Morsie
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First a disclaimer – I’m an international member of team Sage.
I fished the 590 ZAxis a good deal in New Zealand last summer, often with big tandem bead head nymphs and NZ style strike indicators – I also used it as a dry fly rod, its a marvellous all round rod, slower than the XP and faster than the SLT which in my book makes it just about perfect. I also used it with T8 shooting heads on the big rivers and intermediate lines with bead head streamers in the lakes and could not fault it. Over the past year I have fished the ZAxis range (5,6,7,8,9 &10) extensively in all kinds of situations from bones and permit to barramundi and trout with all kinds of flies and fly lines. I describe these as genuine “fishing rods”. They’re not made to punch out tight loops at 120 feet they’ve been designed to be extremely effective at normal fishing ranges 30- 70 feet – and shorter, they load beautifully at short ranges and seem to carry whatever flies and lines you want to load them with with aplomb although i do believe thay are all true to line weight so need no uplining. I do rate the #5 8’6″ as the great rod of the series, and the #4 8’6″, which I’ve just received, is an absolute friggin gem, I can’t wait to fish with it – I’m going to have a crack at some big NZ brownies with it in a few weeks.
I’m not comparing these rods to any other brand, just commenting on how I think they fish.
The SLT is a lovely rod but I recall when the TCR’s came out and replaced the SP+ – I thought nothing could ever touch that series of rods (the SP+ series) – until the TCR’s came along. We think the technology isn’t moving until we cast these rods side by side. If you want to know how the SLT stacks up against the ZXL cast them side by side, you’ll get a big surprise.
If you’re looking for value the new Redington RS4 range is well worth looking at.
Morsie
Zach Birds are a great passion of mine and I have a few field guides. I took this shot a week or so ago up in the Northern Territory. It was late in the day, we’d finished fishing and were sitting back having a beer and at the time watching a pair of white breasted sea eagles battling a pair of whistling kits for a a catfish carcass – the light was too low to get any images of them but I had the camera out and shot this pic of a bunch of birds. There’s seven different species in this one little gathering ( we have a lot of birds in Australia).
Minutes later this guy surfaced and started stalking them. The spoonbill fed all around him but especially stayed behind – the croc is around 8 feet long and the other birds kept a very respectful distance. It was really after the geese.
Morsie
Great piece of stitching – now it looks sensational, especially considering how you had to put it together.
šMorsie
It was essentially designed for the ZAxis rods. I’ve been playing with one for a while now and I think its a really beautiful fishing line. Its not a distance casting machine, just a great fishing line (a bit like the Zed really). Look forward to actually fishing with one in the next few weeks now that the trout season’s opened. We also tried it on Dave Anderson’s 11′ 6 weight switch Zed and it was just great as well, really sweet and easy.
You guys say Zee we say Zed.
Morsie
In my experience I use Outbounds of the correct designation on 9 footers and go up 1 weight on a Dhander.
Morsie
Quote from Marc Bale vp Sage
“Put it together like you don’t want it to come apart”.
I use a quarter twist and a good nudge at the same time. Spey fishermen use a wrap of electrical tape but there’s far greater forces at work at the top end of a double hander. Never had that problem with dhander either, I just put them together well.
Morsie
Courty, I use it for macro stuff for quick internet postings of flies etc but mostly the G7 is in its housing and is used underwater. Unfortunately the wide adaptor is not suitable for the housing. I have ordered a G9 and housing simply because of the Raw factor otherwise the lens limitation has not been an issue for me in what I do.
Morsie
I shoot RAW all the time and have become used to it. Better archival quality too, I just burn all my select raws to discs and store them on hard drives as well – they’re always there to go back to. The loss of detail in jpegs freaks me out and post processing is a great opportunity to look at images in deatil as you work on them.
Morsie
Mike, I think a single GOOD quality wide lens, a good eye and some imagination are the best ingredients. Get a wide lens that also lets you get in close. The only other adition I can think of is practise, practise, practise. Lens here is a Canon 17-40 f4.
Morsie
I can’t even bring myself to read the content to find any controversy, the whole thing is like looking at a dropped pizza while on a bad acid trip.
Morsie
Neal, I do a great deal of travelling with fishing tackle (probably around 50 flights a year) and these are my observations.
