hardy zephrus 8' 6 4wt

The perfect line: SA Amplitude Smooth Infinity in WF-4-F, Performance at 25 feet: 20 points out of 20. 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. Tell us what you think - opens in new window or tab. 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. The uplocking skeleton reel seat is silver anodized aluminum, with one good-sized locking ring and sliding band, similar to the Avantt. The nice soft tip allows me to cast off the tip of the rod with a flick of my wrist. Performance at 40 feet: 19.3 points out of 20. Not so good in close. Both were perfect at 40 feet, and then the Zephrus was better at 60 feet. Quality of the cork was excellent with a stack of thinner rings. Rods are repaired, not replaced except for broken sections. This year, as is the norm in the industry, all of the rods tested are 4 piece rods. Accuracy isnt quite as good as the strongest rods, but Im surprised how well it hangs in there. At $650 I expected it to do better. Feels good in my hand, and Im able to cast well off the tip. Light Tippet Protection 20 points available. The action is medium fast not as fast as the Pure but still feels very nice in my hand and produced some respectable performance scores. When Im fishing dry flies Ill use a 12-foot leader most of the time as this keeps the fly line farther away from the fish, minimizing the number of fish you spook while casting. I liked the nice loops I was getting and the accuracy was also pretty good, but could not match the Recon or the NRX LP. We set out three sets of paper plates as targets, with plenty of distance between each casting line so that no one was getting tangled up. And since we are in Montana, there is no sales tax.Once you get your new rod or outfit, do some casting on the lawn, and if you feel it is not just what you want, (and has not been fished), well allow you to return it to us for a full refund, less the shipping charges. $50 handing fee. The result is often that the cheap outfit is mothballed, sold on e-bay or handed down to one of the kids. Since it is a lot shorter than my preferred 8 foot #4, it ran up some high scores in both overall weight and swing weight. With your new rod they include a FedEx call tag so that it does not cost you anything to return your broken rod. These are very light, and will flex but never break. Line speed This rod is finished in a dark green color with darker green wraps, trimmed in silver on the butt. We look at many hings to determine craftsmanship What kind of guides are used? This makes for a very comfortable grip that improves casting at longer distances. Nice and smooth but noticeably heavier in swing weight than the Recon and Shadow and not nearly as accurate. Finally, we trace the outline of the bend of the rod, first in pencil and then in different colored sharpies. Now Im getting nice tight loops and I can punch it hard into the breeze. This was the best distance for me with the Zone. The heavy swing weight and stiffer tip gave me very little feel. So many aspects go into blank performance that its hard to single out one of them. It was a little heavier than the best rods in both overall weight and swing weight but part of this can be attributed to it being a 9 foot rod, while most other rods in our 4-weight Shootout are 6 inches to a foot shorter. This one is simple The least expensive rods get the highest points. The heavy swing weight is perhaps the biggest reason the SKY didnt perform so well. As they are reviewing 5wt rods in this article they do not talk about why it is their favourite 4wt rod. One thing that killed its performance scores was the very heavy swing weight. The epoxy coatings are painstakingly done and close to perfect. Since this is a softer rod than the Zephrus, we settled on using the lighter Trout line but this rod had the power to handle the heavier Infinity nearly as well. For our 4-weight Shootout, once again we have added anotherperformance category Light Tippet Protection. The rod has a cork reel insert and pays homage to old-fashioned cane rods. I look for rods that feel totally solid and track well. This is a light rod in swing weight almost as good as the Zephrus. One SiC style stripping guide is used as well as a hook keeper. Their choices sometimes differ from mine, but we are almost always in general agreement on the top 4-6 rods in the Shootout. Slower action rods with a heavy swing weight are not much fun to cast and as youll see the performance figures for this rod are dismal. There is a lot to like about the SKY though, and foremost is its appearance. As in our past Shootouts, it is important to keep everything apples to apples in an effort to eliminate the variables that will have an effect on the scores. The serial number of the rod is inscribed on the ferrule of each section a nice touch. Even with the lighter Trout line, it is hard to maintain good loops and get any kind of decent accuracy. I am in the market for a 8'6" 4wt to augment my freshwater rod selection. The feel was also superb, giving me confidence in the direction of my cast. Nice tight loops and good control. The swing weight was fairly light, but not quite as good as either the Hardy rods or the Orvis rods. If you feel your rod has broken because of a defect, you pay to send the rod to their warranty dept. Surprisingly, even using this lower modulus graphite that should be heavier, the overall weight and swing weight are very good compared to our other top 4-weight rods. For those of you wondering if the Hardy Zephrus is different from its predecessor, the Hardy Zenith: It is. If you have something about the right size and color, you can often force-feed a selective fish by making repeated accurate and delicate presentations that are right in the fishs window. Youll find these on our Yellowstone Angler home page atyellowstoneangler.com.If your favorite local shop stocks the rods you are interested in, by all means visit them, try a few rods and purchase an outfit from them. Now Im getting nice tight loops, and the rod tracks very well with better feel and