I like this clip. I also happens I like Patagonia too. While fishing I wear pants from Patagonia and wading boots from Patagonia and every once in a while some other piece of apparel from them as well. I have jackets and shoes from them and am inclined to give most anything they make a shot. I’m a fan of Yvon Chouinard (I did an interview with him which you can read here) and the environmental business ethic I see coming from those guys. Solid work guys. Solid.
At the fly fishing show in Reno I finally got to hold in my hands a reel from Cheeky. I’ve seen these guys pop on the scene and try to make a go of it, and since I have a soft spot for the underdog I was excited to actually see what they were producing. Talking to the Cheeky crew they even offered to get me a reel for Belize to try out.
Sure enough, the Friday before I left it arrived. I decided to put the Mojo 425 on my 8 wt, which I didn’t plan to take before the reel showed up. It ended up being a really wise choice. The 7 wt. line I had for the trip hadn’t been used since Andros and I had forgotten that I had scrapped that line on some limestone and the line was, well, worse for wear. The 8 wt. became the go-to rod for me after the first couple days.
That’s me, working the Mojo
It was this reel that I got the only fish that really took a decent amount of line out on me and from the little I got to fish this reel, I’m cautiously optimistic. I’d need to see it perform a lot longer to really say “this is it,” but initial indications are good. It is a sealed reel, which is a very good sign and would seem to indicate that this reel is not bound to fall apart on you.
I really hope to put one of these through the reel testing that I started pre-marital disruption. I’m told they may send me one come Spring to put through the paces and I hope that happens.
Good luck in the reel game Cheeky. I hope you guys rock it.
The Mojo 425, on the rack, ready for action.
I wish I could tell you all about the massive cuda I caught in Belize with the Redinton Link that I brought down there for that purpose. I really want to tell you all about the cast with that big, flashy popper and steel bite tippet and the brutally violent crushing attack of the 5 foot long barracuda, the wild and insanely strong run, the leaps, the screaming reel… I really, really wish I could tell you about that.
Even better would be to have done that.
Instead, the 9 wt. went out on the boat and came back having been cast at exactly one 4′ cuda that was totally not interested. I wanted to troll for a cuda, but I think that hit the guide’s pride some and he didn’t want to do it. He said it wouldn’t work unless we were by the reef, which I don’t buy at all… not for a second.
The Link is a damn sexy rod and I wanted to give it a workout, a thrashing, to put it through its paces, but, this trip was partly fishing trip and mostly honeymoon and if you are doing it right, on your honeymoon you don’t get a lot of shots at barracuda and I didn’t.
We saw one fish that was maybe the biggest cuda I’ve ever seen just inside the channel up in the park. Man, that thing was massive, but there was no time to prepare for it. We saw it and were on top of it in a matter of seconds. There were other cuda, seen while looking for tarpon, but we didn’t disengage to cast the Link.
I wanted this, but bigger, but I got nuttin instead.
I really wanted to catch a cuda on that rod. I could envision it and I wanted that experience to be etched in my brain, but it just didn’t happen.
Link… I send you back to Redington (it was a loaner) and I hope that you find the fish with some other angler that I failed to provide you.
—
The Sage Response is both what you’d expect from Sage and something unexpected from Sage.
First, the color and feel of the rod are classic Sage. It felt like casting one of the old RPL’s, which is a great rod. The blank is the same color as those classics, the RPL and RPL+, of which I own one of each (7 and 5 respectively). The rod cast well as I searched for both baby and adult tarpon. Maybe too well, as I dropped more than a couple casts right on the heads of tarpon who were really not game for that sort of thing.
I wish I could tell you how well it handled a long fight with a tarpon… but, yeah, the longest I lasted was 2 jumps, which was not so long as I would have liked. I made the casts though. Tomas, my guide, even said my casting was good, which was a good thing to hear and some solace on a day with no landed tarpon.
What you might not expect is that this rod is $395, putting it in “the Bjorn zone” of pricing. The Sage One is one hell of a rod, but you could buy two Responses for that amount to fill the gaps in your arsenal (somehow I still don’t own my own 10 wt.).
It’s a well made rod, you feel the quality in your hand. It’s made in the USA, which is nice and unusual for a $400 rod.
Looking 12 and the fish came at 9. Such is life. Me, casting the Response.
Well done Sage… well done.
I’ll say it was also a nice rod to have between your toes.
I knew this wasn’t going to be a fish-till-you-drop kind of trip. It was my honeymoon and the fishing would be largely incidental. It might not have been the ideal trip for a gear review. That said, I was excited to get my hands on a new rod from Thomas & Thomas for the trip. T&T, as a company, kind of dropped off my radar for a few years. My go-to #5 is actually a T&T I picked up at a retail show about a decade ago, so I actually own a T&T rod. I hadn’t heard much from that camp in ages, so hearing that they were coming out with a new saltwater rod, the TNT, and that folks were pretty excited about it, well, I was intrigued.
I got the rod a bit early for the trip… like, July, for a September trip. It gave me some time to admire the thing. It is clearly a well made rod. The components appear to be high end and it screams “made with care.”
I finally couldn’t wait any longer and took it out on the grass. I liked what I saw.
In Belize, I think this is pretty much an ideal bonefish rod. I got to cast it a bit both on my one day of bonefish hunting and a few times off the dock. It is a sweet stick, responsive and easy to cast.
