Have any of you cast the new TFO BVK?
- This topic has 21 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated Nov 9, 2010 at 2:26 pm by
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http://www.templeforkflyrods.com/products/rods/bvk-series.html
It looks like a stab at a helios, super light with recoil stripping guides (I don’t understand why more rod companies don’t use these?).
I own a half dozen sages and I am not the type to get pumped up about TFO’s constant rod releases, however this one looks pretty sweet.
I haven’t thrown one yet either but that is a very nice looking rod. Those weights are also very very similar (actually better than) a lot of the high end competitors. For example, both the Scott 9′ 5-weight G2 and the TFO 9′ 5-weight BVK weigh 2.9 ounces. That says a lot about what TFO has going on “under the hood,” because you can’t hide weight. Meanwhile, and this really surprised me, but the Sage TCX 9′ 5-weight weighs 3 and 5/16ths ounces, which in percentage terms is quite a bit more.
Zach
Zach, do you know why more rod companies are not using recoil guides? I would suspect price?
I have a loomis spinning rod with these and it is the best combination since peanut butter and jelly. Especially considering that spinning rod guides are notorious for bending out of shape.
Adam –
I think price is an issue, and maybe the perception that the guides don’t make much difference.
Rick Pope (along with others of the TFO gang, Shu and Jeff) visited us in NC for some albie fishing last week, and had sent/brought out the 8- and 9-wt BVKs to try. They are amazingly light (I had actually carried down a 5- and 8-wt, the former just for casting in case we got blown out of fishing), and kept thinking I had picked up the 5-wt when it was in fact the 8-wt.). Unloaded, they feel a touch stiff, but cast very well. Bunches of 8 lb and up albies were caught, and the rods did fine (again, the 8- and 9-wt). Chuck Laughridge had an 8-wt for a couple of weeks, and had landed several dozen albies on it.
I’d say the choice might depend on whether one wants a softer/slower or stiffer/faster type action, but they are light, well-designed, and finished well beyond their price point.
I can say that folks were not wanting to give them up after fishing with them, and that’s a pretty good indicator. (In the interest of full disclosure, yes, I didn’t go home w/o the 5- and 8-wt, and am convinced I’ll fish them happily).
Buzz
Adding a bit about “pulling” vs “lifting”. Some might say they’re the same, or very similar. I’d make the distinction that “lifting” is when fish is more straight down, and all you can do is to pull straight up, i.e., lift. It’s a vertical fight, such as fighting albies or other tunoids around the boat, when they tend to bore straight down and/or circle. “Pulling”, again as I’d make the distinction, is more of a horizontal (two-dimensional) situation, such as shallow water fishing or simply fighting a fish that doesn’t sound. In the latter situation, you can usually get a better (shallow) angle on the fish (tarpon vs tuna). The BVK isn’t designed as a lifting rod (get a glass/graphite composite such as the TFO Bluewater if that’s your primary game), but it does pretty well. It’s more of a pure casting/fishing rod, and does that extremely well, again depending upon your action preferences.
Buzz, you answered my questions, I was looking at picking up a 7 or 8 for bones, reds, carp etc and have had my eye on a helios or a loomis crosscurent glx. I cant stomach the tag of the orvis and after casting a 3oz 7wt the loomis (and especially my dinosaur RPLX 8 wt) feel pretty heavy. Hell, for that price you could pick up a 7 and an 8
That says a lot about what TFO has going on “under the hood,” because you can’t hide weight. Meanwhile, and this really surprised me, but the Sage TCX 9′ 5-weight weighs 3 and 5/16ths ounces, which in percentage terms is quite a bit more.
Zach, since you’ve spoken with rod designers in the industry is there anything in blank technology that really contributes to one rod being lighter than the other?
It seems that the majority of rods that are listed as lighter (Helios, BVK, etc.) all tend to have the following things in common:
1) Recoil guides.
2) Graphite reel seats.
3) Porting the slide bands on the reel seats.I’m curious if most of the weight savings of these very light rods comes from the choice of components rather than improvements in blank technology.
Being a new-age, modern unemployed type, I might just have to pick up one of those new TFO’s to replace the GLX 9 weight I broke while albie fishing.
As for the ReCoil guides. I really like them as snake guides but could not stand their stripping guides. The rods I had with ReCoil stripping guides I got rid of… mainly because of those guides. A double loop of metal just seems to be twice the friction and the things created a harmonic I just couldn’t abide with.
I sold a TiCr-X #8 and replaced it with the BVK #8, main use is floating tailwater under generation, 300 gr SA Streamer Express.
At the Southern Conclave last month, I cast the #5, 7, & 8. My bud and I took the #5 BVK out with a #5 Sage Z-Axis, the Sage was a little overall smoother, and as Larry said, it wasn’t $400 smoother and we both have a wall full of Sage rods. 😉 I think they have a winner.
David
I cast the 5 & 7 wts at the Conclave. I liked it and will probably get one sometime to replace my current 5 wt.
John –
Yes, quite a lot, and componentry actually has less to do with it than you might think. The main factors are the amount and type of resin in the blank, the type of scrim (which is the reinforcing material) wrapped into the blank, and the actual shape and size of the flag that’s cut. Cheaper rods tend to have fiberglass scrim, which is much heavier than the graphite scrim which is now common on top end rods. That’s probably the biggest weight factor. Cheaper also rods are also cut in less complex patterns, which result in wastage around the edges being wrapped into the blank, which adds weight. Cheaper rods often have weaker glues, meaning you have to use more of it, which adds weight. Finally, I am not certain on this but I am pretty sure that low modulus graphite is inherently heavier for a given amount of tensile strength than higher modulus graphite, and cheaper rods use lower modulus graphite.
Zach
Thanks Zach.
Those who have seen the new rods… what do you think, are they good as is or would you wait for the blanks and throw your own components on them?
Well, yeah, but not to fish for albies with. It was in the car, just in case we had a blow day, and needed something to occupy our time making hero casts.
For the first time in a few years, weather was great, we fished for albies, and the 5-wt stayed in the car. But the 8- and 9-wts got bent pretty much.
Not to diminish other rods, ’cause there are certainly plenty of very nice ones out there, but Rick Pope and the TFO crowd do seem to turn out rods that make you pat yourself on the back for being such a smart shopper to buy a rod that works so well at such a modest price.
Buzz
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