1. Its meant to be confusing so there’s no predictable pattern for terrorists to take advantage of.
2. Forget carry on tackle – save yourself all the stress and hassle – buy 4 piece rods and a big bag that will hold them. I currently use a Sage travel bag that has a hard base – I can easily fit 20 rods in there without tubes but usually travel with half a dozen. I bought this bag in the US in May 2005 and its done probably 150 flights since then with no rod breakages and its still going strong. I lay the rods in the bottom of the base (packed in their socks) and then a towel and clothes over the top. I use the top section for reels, waders, boots, etc, this of course depends on where I’m travelling to. The reels and spools go into a padded divided reel bag that holds a dozen or so – it costs around $20.00 and so far no damage and no lost luggage – except for once, and that was on a return trip.
3. My only carry on luggage is my camera gear and that’s in a waterproof backpack (Wttex).
Morsie
Great thread – some of you guys are so young!!!!
Peter Morse – 53 (damn that’s hard to write). I live in the Blue Mountains about 1.5 hours west of Sydney – that’s Australia. I have 2 wonderful sons, one 25 (military, bow hunter and fisherman) and one 22 (a chef, sometime fisherman but becoming more interested) and a step-son who’s a wine maker and a great fishing mate. I have some lovely trout streams an hour west and bass water half an hour east. I work full time as a fishing writer/photographer and “consultant” and travel constantly. I’m also a member of Team Sage. I have been full time in fly fishing since 1989 and inherited my first fly rod in 1973 so its been a long road to here with many tough years. I had a very successful 26 part televison series called “Wildfish” (prime time and shown in 30 countries world wide) and have written two books and also work as a DVD presenter for “The Fishing DVD”, a quarterly DVD Ā magazine Ā www.fishingdvd.com.au
My wife loves me to go fishing because she knows after 3 weeks at home I start to get stir crazy. Advise from an old hand, start acting crazy so she wants you to go fishing then when you come home from fishing be really nice, establish a pattern (No fishing = shitty – come home from fishing = great loving guy). Listen to your wife as much as you can, encourage her to talk about whatever she wants to talk about BUT listen to her even if its with just one ear, bring her flowers, let her know you think about her “all the time” – “happy wife – happy life”.
I have no particularly favourite fish or fishing situation, I love them all, whether I’m in New Zealand chasing trout or one of our western rivers chasing carp, hunting bonefish, or on a marlin boat – “I’m yet to catch a bad fish”.
Current species tally stands at 274.
Morsie
Great post Will and a good solid rant, I agree with you. Having all the technical aspects and a sack full of megapixels won’t compensate for not having an “eye” or dedication, and by dedication I mean putting the rod down when the light’s great or the action’s hot and getting the images. There is no substitute for this. However we also need to look at our bag of tricks called lenses and attachments, being prepared to carry a longer lens or a wider lens or a better macro lens or adaptors or viewers all adds up to getting a different perspective and teaches us to use our eyes and to think about shots. Knowing how to hold a fish, telling someone what you want, remembering good composition details, keeping lenses clean, using the best available light – all of these are fundamentals that sometimes get buried in mps and fps’s. But I don’t mind, I love that, it means my opposition is focusing on what’s in their hands, no the potential of what’s in front of them and what’s around them.
Morsie
I have DVD out called “Arbor to Fly” which sets out the knots and loop system I use right through the system. It focuses on gsp line as backing and how to treat the stuff. You can order it from fishingdvd.com.au
Morsie
The TV footage I’ve seen of sharks eating birds involved tiger sharks and young gannets on the Great Barrier Reef. Those sharks also had a lot of difficulty eating the gannets because their noses pushed them away but eventually they ate them.
We get mutton birds out off the Australian east coast and they migrate between Tasmania to Siberia and the Berring Straits every year. They don’t touch land for the first 5 years of their lives (they can live to 50) and at night they form big rafts of birds on the water -apparently makos and tigers get into these rafts. I have heard of one mako that had something like 300 birds in its stomach – I often thought of a bird fly – that is very cool stuff.
Morsie
I would assume you were on the top ::) ::)
Were you casting a 600 grain line on the 7 weight? I bet you didn’t straighten out a 5/0 34007 through a bent rod, therefore its not a matter of “how strong the rod is” but a matter of “how strong the leader was” through a direct pull. If it was through a bent rod its a reflection of how soft the hooks are because the maximum you can lift through a bent 7 weight without shattering it (no matter who makes it) is around 7 pounds and certainly no more than 8.
Morsie