I don’t know if I’m the guy to break down exactly what made the rod cast well. I know what I like and I liked it. It was smooth and light and it did all I asked of it. The presentations were light, the casts accurate, but then, I’d bet Joan Wulff could make a good presentation with a broomstick (I still think the caster makes the lion’s share of the difference).
It is at a tough price point, about $800, making it one of the most expensive rods out there for bones ($50 more than the NRX from G. Loomis, $70 more than the Sage One, $25 less than an Orvis Helios, $75 less than the Scott S4S, $35 less than the R.L. Winston Boron III-SX). That would probably put it out of range for me, since I’m a cheap bastard, but it’s a nice rod and if you are looking at the top end of the market, I’d include the TNT in the test pool.
Yup. That’s it.
—
Back when I couldn’t make the first FIBFest down in South Andros, I got this lovely “wish you were here” gift.
New… brand new and bright orange.
Since then, this hat has been through a lot with me. A couple of magical years of parenting and a couple of crappy years of marriage, a couple of moves, a new job, a new girlfriend and a new wife.
The hat has been places and seen things.
I love this hat.
Faded, and comfortable
I’m a fan of Skinny Water Culture. They make some of my favorite gear and they are a young company, trying to make it in the big game of apparel.
Did you know they have a blog? They do. Here it is, and some familiar faces in there for me as well. Derek, who went out there from Tahoe, and Chris, who I met in the Miami airport. Awesome.
Nice.
The last piece of gear I needed came today… a 10 wt. Sage Response loaner. I’ve put on the Lamson Lightspeed and a clear int. sink and I have in mind mangrove channels and baby tarpon. I close my eyes and see a 25 pound “baby” emerging from the leafy darkness, frantic casting, the fly landing close, the fish seeing it, charging, opening it’s dumptruck mouth and inhaling the fly, quickly turning away, and then the chaos. Holding the line tight to keep the fish from running into the mangroves and ruining all hope, the fish will leap, high and repeatedly, putting holes into the still water with every jump and crash. The fish will be subdued, maybe not the first, but I’m hoping the 4th or 5th shot might stick. I’m predicting some shrieks from the newly minted Mrs., and I’m expecting awe and if it comes together, I’ll have it, because it is that kind of experience, it inspires and commands awe.
That’s what I have in my mind. That’s what I want to not only experience, but share.
Anticipation
—
I had a birthday recently. I’m still waiting for your gifts to arrive, any tracking numbers to share?
Anyway, I had some gift certs to that little on-line marketplace called Amazon. I get a lot of gear on loan for trips, so I thought it might be interesting to know what I spend my own money on, and why.
The newest member of the family
First, I would normally try to buy from a shop. Getting the Amazon gift certs ruled that out. There are some shops around here, but they don’t sell through Amazon, so that was not where I was going to drop my money. I had $300 to spend and on Amazon there really weren’t that many choices for saltwater appropriate reels.
My options were limited. The reel options were Hatch, Galvan, Ross, Hardy and Lamson, for the most part. When you look at the right size at the right price, the pool was reduced further. Would I like a Hatch or an F1 from Ross or a Nautilus? Yes. Would I have bought one of those if they were $300? Yes. I would also buy a Tibor if it was $300, which they just aren’t. So, confined by price, I looked for value.
I have to say that I know Aaron Adams and Davin Ebanks haves been fans of Lamsons and that did come into play.
I also put a Lamson through reel testing and it passed with flying colors.
It feels a bit like a modern consumer tale. It was vital I was not restricted by where or how I could buy the product. Additionally, I was swayed much more by what I saw through my social network and through non-aligned social media than I was swayed by commercials, ads or any of the industry hype I have a habit of drinking like so much Kool-Aid.
So, that’s the story of my new Lamson Velocity 3.5. This reel is intended to take the place of my TFO 375, which has frozen up, corroded from saltwater exposure and is no longer fit for service. This will be my 7-8 weight bonefishing reel of choice (within my stable of options), until and unless it makes me regret that decision.
Blue is my little girl’s favorite color. Now, just changing the color of some random bit of fly fishing gear does eff-all for how it fishes, but I have to say, I’m kind of intrigued by the Link rod I just got from Redington to demo down in Belize.
At the show I met with Kara who gave me the rundown on all things Redington and she pointed out the Link rods. The Links are a little bit more pricey than Redington gear normally is, and by that I mean it is about half as much as the top rods will run you.
The 9 weight I just got… well… it looks kind of sexy. And, it has some nice blue accents and a really nice look on the blank.
Redington Link
Now, a 9 is a rod with some specific purposes. I’d think baby tarpon, maybe permit and certainly cuda. The bones in Belize are not 9 wt. fish. While in Belize I doubt there will be much/any permit fishing. I have one day with the new wife and a guide and I think that will be spent looking for little bones, little tarpon and cudas. See, this rod could fit in really, really well.
This rod, cosmetically, hits on the high notes.
Paired with the rod will be a new line from Rio, a 9 wt. Bonefish line, to be exact.
Now, how the rod fishes? I don’t know yet. I just got it today and I didn’t have time to get a line on the thing and get it out to cast. I will and I’m looking forward to it.
Now, I didn’t BUY this rod. It is a loaner and I’ll send it back after the trip. That’s the way it goes when I get gear from companies. I don’t get to keep it (although I often wish I could). I feel fortunate to be in a position to demo all this gear and I hope to be a resource for you, the readers, if you have questions about gear or want to know how something fished or how it held up to the elements.
—