accuracy. Inexpensive rods built in both Korea and China are surprisingly good. The quality of epoxy coatings on the guide wraps was excellent and almost the equal of the T&T rods. I was tempted to give it a perfect score for craftsmanship. That gives it a perfect score of 10 along with the Aetos. A hook keeper is used along with a single chrome SiC stripping guide. Performance at 25 feet: 19.2 points out of 20. It is the relationship of the club head weight to the shaft when you wiggle the club in your hands. A great 4-weight rod is the best tool Ive found to meet these demands. Now Im getting a respectable performance that matches the Zone and DXF. Id even go so far as to say the Zephrus Ultralite deserves to be in the conversation for best fly rod on the planet, alongside rods like the Sage X, Orvis Helios 3, Loomis Asquith and NRX-LP, Scott Radian, and Winston Boron IIIx. Once again we give you a Performance Only chart, which zeros in on the very best performing rods, which is the real meat of our Shootout. Nothing beats this rod at 40 feet. The DXF and Imperial were much better. Better now, with more line in the air, but the G series was still a little better in both feel and accuracy. This is one of the best rods at long range. The added weight and relative stiffness over the other best rods hurt many of its scores. Feel is good and the rod is very light in hand. Overall weight is certainly a factor, lighter being better, but swing weight is far more important. One SiC style stripping guide is used as well as a hook keeper. And while each rod has its own personality, two things remained consistent throughout the new Ultralite family: unfair accuracy and strikingly smooth casting. Hardy ZEPHRUS 8'6" #4 $679.00 George's Comments: Hardy has given us another magical rod that produced an absolutely stunning performance to blow away all the contenders. Connect with him on Twitter/Instagram, @Spencer_Durrant. I know highly skilled anglers that prefer the 8'0" and 8'6" 4wt Jet over the higher priced Zephrus due to the slightly slower action and more of a mid-flex feel. The epoxy coatings on the wraps were not so good too heavy and about like what we saw on the X. I liked the use of alignment dots. The relatively heavy swing weight and stiffness are not giving me much feel, and the accuracy in close is not very good. I liked the full wells cork handle better than the odd grip on the Reaper X. Also, the Galvan Torque reels are basically maintenance free, using a rulon bushing that requires no lubrication. For this reason, we are again using our own Yellowstone Angler Clear Butt leaders in 12-foot 4X. We like the lower price, and you cant expect the same kind of performance as the $845 Avantt which uses a more expensive, higher modulus graphite. Winston PURE 8 #4 $850.00. One of the things I like the most is that they have a large drag knob and a very wide range of drag adjustment. Now that we have dropped our Perfect 4 category, this category gives you our opinions on the best rods and how they stack up. Only one way to find out cast and compare them all. Rodis repaired, or sections replaced. Below are all the 4-weight rods in the order they finished. A sliding band and one easy to grip locking ring are used. The quality of the cork is superb. The stiffness hurt in close but this is one of the very best performing rods at long range. Availability: In-Store Only. R.L. #8. 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. . Performance at 60 feet: 8.8 points out of 10. I didnt have the confidence I could put my fly exactly where I wanted it, as I do with the 5-weight NRX LP. Marc Barnwell replied on Sat, 01/12/2019 - 20:06 Permalink. The final change in our performance categories is putting a lower value of 10 points on the longest distance 60 feet. The light swing weight made casting effortless, and Im getting excellent accuracy combined with delicate presentations. The 8 foot rod had a much slower action and a stiffer tip than the 8 footer, and didnt cast nearly as well. Very little feel or accuracy. Hardy uses a comfortable half wells, western style handle and the quality of the cork is superb. To get a 10, repair charges had to be $35 or less with a quick turn around time of less than two weeks. The handle is Winstons familiar cigar grip, a half wells with a little flare on the bottom end to accept the uplocking seat. My son, Jamie is also a fanatical fly fisherman and a great caster. For guides, there is a hook keeper just above the handle, and then one SiC stripping guide followed by hard chrome snake guides. Part of the light swing weight can be attributed to the use of the superb REC nickel/titanium single-foot guides. The craftsmanship is second to none and it earns a perfect score along with the Winston Pure and T&T Avantt. It also lost a huge number of points in the price and warranty categories that it couldnt pick up in the casting distance performance categories. It is comfortable to cast all day and versatile enough to throw anything from small dries to heavier nymphs or small streamers. Nickel silver is used for the winding check and rear grip check as well as the hardware on the reel seat, which is a sliding band and one wide locking ring. Matches the Aeteos here, but still nothing to get excited about. The blank itself is unsanded natural graphite gray, much like the Scott rods, leaving the tape marks visible. First, the Zephrus Ultralite's blank is surprisingly strong, stiff and stable given its weight. Rods are repaired or sections replaced. The wraps are done in a dark brown with some silver trim on the butt section as well as in the center of each guide foot wrap, that look nice. Scott feels that this gives the rod a smoother one-piece type action, and I agree as this is a very smooth casting rod that gives me a lot of feel at short to mid distances. From 25 to the 40-foot mark, these lines were just magical, and stretching the distance out to 60 feet was easier than with a standard belly line. Its slower action means slower line speed, but thats relative to the norm in todays industry. The