This rod has a slower action than the fast action NRX LP, as well as a stiffer tip. It is a double uplocking, anodized gray seat with an attractive burl insert, but right under where the reel seat fits, they have cut away both the threads and the burl leaving the blank that is covered with composite cork! Below are all the 4-weight rods in the order they finished. The soft tip also earns it one of the best scores in light tippet protection. Im impressed with the guide set up, starting with a hook keeper, then one SiC stripping guide, followed with the best nickel/titanium and flexible single-foot guides as on the Zephrus and Sky. The Recon is a very pleasant rod to cast wonderfully light in hand, and responsive. Douglas uses a dark green anodized double ring uplocking seat, with an attractive brown wood burl insert. Images: Tim Romano and Jeremy Roberts. This is a very pleasant rod to cast, with a medium fast action. The guides start with a hook keeper, and then one relatively small silver SiC stripping guide, followed with hard chrome single-foot guides. When I put this rod in my hand it feels more like a 5-weight than a 4-weight! What is a cheap rod like this doing up here with all the far higher priced rods, many of which cost $700more? The single uplocking seat is gray anodized aluminum, and doesnt use a spacer, but does have some trick looking cutouts on each side. Accuracy is good, just not great. Accuracy is pretty good, heads up matching the Zone and NRX LP. There are matching burgundy wraps on the guides, and the epoxy coatings were very well done. (tie) R.L. Feel is good and the rod is very light in hand. Equal to the IMX Pro but thats about it. When we first saw this new rod from Hardy, we all had two impressions: 1. That said, there is one in my local fly shop and I'm quite taken by it. This is one of the best looking rods in our Shootout. It tracks well and I was getting very nice loops and good control, especially at mid to longer distances. The new $700 offering from Hardy puts itself in the conversation for best fly rod on the market, The future of fly fishing rests in our hands, Fishtamatic: Ditching the SLR for the iPhone, A small ship cruise of Alaska's Inside Passage, Win a Free Permit Trip: Land Permit Numro 1,000, As glaciers retreat, new streams for salmon, More evidence that releasing hatchery-reared native fish is harmful, Patagonia continues fight to protect Bears Ears with interactive film series, Review: Shell 583Wh Portable Power Station, Redington releases new WRANGLER fly rod + combo kit, Rig Up Faster with Loon's New Rigging Foams, Guides Ask for Halt to Trinity River Restoration Efforts. For guides, there is a hook keeper just above the handle, and then one SiC stripping guide followed by hard chrome snake guides. These are very light, and will flex but never break. A 3-weight fly rod can be great fun on windless days, but those days seem to be rare. An attractive X-pattern graphite wrap is used behind the logo, just above the cork handle. The fancy burl wood insert just jumps out at you with its striking color lots of red and orange mixed in very attractive. More manufacturers should use light guides like this to minimize swing weight if they arent using the more expensive nickel-titanium guides. w/ Hardy Reel + Rio Backing & Line. The handle is a western style grip, without much of a swell in the middle but a flare on the lower end to accommodate the uplocking reel seat. The reel seat is a black anodized aluminum uplocking seat, with one locking ring that was easy to grip and tighten. The Zephrus has that perfect balance between power and sensitivity; its easy to control but has the ability to turn it up a level when reaching out to longer distances or when conditions require a bit moreoomph.The softer tip on the Zephrus will protect the lightest tippets. Hardy Zephrus FWS Rod - 8'6" 4wt 4 Piece at Glen's Rods are repaired, not replaced. Overall, the craftsmanship was decent for a rod that is manufactured in Asia, but not nearly as good as what we see in the Recon and H3F that are built in Vermont. Equals the DXF but rods like the Recon and Sky were much better. This is a fast action rod. Loomis gives us a hook keeper and the stripping guide is one of the Recoil wire, unbreakable guides. To read each staff members casting notes and performance finishing order, please click on their photo above. Of these rods built in Korea, the Hardy rods are designed in England, the Douglas rods are designed here in the U.S., the Loop rods are designed in Sweden. 3. Hardy Ultralite LL Fly Rod. This auction is for a lightly used Orvis Trident TL 8'6" 4 weight mid flex 8.0 fly rod. Still, I felt it could be our 4-weight winner until I finished casting the Ultralite heads up with the winner, the Zephrus. The overall craftsmanship is excellent. The wraps are a slightly lighter blue, trimmed with white on the butt section. A sliding band and one easy to grip locking ring are used. The Sage X is light in overall weight, butfarheavier the most in swing weight. Often novices entering the sport of fly-fishing opt for one of the least expensive rods, but weve found that it makes more sense to spend the money on one of the better performing rods, at least one in that mid-price range, that will allow an angler to develop his or her casting skills much more rapidly. Now I can really feel the heavy swing weight. The Hardy Ultralite is a slimmed down version of the Zephrus made for small water fishing and delicate presentations. Well come out with you and give you some help to fine tune your casting stroke, or just help you with the basics. Guides start with a hook keeper and then one SiC stripper, followed with fairly thin diameter black hard chrome snake guides. The color of the blank is a natural graphite gray, and only lightly sanded so you can still see the tape marks, much like the Scott rods. A half wells cork handle is used, but the size is a little small in diameter as I noted. For this 4-weight Shootout, we decided to make the short distance 25 