medium-fast to fast action rods.

The best 5-weight rods make superb rods for fishing nymphs, both at short and long range. But to do this, the rod needs to have enough butt and mid-section power to drive a couple of nymphs, maybe a split shot or two and also a big, wind resistant indicator, and put the cast where you need it at 25-50 feet. Picking one of the lightest rods with a low swing weight will give you more sensitivity and the rod’s faster reaction time will help you set the hook more quickly. A good strong butt and mid-section will help you mend line, especially if you are fishing at longer distances like 35-50 feet, using an indicator. Faster action rods with good butt and mid-section power will also help you play larger fish more quickly, allowing you to release them in perfect shape.

Performance at 70 feet – 20 points available

There are not many times when you’ll need a 5-weight to cast seventy feet and beyond, but the best rods, with an expert caster at the controls, can easily cast all the line – ninety to one hundred feet. But this also requires the ability to double-haul well and form good, long, tight backcast loops.

There are not many instances that call for this kind of long range casting, when fishing dry flies, but I’ve sure done a lot of this firing hoppers to big fish rising along a far bank at seventy feet or more. At this distance (with little wind) a good caster with one of the best 5-weights should be able to put the fly within 3 feet of the target most of the time. The best rods should load well and still produce consistently tight loops.  If they can do that, the accuracy is usually excellent.

On big rivers, when I’m fishing nymphs at long range using an indicator, a lot of mending is required. The best rods, that have strong power in the butt and mid-section get the job done easily.

Another reason you’ll want good performance at long range is chucking steamers. Sure, a 7 or 8 weight rod would be better, but a good #5 rod works surprisingly well in a pinch. Either stick a BB size split shot right on the head of your streamer and fish it with your floating line, or better yet switch off to a WF-6-F/S 15 foot type 6 sink tip line. Now you’ll be able to launch a medium sized conehead streamer seventy-five feet with ease. The rods that I felt gave the best long-range performance were the NRX, the Z-Axis and the Zenith.

Nymph Rig Performance – 20 points available

ln the past, we’ve never taken the time to evaluate nymph fishing performance, but we all agreed that anglers that buy a 5-weight rod are going to spend a lot of time using it fishing nymphs. We felt the best way to help us evaluate nymph fishing casting performance was to use one of the most popular nymph fishing rigs our guides use here on the Yellowstone River. We set this up with a size 6 rubberlegs as the top fly and then 18-inches behind this, we tied on a size 12 beadhead dropper. In addition we added a big, wind resistant ¾ inch Thingamabobber indicator, up from the lead fly about four feet. Personally I like the Thill S3 indicators better, that are oval and ½ inch wide by about 1 inch long. They are a lot more aerodynamic and cast better, but since the Thingamabobbers are far more popular, we used them in the test. Adding one split shot might have been even better, but we needed to send these test rods back unscathed.

Trying to evaluate how a rod casts, pushing a mess like this through the air is not easy, especially outside in a decent amount of wind. But after switching back and forth from one rod to another, set up exactly the same way, it became apparent that some rods cast this rig a whole lot better than others. The best performers seemed to be the best balanced 5 line rods – not too stiff nor too limber. I think if we had gone up to a six weight line, most of these rods would have performed better with our nymph rig, but most anglers are not going to switch lines to fish a nymph, so we stuck with the #5 lines. The best rods casting our nymph rig were the NRX, Z-Axis and the Hardy Zenith.

Surprisingly, the very stiffest rod, Sage’s TCX, had a very difficult time pushing this rig with a #5 line. Perhaps if had added a ton of split shot and used a chuck and duck technique it might have been better. And if we had switched up to a WF-7-F line, that would have solved our problems. Softer rods, like the BIIIx and Passport didn’t fare as well either. I had to work harder to get the nymph rig to fly as well as it did on the other rods.

It would have taken a lot more time to give you an evaluation of how all these rods compared while actually fishing nymphs. We can tell you with confidence that the rods with the lightest swing weights are going to be the best nymph fishing rods. With their ability to react more quickly, you’ll be able to set the hook a lot faster, and this is often the key to catching more fish on nymphs.

The Final Results

George Anderson's Comments:

(Click on the link or photo of each rod and this will take you to James' photo gallery for each individual rod with lots of close up photos you'll enjoy)...

#14 Thomas & Thomas HII 9'#5, 4pc. $705.00

Even though this rod finished last in our shootout, there is no way you can call it a loser! In craftsmanship alone, it is one of the very finest rods we tested, and none of the other manufacturers represented here do as nice a job finishing the wraps so perfectly. All the components are excellent and the cork handle is top notch. The thing that bogs down this rod is its weight and its more moderate action. This rod had the heaviest swing weight of all rods tested, so it just feels heavy in your hand.

The heavy swing weight and overall lack of feel contributed to lower performance scores than most of the other rods. This rod has been unchanged for a couple of years now and would benefit a lot with a switch to a higher modulus graphite. A lighter, more flexible tip would help too, especially for short-range accuracy and feel.

George’s casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet – 13 points out of 20
The heavy swing weight and stiffer tip detracted substantially from overall accuracy. This rod was just not pleasant fishing in close. The lack of feel didn’t provide much confidence. The moderate action and stiffer tip would make fishing fine tippets a challenge.

Performance at 45 feet – 14 points out of 20
A quick comparison to the Z-Axis showed why this rod felt far heavier. It was a chore doing a lot of casting at this distance. Even thought the rod felt fairly well balanced with a 5 line at this distance, there was a definite lack of consistency, which hurt accuracy as well.

Performance at 70 feet – 16 points out of 20
Here the heavy swing weight really becomes a factor. Casting for any length of time at this distance is going to give you a real workout! This rod was not too pleasant at long range. Accuracy was only fair.

Nymph rig performance – 14 points out of 20
This rod will get the job done, but you can feel that weight out ahead of your hand and pushing two nymphs and a big indicator was a chore. I was working harder to get the job done than with other rods.

#13 Sage TCX 9'#5, 4pc $795.00

Sage calls this rod their rocket launcher. A "wind cheater" with an ultra fast action. Jerry Siem used their latest G5 technology to bring us a super light and powerful rod. The problem is that this rod is just way, way too stiff for anyone other than the most experienced expert casters with a #5 line. At distance, It requires a very strong double haul with very precise cast timing. This rod is actually stiffer than most #6 line rods!

