Field & Stream Asks if the Radian is the Best Rod Ever
- This topic has 2 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated Jul 24, 2013 at 1:17 pm by
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http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/flytalk/2013/07/gear-review-new-scott-radian-best-fly-rod-ever
Pretty strong stuff. I know and like Deeter. I also like the Radian. But this is a bold statement and it’ll be interesting to see if it bears out over the long run.
I agree with Deeter in his assessment of the GLX (the rod of the 90s) and the XP (the rod of the 00s), but not necessarily on the Helios. I think the Helios was most notable for finally putting Orvis on a parity with what other manufacturers were already doing. They had been bringing up the rear for quite a while when it came out, and while it may have been the best rod of its year, I don’t think it was the best of the decade like the GLX or the XP.
Will the Radian be the best rod of this decade? It might be. My crucible is easy: does the rod make you better? XP was stiff enough to deaden user tip tracking errors, thus improving results for thousands of anglers. GLX was fast as greased lightning and the lightest thing going in its time, making distance casters and flats fishers better. Radian is different from that–the softer tip makes it much more of a fishing rod. I will say this: I think it has the chance to be the rod of the 10s. Time will tell.
Zach
As an owner of 5 G2’s, 4 S4’s, 1 S4S, 1 F and 1 F2 it’s fair to say that I’m a fan of Scott rods.
That being said I got the chance to cast a 9′ 5wt Radian this weekend and to be honest I think any talk of this being the best flyrod ever is premature. Damn good flyrod? Yep, and I will certainly be buying more than one. Best ever? Let’s not get carried away.
On one of the podcasts Bartschi drove home the point about the importance of design in flyrods. I believe he stressed that while materials change for the industry as a whole, it really came down to design in what set an individual rod apart. From my experiences Scott/Bartschi’s designs really excel on how well the rods track. The 884-G2 with a 15′ leader remains the best tracking dry fly rod I’ve ever owned. The 8wt S4 is a superior saltwater rod as it is extremely accurate at longer distances. The Sage One markets itself with its superior accuracy. Having fished the Sage One rather extensively I’ve found it to be an excellent rod but it isn’t any more accurate, maybe even less so, than the previous generation of Scott rods (G2 and S4).
Back to materials. Zach, could you confirm if Scott is now using the 3M resin in the Radian as I saw an interview with Bartschi where he mentioned that the Radian was using a new resin. I’m curious about this because I think this ties in well with design. Steve Rajeff of Loomis designs, in my opinion, exceptional saltwater flyrods. With the new resin in the NRX the bar was raised noticeably over the GLX crosscurrents in the 8 throught 12 weights. Again the new tech allowed a great designer like Rajeff to do even better what he is great at doing. Likewise I’m sure Bartschi’s design strengths will be even more amplified with the new tech.
I’m also not getting overhyped with the “fast with feel” element of the Radian. Let’s remember the S4 was marketed as “fast with feel” as well.
John S
John –
Radian is using both a new resin and some new fiber but I don’t believe they are using any of the 3M nano-particles previously used by Hardy and St. Croix. Sage and Scott both passed on those when they were first offered after testing. Per Bartschi directly from a conversation back at that time:, “3M developed a technology to better polish nano silica particles so they would disperse more thoroughly in epoxy resins. Nano silica additives had been around for at least seven years but were a failing technology due to clumping or agglomeration in the resin (which actually causes the cured material to be weaker than no additives). After improving on this existing technology, 3M sent teams out to commercialize the product in different industries. Sporting good in general, and fly rods specifically are a very small part of that plan… If we had decided to use the material, we would have obtained the license from 3M to roll with material form an authorized pre-pregger, or we’d be forced to buy the blanks [] from an existing authorized partner.”
Unless there was a great leap forward I think the answer is yes to new resin but no to the resin you’re thinking of.
This is another explanation I’ve heard for Scott’s new ReAct technology: “[In] layman’s terms, it’s a taper, fiber, resin system that amps up recovery speed and dampening.”
Rod companies are cagey about their tech, and they often tend to put one all-encompassing label on a series of different technologies that all get added in at once, but that individually might be kind of minor (Sage’s Generation 5). I was told that the prototype Radian I cast last fall (which incidentally is on the cover of Fly Rod & Reel right now) had the taper of the production Radian but not the new resins, which do a better job of dampening post-cast vibration and which are stronger for their weight.
Strength for weight is the arms race of fly rod design. In ten years Radian will feel bulky and abnormally stiff compared to whatever is on the market by then.
Zach
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