tips on the faster rods bend more. Tippet materials are getting stronger every year, and today we end up fishing 6x, 6.5X, and 7x fluorocarbon a lot of the time, trying to get that perfect drift to entice a big fish to sip in a fly. The skeleton uplocking seat is one of the most unusual Ive seen. The accuracy was good but not as good as the DXF or all of the best rods. Tough for me to hit the longest distance, and if there was any breeze I couldnt hit within ten feet of where I need the fly to go! The single uplocking seat is gray anodized aluminum, and doesnt use a spacer, but does have some trick looking cutouts on each side. An attractive X-pattern graphite wrap is used on the butt, behind the logo. Dont make this mistake. Whats impossible to notice until you actually fish the rod, though, is its backbone. If you buy this rod, you need to put a WF-5-F line on it. The epoxy coatings were a bit too heavy though, not nearly as nice as what we see on the Hardy rods. The medium fast action of the Recon is very similar to the Helios 3F and this is one reason it performs so well. The uplocking skeleton seat is anodized in a dark gray to complement the blank with a beautiful piece of black ash burl for the insert. Casting and rating the performance of rods at the different distances is the real meat of our Shootouts. Performance at 40 feet: 17.5 points out of 20. Short to mid-range seem to be the best distances for the DXF. For the price, it cant be beat. It often takes a little time for the rod to settle down from all this movement so we do this procedure 4-6 times and then take the average weight we are getting from the scale. I still had to give the edge to the Zephrus and Pure. Its somewhat embarrassing for a $1000 rod to finish below one that costs only $198.00, but there are some good reasons for this. It does feel very comfortable to me when Im casting it. The black anodized double unlocking skeleton seat has two larger rings that are very easy to grip and tighten. I have the utmost confidence in using this rod with very light tippets to fool large spring creek trout. At least it is sanded to a smooth finish initially. A 3-weight fly rod can be great fun on windless days, but those days seem to be rare. The color of the blank is an olive green that Orvis calls shadow green. The wraps are brown and the epoxy coatings are OK but a little heavy and not nearly as well done as on the 3F. Casting head to head, the Zephrus, Pure and Helios 3D are all a lot better. For sure, one of the worst in our Shootout. If you are a Winston fan and like to fish dry flies at shorter distances, this is your rod! The Recon was much better. The one thing that I have never liked much on the Reaper is the shape of the handle. Our advice is that if you feel one of the top rated, expensive rods works best for you, go for it. Logan and Francis have worked here for many years and are both great casters and anglers. Often takes 4-6 weeks. TheHardy SHADOWat $349.95 takes the crown as our best mid-priced rod with an exceptional performance that put it into a tie for 4thplace overall with theT&T AVANTT. Performance at 25 feet: 19.0 points out of 20. However at long range, it had no guts, and was one of the worst in our Shootout. No handling fee. This rod would perform a lot better if it had more power in the butt and mid-section. The perfect line: SA Amplitude Smooth Infinity in WF-4-F, Performance at 25 feet: 20 points out of 20. And a look at the deflection chart confirms this. Rods that have good power and backbone help me fire my cast accurately. I dont know how Orvis pulls this off, but we like the results. We decided it was time for another 4-weight Shootout, since a great 4-weight rod is hard to beat for the angler that loves to fish smaller dry flies. . The reel seat is a simple gray anodized double uplocking, solid aluminum seat with sliding band. An attractive X-pattern graphite wrap is used behind the logo, just above the cork handle. Sage promotes the MOD as a rod that will deliver delicate presentations with pinpoint accuracy. The guides start with a single SiC stripping guide followed with fairly large diameter but thin wire hard chrome snake guides. When I first picked the rod up, the overall weight was good but then when I wiggled the rod in my hand, I could see that the swing weight was heavier than almost all of the other 4-weight rods. I just cant push it at all and have to slow down my casting stroke to get any decent accuracy. In Livingston we usually have plenty of wind, so we had to wait until we got some fairly calm days, to do the casting. It is also a stiff rod almost as stiff as the SKY and IMX Pro. This same Expeditor service applies to the Asquith but the fee is $275 for 2ndday air. The reel seat is a gray anodized skeleton seat with a band and large single ring that is easy to grip and tighten securely. If Fenwick determines that there was a defect, the rod will be repaired or replaced at no charge. Better as I get more line in the air, but still not nearly as good as the NRX LP or the DXF. Because of the cost, we downgraded the Asquith to 7 points. If you look at the best performing rods in general, they have stiffer butt and midsections and softer tips. by Spencer Durrant - Monday, Oct 9th, 2017. The wraps are all in blue, and the epoxy coatings are all extremely well done. What gives? #28. The rest of the guides are hard chrome snake guides with nice, small diameter wire snake guides on the upper two sections. To read their comments, simply click on their photo above at the beginning of our Shootout. If you find yourself fishing more hoppers and larger dries, you will like this rod as it will really fire them in there with authority. Some anglers may not be, though. Francis Comments:Its the Hardy Zephrus for the win! 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. Rods are repaired, not replaced, except for broken sections. But if you look at just the three distance performance scores, it would have finished below the top dozen rods!
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