We recommend that most anglers put a 6 line on this rod and this changes it drastically for the better, especially at close range. At close or even mid-range with a #5 line, this rod is a joke. Only at the longest distance does it start to feel good, but it’s still not in the same ballpark with the NRX or the Zenith. But if you are looking for a #5 line rod that has the ability to throw line at a higher velocity, and farther than anything we tested, this rod might be your answer. At the distances we fish though, try going up one line size and you’ll see a marvelous transformation.

George’s casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet – 12 points out of 20
This rod is far too stiff for a #5 line! Almost no feel whatsoever made judging the distance and making accurate casts very difficult. Accuracy was terrible. I switched over to a #6 GPX line and then it was much better, not great, but better at both 25 and 45 feet.

Performance at 45 feet – 15 points out of 20
A little better here, with better accuracy, but this rod is still too stiff at this distance with a #5 line. Only expert casters could get this rod to perform acceptably. With the #6 GPX line it felt much better and fairly well balanced. Accuracy was also far better with the #6 line.

Performance at 70 feet – 19 points out of 20
Finally, the power of this rod makes it come alive with a lot of line in the air. Now I can cast nice tight, controlled loops and get good accuracy. Still not in the same league with the Zenith or NRX with a #5 line at this distance.

Nymph rig performance – 14 points out of 20
With the #5 line, it was very difficult to overcome all the weight of the nymphs and wind resistance of the big indicator, no matter how hard you double hauled. Changing to the #6 line made a huge difference, and now it felt pretty darn good.

#12 Scott S4 9'#5, 4pc.  $695.00

I guess the boys at Scott are still unhappy with us after we bashed their S3S in our 8-weight shootout, where it ended up in last place. So when we tried to get them to send us one of their new S4 rods to test, they refused to send us a rod!

Not giving up easily, we just went out and bought one. A lot of people wanted to see us test this S4 and we didn’t want to disappoint them. Well, at least it didn’t end up last this time, but it was close. The main reason it rated so poorly is the same reason the TCX fared badly- This rod is just too stiff for most anglers with a #5 line, even a GPX! Harry Wilson, the founder of Scott rods, who brought us those great G series rods, that were perfectly matched with any given line size, would roll over in his grave!

Like the TCX, if you want to launch it a country mile or use a ton of split shot fishing nymphs, this might be your rod, but for most of us that want a pleasant rod to fish smaller dries with fine tippets, you need to look elsewhere.

The craftsmanship is excellent although the reel seat spacer was a little odd. I did like the 12” and 20” markings on the butt, and the flexible, nickel/titanium snake guides are a wonderful addition. This is a stiff rod and by going up one line size to a #6 line, would benefit most anglers and is an easy fix. A softer tip would also help, especially for short distance accuracy.

George’s casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet: 14 points out of 20
This rod just feels heavy, and way too stiff for a #5 line. Accuracy suffered at short distance mainly because of the stiffness and lack of feel. I tried this rod also with a #6 GPX and this helped a lot. The stiff tip didn’t make casting off the tip very pleasant.

Performance at 45 feet: 17 points out of 20
Getting better but still feels too stiff. Also, much heavier in my hand than the Z-Axis. The rod certainly didn’t track as well as the Z-Axis and this lack of consistency hurt accuracy. With the 5 line I had to work hard to get tight loops with good control.

Performance at 70 feet: 19 points out of 20
Now this stiff beast can really flex it’s muscles and throwing long is fairly pleasant. Pretty good accuracy but I could not control the loops as well as with the NRX or the other top rods.

Nymph rig performance: 18 points out of 20
Seemed to push out the nymph rig quite well into a strong wind, I felt that this rod performed better than most. The overall weight of the rod will wear you down if you are doing a lot of short line nymph fishing all day though.

#11 Redington CPX 9'#5 4pc.  $299.00

The immediate reaction I had picking up this rod was that compared to most of our other rods, the swing weight is heavy as hell! I’ve fished other Redington CPS rods in the past and have like them a lot, but this rod felt heavier. At around $300, the price is right though. This rod is manufactured in China for Far Bank Enterprises/Sage. Certainly it is not in the same class as any of the better Sage rods, which is a shame.

Now that Redington is owned by the same parent company as Sage, I had hoped that Sage would lend some of their design influence, giving us better Redington rods. The craftsmanship is only fair. This is another stiff rod, that would benefit by shifting up to a 6 line for a lot of people. It has more of a medium action with a much stiffer tip than say the Sage Z-Axis. This hurt its short distance accuracy and feel. A beginner will fare better with one of the softer rods.

George’s casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet: 16 points out of 20
The swing weight is heavy as hell, and it is difficult to cast off the tip at short range. The stiffness in the tip was a problem at close range and the accuracy suffered. Give us a tip that is lighter and more flexible. A #6 line was better in close.

Performance at 45 feet: 18 points out of 20
The accuracy was far better with more line in the air. Fairly well balanced with the 5 line now, with this much line out, but after comparing this rod directly to the BIIIx or Z-Axis, it was noticeably heavier and not nearly as pleasant to cast.

Performance at 70 feet: 17 points out of 20
The heavier weight made longer casts a lot more work. Decent accuracy but casting this rod long all day is going to give you a workout, unless you get off on pumping iron.

Nymph Rig Performance: 17 points out of 20

This rod has the power to chuck a lot of split shot, for sure, but the overall weight does not make it very pleasant for high sticking nymphing at short range.

#10 (tie) Grey's GRXi+ 9'#5, 4pc.  $189.00

This rod comes to us through the Hardy & Grays organization, and is one of their most popular inexpensive rods. At $189 it was the least expensive rod we tested, but the performance was like on a different planet than the Hardy Zenith. To say it was not as good is a huge understatement. The rod itself is quite heavy and also has a heavy swing weight. Obviously they are using lower modulus graphite at a much lower cost in this rod, but it has proven to be a pretty tough rod, and as such is a good rod for guides to bring along as a back up boat rod. This rod has a moderate action with a fairly stiff tip. Craftsmanship was OK, but nothing to rave about. A cheap aluminum reel seat is used rather than a more attractive seat with a wood spacer.

