The number one thing I heard about this stick was the name. The One.
Oh good gawd, seriously. Is it thing used by cast members of the Matrix Trilogy? Come on!
After casting it for a solid week, I could give a rip. Call it monkey poo, call it whatever, this is one hell of a fly rod.
On my trip to the holy land of the Skeena system this past September, I put this rod to the test. Hour after hour after hour I changed lines, changed sink tips, rigged up different flies of different weights and it didnt matter, it handled everything.
I am of the opinion that if you're going to fork out the cheddar for one of these sticks, it better be able to do a little bit more than one adaptation of the spey game.
This "one" does.
Here are my top 6 reasons why I dug this fly rod.
1. As stated before, it threw everything with ease. The 12'6 8wt that I had the chance to play with threw drylines and skagit style lines pretty damn well. Scandi with a polyleader or a skagit head with 12ft of T-14....no matter it just goes.
2. It's lite and crisp. Load it up and let it rip and watch what it does to the running line in your hands. It goes bye bye.
3. Sage's warranty is great. You drop the dough, know that they back up their product
4. Fast but progressive action. Casting just the head or a pile of line, the stick loads it up.
5. It's offered in 3 different handle styles. If you spey cast, you have your favorite. At least there's options here
6. After 5 straight days of spey casting, I wasnt worn out. I have a few other rods that I love, but can feel it after a single day out. This "one", naaaa so much.
What would I change if I was Sage----?
I thought a long time about this. The technology is well beyond my knowledge base, so I cant attest to that.
The one thing that I believe Sage has to be careful is with it's price. The march of the industry continues to push the price points up. At some point, there will be a tipping point where customer base will say no and move on to other options.
With that said, I have zero hesitation saying that if you have the means, then get this rod in your hands and make it an option when you're buying your next spey rod. If I had a stamp of approval, this double handed rod would certainly have it.
Check out Sage's complete lineup of One Double Handed spey rods by clicking HERE
Happy casting and catching!
