When I go to Belize in November I’ll be bringing a couple of loaner rods along. I’m going to be sporting a rod that has been talked about more than any other in the interviews I’ve done… the Sage Xi3. I’ll be sporting a 7 and a 10, courtesy of Sage. I have to send them back when I return, but I figure I’ll get around that by just never coming back.
My first rod was a 4 piece pack rod from South Bend… fiberglass, I believe, and very old (I found it in my parent’s garage). I used that for a year and a half or so before I got my first “modern” rod… a Sage RPL+ 9′ 5 wt… a great nymphing stick for the cold waters coming off of the sides of Mount Shasta in Northern California.
Later, I was given a 7 wt. GFL by a guiding client. When that snapped at the cork (it had been around the block a few hundred times) Sage offered me to upgrade for a fee to a 7 wt. RPL. So, I’ve owned three different Sage Rods over the years, currently two out of the 12 rods I have are Sage.
I’m looking forward to getting these rods out on the grass of the school down the street before I take them out to the turtle grass in Belize.
Check out this extensive review of the Sage Xi3 I found on SurfTalk/Stripers On-Line.
The Sage Xi3 7 wt. is the rod of choice of Lori-Ann Murphy, Director of Fishing at El Pescador. So… I’ll be in good company throwing that bit of Sage graphite.
One of these sticks will run you just about $700 bones dollars over at The Fly Shop.