George’s casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet: 17 points out of 20
The stiff tip didn’t allow for any decent accuracy in close- not much feel either! This is a fairly heavy rod. In a direct comparison to the Winston Passport, there was no question that the Passport’s accuracy and feel were far better in close, for an inexpensive rod. Also, the GRXi+ was far heavier than the Passport.

Performance at 45 feet: 17 points out of 20
The rod seemed smooth enough, but just nothing special. Accuracy was just fair and again, nothing compared to the Passport. Also, in comparing it directly to the TFO BVK, I found that the BVK was able to throw far tighter loops than the GRXi+ and with better accuracy. The BVK was a lot lighter too, and more pleasant to cast.

Performance at 70 feet: 16 points out of 20
Nowhere near as much power or punch at this distance as the BVK or the CPX. Accuracy was not very good and certainly far inferior to the Passport. Overall not a very pleasant rod for casting longer distances.

Nymph Rig Performance: 17 points out of 20
Just average, nothing more. It will do the job but certainly not in the same class as the BVK that has a lot more butt and mid-section power. Although they rated the same, the Imperial felt better to me with it’s softer tip.

#10 (tie) Loop Evotec Fast 9'#5, 3pc.  $399.00

I’ve liked the Loop rods I’ve used in the past and this one was fun to cast even though it didn’t rate that highly overall. We didn’t realize this was a 3-pc rod until we got it but we still wanted to keep it in the test. My first impression after looking at the cork handle was, wow this is sure different! The cork is not cork rings, but pressed cork and then cut in a hex-shape that tapers forward. It sure felt odd at first but then I got used to it quickly and it began to feel a lot better. The flat on top also gave me a comfortable spot to put my thumb.

This is their faster action rod, and even though it was heavy, both in overall weight and swing weight, it felt pretty good in my hand. I guess it was the stiffer butt and mid sections compared to the softer tip, that gave this rod a pleasant, crisp feel. The accuracy was good too, across the range. I never felt that I was going to run out of power with this rod and it felt nicely balanced with the #5 line, especially at the longer distances. The oddly shaped aluminum seat seemed to work well despite being less attractive than most other seats.

George’s casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet: 17 points out of 20
Feels really odd with the six-sided handle! This rod is a little too stiff to have good close in feel or accuracy. Shifting up to a #6 line might help but I didn’t try it. This rod is heavy and not as pleasant to cast in close as the lighter rods. Accuracy in close is only fair.

Performance at 45 feet: 18 points out of 20
Now the very fast action of this rod becomes apparent and it has a lively, crisp action and a nice feel at moderate distances. Good accuracy and nice loop control at this distance make it fun to cast. I can tell that there is a lot of reserve power on tap.

Performance at 70 feet: 18 points out of 20
Good overall power and balance when casting long. This is a very pleasant rod. At longer distances and accuracy was good. Good loop control. The heavier weight wasn’t as apparent as before and I felt like I could cast this rod all day with ease.

Nymph Rig Performance: 18 points out of 20
This rod had plenty of butt and mid-section power to blast the nymph rig and indicator into the wind at 30-40 feet. The fast action would make this a good nymph rod in terms of both sensitivity and the ability to set the hook quickly.

#9 (tie) St. Croix Imperial 9'#5, 4pc. $200.00

This is one of the few inexpensive rods we've seen that is made right here in the US, at the St. Croix plant in Park Falls, Wisconsin.  We have heard however, that these rods will be produced in Mexico, like their popular Rio Santos rod in the near future, (all the more reason to buy one now)!  The Imperial has always been one of our favorite fly rods because it casts so well. They have good butt and mid section power but softer tips that provide a nice feel and good accuracy. These are handsome rods, finished in a deep burgundy color. The Imperial has been one of our most popular inexpensive rods and seems easy to cast for most inexperienced anglers. This rod is nicely matched with a #5 line and casts nicely both in close and at longer range.

George’s casting notes

Performance at 25 feet: 17 points out of 20
I should have probably given this rod a higher score at close range as it definitely seemed to have the edge over the Grays rod at short distance. The faster action and softer tip helped give better accuracy in close. Still, it was not nearly as good when cast heads up with the Passport.

Performance at 45 feet: 17 points out of 20
Good all around performance but nothing sensational. Seems to track well with good loop control. This rod seems to cast every bit as well as some of the more expensive rods at this distance.

Performance at 70 feet: 16 points out of 20
Now, the fairly heavy swing weight plays a part and this feels a lot heavier in my hand and tougher to cast long than the Passport. Also, at this range it is not as accurate as many of the other rods.

Nymph Rig Performance: 17 points out of 20
Overall this was a pretty good nymph fishing rod. Certainly not as good as the best rods here but for chucking heavy nymphs and wind resistant indicators, it had good power, and was definitely better than the Passport.

#9 (tie) Sage VXP 9'#5, 4pc.  $495.00

Well, all of you fans of the old Sage XP rejoice! Your rod is back and the price is right. I’ll have to admit I was never a fan of the XP, and when Sage came out with the Z-Axis, this seemed to address all the faults of the old XP. For openers, the old XP was just too stiff for a good 5-weight rod unless you wanted to be throwing 75 feet all day long. It worked a whole lot better with a #6 line at all distances. For most people we would have them try casting it with a #6 line and then they loved the rod. But for a lot of anglers, the XP was the best rod they had ever found, and with all this attention, Sage decided to re-introduce it.

I think the new VXP is still too stiff but at least it is a bit lighter with Sage using newer, higher modulus graphite. Unfortunately it still has the same moderate action as the old rod, with a much stiffer tip than the Z-Axis.

Sage tells us that this rod is smoother and more responsive than the old XP. That might be right, but as a good all around 5-weight rod, it lands in the middle of the pack here, and now here closer to the excellent Z-Axis.

George’s casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet: 14 points out of 20
This rod is just too stiff for a good 5-weight rod. In close the performance with a #5 line was lousy. No feel and poor accuracy. The more moderate action and stiffer tip seemed to be to blame. Casting off the tip was difficult and unpleasant.

Performance at 45 feet: 17 points out of 20
The feel is getting better, but this rod still feels too light and won’t load well at this distance. Accuracy was only fair. Certainly a #6 line would be better.

