A number of months ago Sage sent us the X rod to test. And even though the X has been on a number of trips and has caught lots of trout, with this rod it was love at first cast. The X loads easily with very little line outside of the tip, but it also has enough backbone to reach a rising trout that seems just a little out of range. Because of the rod’s flex and recovery rate, it’s adaptable to a variety of angling situations, and excels both on tight casts in small streams and for bombing long casts on bigger water. The new taper delivers greater blank recovery and a crisper tip, allowing anglers to dig deeper into the rod and access more of the lower sections of the blank, shifting power closer to the angler. Decreased lateral and medial movement and vibrations in the blank also result in more accurate and efficient presentations, which refine the synergy between angler, rod, line, and fly. sageflyfish.com
