Thursday, July 11, 2013

Sage TCR 490-4. The "chilli pepper" workhorse.

This is a rebuild of one of my favorite Sage rods of all time both for casting and big river fishing. The "chilly pepper" colored Sage TCR.

Very powerful and sensitive 4wt., this is probably one of the sweetest fast action rod I've seen during the years. It's easier to cast than most people think once you learn how to load the sensitive tip properly.
Believe it or not this thing is a fishing rod. I've landed a two kilo rainbow last season with it on 7X in Slovenia. Sink tips and streamers, indicators and nymphs, they're all handled with ease. I have to admit that I was pretty damn stoked on the One 490-4 and Circa 589-4 this year too.

Single hand spey casts are at home especially if you have the right line on. The old classic TT line is still the best line for this rod (wf4), but I carry many other lines with me for this rod including an Opti Stream wf4 wich is a deadly line for quick casts with one or no backcast. This thing shoots like crazy every time. For me, the TCR it's still the real deal when it comes to ultrafast action fly rods. Best of all, loops come tight as hell out of this stick. Of course, a proper hand is required too :)

Here are some pictures of my refinished Sage TCR rod. It's hard not to love the colours on this rod. Some sunglasses wouldn't hurt when looking at these pictures :)












Friday, July 5, 2013

L.Kenney special

Just before my fishing trip to Norway of last week I managed to finish this very special Larry Kenney build for a friend in the US that was supposed to take this rod into his smallmouth bass fishing adventure.

I didn't get to cast the rod but I'm sure this rod is a winner. This is a hard to find blank. The beautiful "latte" color is signature of master fiberglass rodbuilder, Larry Kenney, co-founder of Scott fly rods in the late 60's.

Long story short.."Bronzeback" was born.