Performance at 70 feet: 19 points out of 20
Finally, with a lot of line in the air, the XP comes to life. If you fished all day at this distance you’ll like this rod. Still, it is nowhere as smooth as the NRX, nor will it throw the nice tight loops the NRX does at long distance.

Nymph Rig Performance: 18 points out of 20
The VXP does make a pretty good nymph fishing rod, With all its stiffness it could blast our nymph fishing rig out there to fifty feet with relative ease. You can load up plenty of split shot and this rod will chuck it. Lots of backbone and power for playing big fish too.

#8 Orvis Access Midflex 9'#5, pc.  $350.00

The Access uses the same new thermoplastic, thermoset resin technology as does its higher priced brother, the Helios. Both of these rods are extremely light in overall weight, actually the lightest fly rods on the market today. However, this doesn’t automatically translate into swing weight, which is a more important factor to look at as an angler. In swing weight the Helios and Access are very good, but still not the lightest rods we tested. Lighter is better though, and these are both nice feeling rods in the hand. Orvis does make two different actions, a mid flex and a tip flex. They sent us their most popular mid-flex rods for our tests. Perhaps we should have also looked at the tip flex as the mid flex rods felt too slow in action compared to most all the other top rods. With their stiffer, less flexible tips, it was more work casting the Orvis rods at short distances than the best rods. Accuracy and feel was not nearly as good as the best rods we tested.

The Helios and Access are very similar rods in construction and performance. The big difference is in the craftsmanship and components used. The Helios had a much more elegant reel seat and better quality cork in the grip, as well as the far more desirable unbreakable nickel/titanium recoil snake guides. The Access is also not as stiff, nor as responsive as the Helios. The good news is that the Access is less than half the price of the Helios. Not bad, for a rod that performs just about as well...

George’s casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet: 16 points out of 20
This rod feels nice and light, but the action is much slower than nearly all of the other rods we tested. This is really a medium action rod rather than most of the others that tend to be medium fast or fast. This hurts its short distance accuracy, as it is much more difficult to cast off the tip of the rod. I felt like I was working harder to push the whole rod through the stroke.

Performance at 45 feet: 17 points out of 20
The slower, more parabolic action of this rod hurt both the feel and performance. The cast timing is definitely slower than other rods and it was hard to maintain good accuracy. I just could not get the same kind of solid, tight loops that I was getting from the Zenith, Z-Axis or NRX.

Performance at 70 feet: 17 points out of 20
Strangely, this rod now seemed to feel smoother and easier to cast at longer distances, but the cast timing had to be a lot slower. Accuracy was just so-so, nothing great.

Nymph Rig Performance: 17 points out of 20
The casting was about average but nothing more. This rod would push the nymph rig pretty well through the air, but the slower action is going to be a handicap when trying to set the hook quickly.

#7 (tie) TFO BVK 9'#5, 4pc. $225.00

For one of the least expensive rods in our shootout, this rod is impressive. It is one of the very lightest rods we tested, bested by only the Orvis rods. The swing weight is quite light also, giving it a nice light and lively feel. But for a light rod it had a huge amount of power –we feel a little too much. The stiffness level is at the top end for 5-weights, especially for fishing at short to medium distances. Good casters will like this rod, especially at longer ranges with a #5 line, but beginners will be a lot better off shifting up to a #6 line, especially at 25-50 feet. I was impressed that a rod that costs so little had this kind of guts and performance. The color is a pleasing dark olive green with wraps to match and a neat looking olive graphite spacer in the uplocking reel seat.

Craftsmanship is just average though. The cork they used for the handle is not great, and the coating on the wraps was inconsistent and even a little sloppy in spots. Another thing that drives me nuts is that this is the only company that does not give you a hard case with the rod. So if you want one, then plan to spend another twenty bucks.  Good for dealers I suppose, but a downside for the consumer. Maybe this is one way they can afford their cheaper warranty policy...

George’s casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet: 15 points out of 20
The overall stiffness hurt a lot at short range. The rod is nice and light but as very little feel with the #5 line and the accuracy suffered accordingly. I did try a #6 line at this distance and this made all the difference in the world. Now it felt pretty good.

Performance at 45 feet: 18 points out of 20
Once I had more line in the air, things got much better. Now I could form nice tight loops with good line control. A nice light, crisp rod at this distance but still right on the edge for a #5 line. For the majority of anglers a #6 in a more standard S.A. Trout taper would make more sense.

Performance at 70 feet: 19 points out of 20
At this distance the performance was as good as some of the very best rods. At long range the BVK felt well balanced and very solid, even with the #5 line. Great performance for an inexpensive rod.

Nymph Rig Performance: 18 points out of 20
Here the stiffness and fast action helped blast the nymph rig out with ease. This rod will be a lot of fun fishing nymphs, as you’ll be able to set the hook with lightning quickness. Good power too for playing bigger fish.

#7 (tie) Orvis Helios Midflex 9'#5, 4pc.  $775.00

The Helios is the most expensive rod in our shootout, and it has been a big success for Orvis despite the price. It is the lightest rod here and also has a very light swing weight. Orvis uses a much different manufacturing process than other rod makers, using high temperature thermoplastic resins to encase the graphite fibers and this eliminates using any fiberglass or graphite cross scrim. Orvis claims that this type of construction makes their rods stronger and lighter than rods using epoxy resins. Supposedly these rods hold their shape better while they bend and then return to an unbent condition more quickly.

All this being said, I felt the Helios didn’t perform at the highest level of the best rods in our shootout. The model we tested was the mid-flex 6.5 that had more of a medium action than all of the other rods tested. The amount of stiffness felt fine for a #5 line, but the tip of this rod did not bend nearly as much as say the Zenith, or the NRX. The stiffer tip hurt the overall feel and accuracy, especially at short and mid range.

These are lovely rods, and the craftsmanship is excellent. I especially liked the classy reel seat, the quality and shape of the cork handle, and the unbreakable nickel/titanium snake guides.

George’s casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet: 16 points out of 20
The stiffer tip made it difficult to get decent accuracy in close. The rod is nice and light but just doesn’t have the flexibility in the tip I wanted to make casting off the tip very pleasurable or accurate.

Performance at 45 feet: 17 points out of 20
I get the feeling that the rod is bending all the way down into the handle and I’m having to work harder to form tight loops than with the Z-Axis or Zenith. It is definitely not as easy to get the same kind of accuracy I’m getting with any of the top rods.