feet, the mid-distance 40 feet, and the longest distance 60 feet. This is a classy reel seat, which is much better looking than some of the anodized aluminum insert seats. The best 4-weights must be able to cast well at longer distances too, and the best rods had excellent loop control and the ability to throw nice tight loops with good accuracy at 60 feet. It is a very smooth rod to cast and was excellent at short and mid-distances, but at the longest distance the Radian, Helios 3F, and Avantt were much better. The epoxy coatings on the guides are top notch. Moreover, if you want to fish with a 4-weight we consider to be the optimal choice, you dont have to spend $850, $900, or $1000, but only $679 for the Hardy Zephrus. This one is simple The least expensive rods get the highest points. Still very doable excellent in fact! With the inexpensive warranties that most manufacturers offer, your new rod is one that will last you for many years. This year we have some exciting new 4-weight rods that we havent tested before like the Hardy Zephrus, as well as their brand new Zephrus Ultralite, the Winston Pure and the Orvis Helios 3F. Alignment dots are placed at the ferrules, which is handy. The Zephrus Ultralite is ultra-light. The quality of epoxy coatings on the guide wraps was excellent and almost the equal of the T&T rods. The stiffness hurt in close but this is one of the very best performing rods at long range. Tiny single-foot guides, very light in hand with the perfect blend of power and feel. This 8 foot Pure is somewhat like the Zephrus in acti0n with a fairly strong butt and mid section and then a nice soft flexible tip. This rod gives me the confidence that I can place the fly just where I want it, and do it with a delicate presentation. At 40 feet you need a rod that is light and pleasant enough to do a lot of false casting, as you will when fishing dry flies, but you shouldnt have to double haul to get the rod to perform and hit this distance. The Ultralite has a proportionally stiffer tip than the Zephrus, and much softer butt and mid section. An oversize tip-top is fitted to match the large guides. But is that high priced rod really $400-$600 better? The very light swing weight confirms this. Sure, the best rods are generally in the higher price bracket, and are usually worth spending the extra dough, even if you have to save up to buy the one you really want. Notably light. 4. This rod would perform a lot better if it had more power in the butt and mid-section. As youll shortly read, our top rated rod, the Hardy Zephrus is $679.00, nearly two hundred dollars less than the next three rods, which are each close to $850.00. I did not find that to be the case. Still not so good with very little feel or accuracy. Weight Category changes that improve the accuracy of the results in our latest 4-weight Shootout. Performance at 25 feet: 19.2 points out of 20. The black anodized double unlocking skeleton seat has two larger rings that are very easy to grip and tighten. I did like the flat, non-glare black finish used on the blank. $75 on recent rods within 10 years, $125 on classic olderrods. (tie) St. Croix IMPERIAL 86 #4 $270.00. Winston says Pure Feel, Pure Presentation and Pure Fun I cant disagree. Now were talking! I think the stiffer tip hurt here. As the name implies, the new Zephrus Ultralite is light. hardy zephrus for sale | eBay On the deflection board, the Zephrus had a stiffer butt and mid section and the tip bent a little more, so it is slightly faster in action than the Shadow. Guides start with a hook keeper, then a single titanium SiC stripping guide, followed with our favorite nickel/titanium snake guides that are flexible but unbreakable. Now the lack of butt power becomes evident and it is hard for me to get any decent accuracy. by Spencer Durrant - Monday, Oct 9th, 2017. The craftsmanship is typical Orvis excellence. The guide wraps are a slightly darker gray, trimmed in orange on the butt. Of course, accuracy is more dependent on the angler than the rod, but a great rod helps. We have learned that we cannot trust manufacturers stated rod weights. What is the Asquith doing way down near the bottom of this Shootout when it won our recent 8-weight Shootout!? Heres a mid-priced rod that put in a good performance across the board. Our reasoning in this Shootout was to pick what we felt were theBEST4-weight rods, regardless of length, and there no question in our minds that the 8 foot Pure is Winstons best 4-weight rod. And while each rod has its own personality, two things remained consistent throughout the new Ultralite family: unfair accuracy and strikingly smooth casting. The heavy swing weight and stiffness made it impossible for the JXP to compete with the best mid-priced rods like the Orvis Recon, or Hardy Shadow. One year warranty on hardware and guides. Performance at 60 feet: 7.0 points out of 10. Single-foot guides, a unique reel seat, and the companys proprietary Sintrix 440 resin combine to create a 95wt rod thats a paltry 2.5oz, while the 99 5wt tips the scales at whopping 2.8oz. If you look at the deflection chart, youll see that the Zehprus has one of the stiffest butt and midsections, yet then it progresses to a nice soft tip. Although we thought that the Winston 8 foot Pure was a fantastic 4-weight, the Nimbus didnt get us too excited. The guides start with a hook keeper, and then one huge stripping guide that looks way too big, followed with thin wire hard chrome snake guides. The nice soft tip allows me to cast off the tip of the rod with a flick of my wrist. We kept the best rod in each category, high priced, medium priced, and inexpensive category handy for comparison. Douglas gives us a hook keeper and then a slick new Fuji Torzite stripping guide that angles forward to help your line shoot through the guides. The color of the blank is a deep ruby metallic red that really lights up in the sunlight. Click on any of the charts above to see more charts.
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hardy zephrus 8' 6 4wt