{"id":3727,"date":"2015-07-10T09:02:10","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T13:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/?p=3727"},"modified":"2015-07-10T09:22:33","modified_gmt":"2015-07-10T13:22:33","slug":"new-scott-meridian-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/2015\/07\/10\/new-scott-meridian-review\/","title":{"rendered":"New Scott Meridian Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"meridian-detail1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Two years ago Scott Fly Rods’ chief designer Jim Bartschi<\/strong> to some extent took the world by storm with the release of the Radian freshwater series of rods. \u00a0A culmination of years of work, Bartschi was quick to point out that there was no secret sauce, no groundbreaking new technology, which made Radian such a great rod (and it was great–collecting many awards including a\u00a0Fly Rod & Reel\u00a0<\/em>Kudos). \u00a0Instead, Bartschi explained, the Radian was a product of\u00a0craftsmanship<\/em><\/strong>, or in other words of an especially well-tuned application of available techniques and technologies.<\/h5>\n

One of the things I have always liked about Scott as a company is this focus on (indeed, maybe “admission” is a better term here) the fact that most new fly rods are not radically\u00a0new. \u00a0\u00a0<\/em>If a rod is really good, it is so because the craftsman did a good job, using the best materials available, certainly, but with the acknowledgement that any “technology” in the rod could only be incrementally better than what came before. \u00a0The carbon fiber and composites industry can only produce so many whiz-bang new inventions a year, after all. \u00a0Most of the “technological” advantages of new rods simply derive from better strength-to-weight ratios in the resins used to make the graphite prepreg which is rolled into the blank of the rod. \u00a0This\u00a0“upgrade” represents\u00a0a few percentage points of change per year, at most.<\/p>\n

Now, two years after the Radian hit the market, and building on the success of last year’s midmarket Tidal offering, which used some of the same techniques but with less refined materials, Scott has released the Radian’s big brother, the saltwater-specific Meridian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some changes are immediately obvious. \u00a0The Meridian has a much narrower overall blank diameter\u00a0basically throughout the rod when compared with the Tidal, and a somewhat narrower (maybe 10%)\u00a0diameter when compared to its flagship predecessor the S4s. \u00a0Thinner blanks essentially represent confidence from the designers: they now feel the available materials are strong enough that they can step down the burliness of the rod wall in order to impart greater performance at the same total risk of breakage. \u00a0It will be interesting to see if this gamble pays off, and the only way to know if the Meridian will see higher breakage rates is to watch and wait.<\/p>\n

Like the S4s (but unlike the G2 series), the Meridian features a standard sleeve-over ferrule, although these too are narrower than in the past. \u00a0In fact these may be the thinnest sleeve ferrules I have ever seen on a heavyweight rod.<\/p>\n

In hand, the Meridian is exceptional. \u00a0It immediately calls to mind its brother the Radian. \u00a0A few months ago, when I got my demo copy under media embargo, I practiced throwing a few loops in the front yard. \u00a0I am very comfortable with the S4s and fish it frequently for carp, so I have a good working familiarity with how tight my loops usually are. \u00a0With the Meridian my loop tightness noticeably increased without any effort whatsoever from yours truly. \u00a0The rod just plain throws tighter loops; I can’t explain it.<\/p>\n

[fbvideo link=”https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/video.php?v=719636790514&l=2818826600408818992″ width=”900″ height=”506″ onlyvideo=”1″]<\/p>\n

I posted the video above online and one commenter challenged me (as a joke, I think) to try tossing those same loops with a book under my arm. \u00a0I obliged him.<\/p>\n

[fbvideo link=”https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/video.php?v=719642863344&l=628144895543828692″ width=”900″ height=”506″ onlyvideo=”1″]<\/p>\n

As you can see, the Meridian is capable of tossing an entire fly line even with an abbreviated stroke. \u00a0Good rod. \u00a0Best ever? Who knows. \u00a0Scott is not known for making claims like that.<\/p>\n

\"meridian-detail4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fit and finish is exceptional as always. \u00a0Scott has a nice new reel seat with inscribed rod weights, which is very convenient for boat anglers. \u00a0They have gone back to a composite cork buttcap, which is mostly cosmetic (although I have always preferred EVA foam personally).<\/p>\n

Breakage and repair is always an issue with a high end rod, since the cost and fine tuning of the product eliminates the possibility for the manufacturer to simply send a new tip in the mail, as budget rodmakers can sometimes do. \u00a0I unfortunately snapped my demo Meridian in a tragic rod v. push pole T-boning. \u00a0Scott had it back in my hands within a month, which should be characteristic of their repair times going forward.<\/p>\n

Rating: Five Stars<\/strong><\/p>\n

Price: $865<\/strong><\/p>\n

Models: \u00a0Available from 6wt. all the way to 15wt. with Scott’s characteristically unusual lengths (9 feet, 8’4″ and 8’10” depending on model).<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two years ago Scott Fly Rods’ chief designer Jim Bartschi to some extent took the world by storm with the release of the Radian freshwater series of rods. \u00a0A culmination of years of work, Bartschi was quick to point out that there was no secret sauce, no groundbreaking new technology, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gear-reviews","column","onecol","has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/files\/2015\/07\/meridian-detail1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3727"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3738,"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3727\/revisions\/3738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itinerantangler.com\/blog\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}