Performance at 70 feet: 18 points out of 20
Now I was able to get nice controlled loops and better accuracy but this action demanded slower cast timing than the other rods. The Helios is definitely crisper and lighter in swing weight than the Access, and casts better at long range.

Nymph Rig Performance: 17 points out of 20
I liked the light weight, but the slower action didn’t give me the feeling that I could power the nymph rig into a stiff breeze with the authority of other rods like the NRX. The quicker, softer tip on the Zenith felt it would give me a faster hook set fishing nymphs and would protect lighter tippets better.

#6 Winston Passport 9'#5, 4pc.  $199.00

We were all impressed at what a performance this inexpensive rod delivered. It was a very light rod, even lighter than the BIIIx in overall weight. Its swing weight fell behind the BIIIx though as we expected but still this rod had an exceptionally good overall feel and great accuracy, especially at short range. The action is just about perfect for a medium fast rod and the softer tip helped contribute to the excellent accuracy it delivered, especially when we compared it directly to the other inexpensive rods we tested. There is no question that this is the best inexpensive rod that Winston has ever offered and one of the very best values we see on the market today.

This rod is imported for Winston and the craftsmanship is a long way from the BIIIx made here in Montana, but the wraps and coatings are better than the other inexpensive rods in our test. Although the grip had a pretty good sized swell under my palm this didn't bother me much. This rod was noticeably lighter in swing weight than either the Grays GRXi or St. Croix’s Imperial.

The key to how well this rod placed was its performance. The only category that held it back was the nymph rig performance, with the same being true for the BIIIx. If you are looking for a good inexpensive rod to start out a beginner or just one to have for a backup, you can’t go wrong with this Winston Passport.

George’s casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet: 19 points out of 20
This rod has an exceptionally nice feel and gave us tremendous accuracy for such an inexpensive rod. We were all impressed! A very well balanced rod with a nice light flexible tip made accurate casting in close easy for everyone.

Performance at 45 feet: 19 points out of 20
The Passport proved to be a very pleasant rod to cast at this distance. Light in my hand, it delivered nice tight loops and very good accuracy. Better than a whole lot of the more expensive rods.

Performance at 70 feet: 18 points out of 20
Here, the lack of butt power held it back a bit. Smooth and well balanced but just not able to perform as well at this range as the stiffer rods.

Nymph Rig Performance: 16 points out of 20
Again, the lack of butt power and overall power didn’t allow the Passport to chuck our nymph rig with the authority of other rods. It was OK but nothing special.

#5 Loomis NRX 9'#5, 4pc. $720.00

With all the hype we’ve had from Loomis, we felt that this rod might be our winner, especially after I had a chance to fish one of the NRX #7 line rods in Alaska this fall. It was just terrific. I gave it a lot of punishment playing 6-9 lb. rainbows and it held up perfectly. The #5 line NRX put in an impressive performance at mid to longer distances, forming the nicest, tightest loops I’ve seen with marvelous accuracy. Steve Rajeff did a great job designing these new NRX rods using newer, higher modulus graphite along with a new Nano-resin system developed with 3M. Loomis claims that the new NRX rods are up to 15% lighter and 15% stronger than the older GLX versions.

This is a relatively stiff 5-weight though, at the top end of the #5 category, and is also a little heavier than some of our lightest rods. In my hand it felt well balanced and has extremely good butt and mid-section power with a progressively softer tip. If you need to fire long, this rod has explosive power on tap, which helped it put in a good performance in the nymph rig category.

What held it back in the scoring was performance at short distance, where its stiffness and weight were a limiting factor. It just didn’t have the same great feel that the very best rods had in close. Then it also lost some points in the warranty category. For NRX buyers though, Loomis gives you a “wild card” so you can replace your first broken NRX for free! If any Loomis rod breaks because of a defect, you get a totally free replacement, unlike other manufacturers. You aren’t going to break this rod very easily with its increased strength over the GLX rods. I’m convinced the Loomis NRX and GLX rods are the toughest rods I’ve ever fished, and they don't break unless you do something incredibly stupid.

The craftsmanship is excellent. Loomis uses the best unbreakable nickel/titanium Recoil guides, with two stripping guides and the rest flexible one -foot guides. The color of the wraps is a bright robin’s egg blue. Some people will call it ugly, but now that I’ve used one a bit it is starting to look attractive against the natural dark gray graphite, with its thin clear satin finish. The cork handle has a comfortable shape, with excellent cork. The up-locking reel seat with a graphite spacer secures the reel solidly, and the screw lock is far easier to use than most locking rings.

George’s casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet: 17 points out of 20
Both the stiffness and weight hurt at close range. I don’t think I’d go up to a #6 line though, as the performance was so outstanding at mid to long distance. Accuracy in close was surprisingly good mainly due to the softer tip of this rod, but I just didn’t have the kind of feel I had with the best rods.

Performance at 45 feet: 20 points out of 20
Smooth and totally solid in every respect. It was a joy to see what tight loops this rod could produce with very little effort, providing extremely precise accuracy. I could tell that this rod was a bit heavier than the very lightest rods but it felt very well balanced. Definitely one of the very best rods at this distance.

Performance at 70 feet: 20 points out of 20
Again, at longer distances this rod was a real pleasure to cast. It was very easy to maintain insanely tight loops even outside in a strong breeze. Long distance accuracy was as good as it gets. This rod has a lot of explosive power on tap if you need to really crank it out there.

Nymph Rig Performance: 20 points out of 20
Very well balanced. Seemed to rip out flawless casts time after time with two nymphs and a big wind resistant indicator. Easy to launch cast accurately. This rod has enough power to handle any amount of weight you want to chuck, and do it with ease.

#4 (tie) St. Croix Legend Elite 9'#5, $440.00

The Legend Elite has always been one of my favorite casting fly rods. It's not the most expensive rod out there, but certainly one of the best performing rods, and one of the best buys when you consider the price! This year the Legend Elites feature the new NSi Nano Silica resin developed by 3M, in the lower portion of these rods, for added power and reduced weight.

