SAGE ZXL
David Anderson runs some lines
through a new 8'6" 3-weight
Sage’s chief rod designer, Jerry Siem must be a brave man: to a lot of people the SLT’s were a rod that needed no improvements, so like a few others I was a bit surprised when I first heard the SLT was being replaced with the new ZXL.
I had better start by admitting that while I think the 9' #4 SLT is one of the greatest river dry-fly rods ever made and the 8'2" #2 is as sweet as sugar lumps dipped in honey (please bury me with both) the #3 left me a little under- whelmed—it was sweet enough, just a little lacking in punch over 50 feet, and as much as I like fishing at my boot laces, occasionally a longer cast is required and a good graphite 3-weight needs to have both firepower and finesse.
This new ZXL #3 does have both; it can on the one hand be as twiggy as the twiggiest little glass rod, but on the other throw a longish line like a modern graphite cannon.
On the water, going from a little flick cast or short water-haul to a big hit up-stream into a headwind is effortless and not something that needs much thought.
At 8'6" this is a long 3-weight and I consider it to be more of an all-round stream/small river rod than twig, so I tried weight-forward lines on it. After more than a few hours casting in the park I picked the XPS as the best line for it, however, while out on the stream to do the pictures I ended up fishing it with the Scientific Anglers ‘Trout’ taper that was on my Bougle reel at the time. While the line didn’t impress in the park on a windy day, on the water it proved a perfect match for the rod and easily turned over tungsten bead nymphs and indicators on long tippets.
As a final note, for what it’s worth, I think the ZXL is a beautiful looking rod as well, with a rich dark brown blank, even darker brown wraps and a bit of bling-bling gold detail.
There are 10 rods in the new ZXL range starting with a 7'6" #3 and going up to a 9' #6; all are 4-piece and come in an aluminium tube at a retail price of $995.
The only thing missing in my opinion is a replacement for the short-lived SLT 2-weight. Jerry, if you’re reading this, could you please look in to it for me—thanks.