The Legend Elite rods have a medium fast action with a softer, more flexible tip that gives them a special feel in your hand that gives you the confidence that you can put your fly just where you want it. Accuracy is excellent at all ranges. The action seems to be perfect for both beginners and experts alike, influenced by the design help from great casters like Bruce Richards, formerly with Scientific Anglers (3M).

Craftsmanship is excellent in all respects. The rods are a pleasant olive “Gallatin” green with a nice uplocking burled wood seat and high quality cork grip. One Fuji stripping guide is used and the rest are light one-foot guides.

If you are looking for a great rod at a very reasonable price, this is a great choice. We have sold a lot of these rods over the years and our customers have been delighted.

George’s casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet: 19 points out of 20
A softer, more flexible tip like the StreamDance, gave great feel and excellent accuracy. This is a light, responsive rod and putting the fly where I wanted it was fun and easy.

Performance at 45 feet: 19 points out of 20
Silk smooth with a nice light feel at this distance. Very well balanced with the #5 line. Very good loop control and impressive accuracy. Not very far off the performance of any of the very best rods.

Performance at 70 feet: 18 points out of 20
At this distance the performance drops off slightly. This rod doesn’t have the guts and power needed to perform with the very best but it’s still nice and smooth with decent accuracy.

Nymph Rig Performance: 18 points out of 20
Overall a very good showing but not quite enough power to really

drive it hard when I needed to get everything to turn over as I could with either the NRX, Zenith, or Z-Axis.

#4 (tie) Loomis Streamdance GLX 9'#5  $660.00

This is the rod that finished second in our first 5-weight shootout, in a very close race with the Sage Z-Axis. Both of these rods are still right up close to the top and some of the best performing rods we have ever cast or fished. Designed by Steve Rajeff, one of the greatest fly casting champions of all time, and also a great angler, the StreamDance GLX seems to do everything well. It is one of the lightest rods tested in terms of swing weight and its progressively softer tip gives the rod a wonderful feel and terrific accuracy.

The GLX rods have always been one of our top performing rods, but we were a little surprised when the StreamDance GLX came in ahead of the new NRX in our standings. The key for the StreamDance was its lighter weight, better accuracy and feel at short distance. At mid-range it is as solid and as accurate as anything with a top score of 20. This rod has great power, and at long range it was nearly as good as the very best with only the NRX, Z-Axis and Zenith edging it out. This rod has the power to do everything well, but also good sensitivity and accuracy to fish well in close.

The craftsmanship is excellent. The finish is a pleasing non-glare olive color with matching olive wraps. I like the unbreakable recoil guides, and especially like the light and flexible nickel/titanium one-foot guides. These help give the tip such a light, wonderful feel. Hardy's Zenith uses the same guides and I cannot understand why more manufacturers don't go to them on their best rods other than the fact that they are more expensive and more difficult to wrap. The uplocking seat is an unusual offset oval design, anodized an olive brown to match the rod, with an attractive buckeye burl wood insert. The handle is a pleasing western style grip with high quality cork.

Loomis has changed their warranty policy, and it’s not the great deal it once was. They still have the expeditor service, but it’s now $100 to get a totally new rod in just a few days. If the rods breaks, and you don’t think it was your fault, Loomis will replace it totally for free under their lifetime warranty policy if they determine that it broke due to a defect in the rod.

George’ casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet: 18 out of 20
This is a fairly stiff rod and at the shortest distances it was not quite as accurate as the best rods. I did like the progressively softer tip, which gave it a nice feel in my hand.

Performance at 45 feet: 20 points out of 20
Just the right blend of power and feel at mid–range. Nice tight loops were easy to form and control. This rod tracked extremely well and it was easy to get superb accuracy with delicate presentations.

Performance at 70 feet: 19 points out of 20
A solid performance like we had expected. This rod is nice and light with tons of usable power. Loop control was excellent as was the accuracy, but not quite up to the standards set by the NRX, Z-Axis and the Hardy Zenith. This rod has a lot of reserve power on tap for throwing streamers or weighted nymphs.

Nymph Rig Performance: 18 points out of 20
This is a great all around rod if you do a lot of nymph fishing as well as dry fly fishing. It was very responsive, and effortless when casting our nymph rig into a strong breeze. With it’s light swing weight, and lightning responsiveness, it will be a pleasure to fish nymphs all day using high stick, short line techniques.

#3 Winston BIIIx 9'#5, 4pc.  $755.00

We were excited when we had an opportunity to cast all the BIIIx rods on our lawn here this fall. There was no question that these rods were lighter and cast better than the older BIIx versions. We liked the BIIx with their lightweight boron butt sections but we felt that the tips were just a bit too soft and sloppy.

After a few casts with the new BIIIx rods, we were all excited. Wow – these are some of the best performing new rods we had seen to date. We were thinking this might be our new 5-weight winner! As it turns out, it was not to be, but the BIIIx is a dramatic improvement over the older BIIx and definitely one of the very finest dry fly 5- weight rods we’ve seen on the market.

The BIIIx rods still utilize a boron in the butt section, but they switched to a new 3rd generation Boron composite that makes the butt section even lighter! The light butt section is a big factor in maintaining the light overall weight and feel of this rod but Woody Woodard and the Winston design team made some changes and tweaks to give the rod a stronger mid-section and also a more powerful tip - welcome changes that we felt were needed from the older BIIx design. Veteran designer and rod builder Annette McLean refined all these changes in the manufacturing process. Prototypes of the new BIIIx rods were sent or given to a number of exceptional casters and anglers, who then shared their thoughts to the design team, and some final tweaks were made before the final BIIIx rods rolled off the manufacturing line.  This is the process in which great rods are built - no one gets it perfect on their first draft.

These changes made all the difference in the world. Now we have a rod that is pleasingly light in the hand and much more accurate to cast than the old BIIx. The craftsmanship is terrific and this is one of the most beautiful rods we have ever seen! In the sunlight, its emerald green color is simply magnificent. The cork Winston uses in their handles is as good as you’ll find, with their popular cigar grip for the smaller rods and a half wells grip on rods from 7 on up through 10. You have the choice of a feather light anodized aluminum up locking reel seat or a gorgeous nickel/silver up locking seat with a fancy Birdseye maple insert. Our 9 foot #5 had a single stripping guide and all the rest standard chrome snake guides. The wraps and finish coatings are superb, and each rod has its own unique serial number. Winston gives you one of the best-looking graphite rod case in the business, in dark green graphite with contrasting gold Winston graphics and cap.

George’s casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet: 20 points out of 20
In big letters my notes read: Light and Just Right! That just about sums it up. This rod has a wonderful feel in my hand, loads perfectly, and with its very light swing weight it is a delightful rod for fishing at shorter distances. With better balance and the slightly stiffer tip, it was far more accurate than the older BIIx. If you love fishing dry flies at short to medium distances like I do, you are going to love this rod!

Performance at 45 feet: 20 points out of 20
Another perfect performance, and an absolute delight to cast and fish at this range. It was easy to maintain tight loops and the accuracy was excellent. The #5 GPX loaded this rod well, but I think a good caster could back off to a more standard line like the S.A. trout taper and still get great accuracy and with an even better presentation. Like the best rods, I have that certain sense of feel with this rod that allows me to place the fly right where I want it.

Performance at 70 feet: 18 points out of 20
The overall power, which loaded the rod perfectly at shorter distances is not quite enough to match the more powerful NRX, Z-Axis and the Hardy Zenith, all of which threw tighter loops and posted a more solid performance at long distance. The BIIIx required a harder double haul than the other rods at this distance and the accuracy suffered somewhat. In a direct comparison to the NRX, Z-Axis, and Zenith there was no question that they were all better at long range.

Nymph Rig Performance: 16 points out of 20
With the lack of overall power the best rods had, I had to work a lot harder to push the nymph rig into the wind. The lack of guts would put a damper on throwing a lot of weight with this rod. Mending at longer distances would also be a chore without a double tapered line. The light overall weight was nice, and this rod would be a lot of fun fishing nymphs at short distances, especially with light tippets.

#2 Sage Z-Axis 9'#5, 4pc.  $695.00

This rod won our first 5-weight shootout, and it turned in an impressive performance this time as well, posting two perfect 20 performance scores at 45 and 70 feet. Sometimes you run into a rod that just seems to have that perfect balance and feel, and is able to do everything well. Over the past few years, this has been the Z-Axis. Sage certainly came up with a winner with this rod, and it has delighted a lot of anglers!

Jerry Siem at Sage designed this rod using their computerized casting analyzer to help him examine the essential components of a cast – the symmetry, arc, smoothness and speed. New, lighter weight G5 graphite gave this rod a very light swing weight, one of the best in our test. The small snake guides on the tip sections helped too, by eliminating line slap and improving performance. Evidently, Jerry Siem came to the same conclusions as Tom Morgan, who is convinced that smaller guides allow the rod to cast more smoothly, by eliminating line slap and increasing the ability of the rod to shoot line more smoothly.

In our testing process it became apparent that the very best rods are separated only by very minor differences, and often very good anglers and casters are going to prefer one rod over another for a variety of reasons. In the end it all comes down to performance, and the Z-Axis is a very solid performer, especially at the middle and longer distances. It’s not just the amount of power, but also how the power is applied throughout the cast. The Z-Axis is one of the smoothest casting rods that you’ll lay your hands on. It just felt totally solid at all distances with the line tracking perfectly throughout the casting stroke. We have also found this rod to be as great a rod for beginners as it is for experts. Rods that cast this well at all distances allow beginners to advance rapidly to becoming better anglers. We've found that accurate casting and good presentations are the key to catching more and bigger fish and to becoming a better angler.

Craftsmanship is superb. Sage has always had the nicest feeling handles, best cork and finest reel seats in the business for years. It’s hard to improve on their up locking nickel silver hardware and beautifully finished walnut wood spacer. The Z-Axis is a handsome rod, with a pleasant deep metallic olive color. Wraps are a complimentary olive with tasteful gold and black contrasting trim wraps on the butt section and at the bottom of each section. One stripping guide is used and the rest are hard chrome snake guides, with the guides getting progressively smaller on the tip sections.

George’s casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet: 18 points out of 20
The rod loads perfectly, but just doesn’t seem to give me the same kind of accuracy or feel as the BIIIx or Hardy Zenith. The very light swing weight does make it pleasant to fish drys all day, especially when I'm doing a lot of false casting. The Z-Axis casts well off the tip, with very little effort, making it a pleasant rod to fish in close.

Performance at 45 feet: 20 points out of 20
In our testing, I kept the Z-Axis handy for any other rod comparisons, since it was so totally solid at this distance. Just great control and accuracy cast after cast. This is also one of the smoothest rods I’ve ever cast, and it is difficult to improve on the way it tracks and feels at 45 feet.

Performance at 70 feet: 20 points out of 20
Another perfect performance at long range. Totally solid is the feeling I get from this rod, and I can count on very consistent accuracy from one cast to another. Loads perfectly at this distance and forms very nice tight loops with ease. Like the StreamDance GLX, there is still plenty of reserve power on tap. This rod will drill it out past 100 feet with ease.

Nymph Rig Performance: 19 points out of 20
Smooth and solid as it was in the longer distance performance categories. Not a 20, but close. This rod has the ability to slice into a hard breeze throwing all kinds of wind resistant nymphs, indicators and even lead. I just get the feeling that I know just what the rod is going to do, and put the nymph right where I want it with no surprises.

#1 Hardy Zenith 9'#5, 4pc.  $645.00

OUR WINNER! In our last 5-weight shoot, it was just by a nose. This time it wasn’t even close! The Zenith surprised us all when it swept every single performance category, blowing everyone else away! Hardy has produced some good fly rods in the past, but nothing that we have seen would really challenge the best American fly rods until now.

What turned the tables was Hardy's ability to bring together a good team of rod designers and a new material from 3M here in the USA that was initially designed for the aerospace industry. Howard Croston, the leader of the design team, is a superb angler and caster, with whom I’ve fished with here in the US. He has been a member of the winning British World Fly Fishing Team, and is well known as one of the best Fly Casting Champions in Europe. The rest of his team included Alastair Dandee, John Shaner, and Jim Murphy – an American angler and great rod designer I’ve known since his days with Redington Rods. These are the kind of guys that know fly fishing and know fly rods, and this is a big part of what it takes to come up with something that is truly special.

The other component is new materials and new technology. Hardy came up with a material they have trademarked as "Sintrix" for these new Hardy rods, which have proven to be beautifully balanced, very light in weight with crisp, clean actions. In conjunction with 3M, Hardy developed Sintrix, which is carbon fiber held together with tiny silica nano spheres incorporated into the new resin system.  The materials development team charged with developing Sintrix are shared with Hardy’s sister company, Hardy Advanced Composites. This Hardy team of aerospace engineers, led by Chris Bond, developed a unique matrix that was able to fully realize the potential of the new 3M resin.

With this new 3M technology an even distribution of the nano spheres through the resin can be achieved, providing an unsurpassed equality of strength throughout the blank. As a second advantage, the nano spheres resist compression better than any known material. The end result is Hardy’s ability to produce a rod that up to 30% lighter and 60% stronger than previous rods made with graphite and more typical epoxy resin systems. Bending strength is vastly improved. Hardy claims that their Sintrix rods have also proven to take a lot more abuse than normal graphite rods, both in the lab and under actual fishing conditions, a lot of which was done in Florida. Not only will these new rods bend further without damage, but they will also take incidental impacts (like flies and split shot slamming into the rod) far better than any conventional rod design - all good news to any angler!

See what Howard Croston and Andy Mill have to say about Sintrix.

Having a wonderful new lightweight material to work with is just part of the story. What the design team has done with it has given us one of the finest all around #5 line fly rods we’ve ever cast! By being able to use less material to build a rod with the same amount of power, they have produced a much lighter yet stronger rod. More importantly, they have given us a rod that has just the right amount of power for a 5-weight rod and that special feel in your hand that gives you confidence to put the fly exactly where you want it with a minimum amount of effort. It is one thing to build a rod that will perform well at long ranges like the TCX, but a far different thing to build a rod that will perform exceptionally well at all distances. As incredible as it may sound, this is exactly what Hardy has done with the 9 foot #5 line Zenith.

Craftsmanship is excellent as we’ve always expected with Hardy rods. The blank is a medium gray color with darker gray wraps. The wraps and coatings are top notch, as you would expect. One conventional stripping guide is used and the rest are the very light and unbreakable nickel/titanium one-foot guides, but smaller on average than on the NRX or StreamDance. The up locking reel seat is a very light and attractive anodized aluminum design with one sliding and two locking rings. A silver butt cap with the Hardy insignia is a nice touch. The handle is a comfortable western style grip much like the Z-Axis with the finest quality cork you’ll find.

George’s casting notes:

Performance at 25 feet: 20 points out of 20
This rod is very, very light and has a pleasant feel in my hand. This rod has a nice flexible tip that gives terrific accuracy. Casting off the tip of this rod just requires a flick of the wrist at shot distances – a wonderful performance. This rod has just slightly more power than the BIIIx but loads perfectly with the #5 GPX line in close.

Performance at 45 feet: 20 points out of 20
A real pleasure to cast at this distance and deadly accurate. Now I can really feel the light weight of this rod but it still has just the right amount of power, and forms effortless tight loops. Feels just about as solid at this range as the Z-Axis. Even though they are very close, I’d give the edge to the Zenith.

Performance at 70 feet: 20 points out of 20
This rod was so light that at first it didn’t seem to be as solid or accurate as the Z-Axis or NRX when casting indoors. Then we went outside and did some long range casting on the lawn, and I realized all my reservations were bunk! The Zenith not only had great power at long range, but the accuracy was marginally better than I was getting with the Z-Axis or NRX. I’d call the performance a 20+!

Nymph Rig Performance: 20 points out of 20
I just couldn’t believe the smooth casting performance I was getting with the wind resistant nymph rig. There was no question that The Zenith was able to throw and control it as well or better than any rod we tested. The extreme light weight will make this a joy to use fishing nymphs, and the extremely quick reaction time will allow a quicker hook set than with other rods. This Zenith looks to me to be an outstanding nymph fishing rod and perhaps

the best we’ve ever tested.

Another winner we didn’t test:

Tom Morgan Rodsmiths 8’ 6” #5, 2-pc. $1,345.00

This year we tried to limit our shootout to only 9 #5 foot 4-pc. rods, and also only the best all around 5-weights. This dropped out many of the softer action #5 line rods that are such good rods for shorter distance but don’t perform that well at longer distances. In doing so we had to eliminate one of our favorite rods, and one of the very finest #5 line rods ever built, a rod that finished a strong 3rd place in our original 5-weight shootout. We had one of these Tom Morgan rods on hand when we did our casting, and just for fun we decided to see how it would stack up against the best rods we tested this year, especially at the shorter distances.

Just picking up the rod, I knew what the answer would be. It was so light and responsive in my hand, and had the same wonderful feel that I remember well when I called this rod “the ultimate short-range tool”. At twenty-five feet this rod felt as good or better than anything in our shootout. Its two-piece design gave it a very light swing weight, even lighter than the Hardy Zenith. This is a much softer rod than the Zenith, with a very soft tip and mid-section that made it easy to get very delicate and accurate presentations, even using a GPX line. From our previous test we know that a more standard Trout Taper worked better on this rod, especially at longer distances.

At forty-five feet, it still would have probably rated close to a 20 but now the GPX line was loading it a little too heavily. Just a couple of casts were all I needed to tell that even at 45 feet, this is still one of the sweetest rods I’ve ever cast.

This is one of the most gorgeous rods you have ever laid eyes on. The overall craftsmanship is a 10+. Gerri Carlson, (Tom's better half), has done an incredible job finishing these rods.  Her keen eye, attention to detail, and artistic talents are amazing in everything she does, and this obviously shows through with her passion for rod making.  These rods cast just as well as they look. Tom's rod design philosophy is about creating sweet rods, and those who own one will surely agree he is nothing short of genius. The only downside is the price, the difficulty of traveling with a two piece rod, and the availability. Tom Morgan Rod Smiths make less than 100 of these graphite rods a year, so if you want one, you are faced with a 2-3 year waiting list. But the long wait will be worth it.

We hope you have enjoyed our 2011 5-weight shootout!

If you are in the market for a new rod, reel or other flies, and tackle, we would like to have your business!  With your support, we can continue to give you more shootouts and comparisons on tackle and equipment in the future.  Be sure to e-mail us your comments as we'd like to hear from you.

                                                        George Anderson