I’ve got a Sage Graphite III RPL 8.5-footer 5-weight that I wouldn’t trade for anything. It’s fast, light, and strong provided the angler knows how to fight the fish. Too much tip in the fight and the rod might break. It throws a long line smoothly and accurately.
I’ve also got its first cousin, a Sage RPL-X, 9-footer, 9-weight … I use it to show clients what I consider to be design flaws.
Interesting to see such a divergent opinion about two closely related rod series but the same manufacturer, isn’t it? The problem, in my view, was the taper. It didn’t take Sage very long to drop the RPL-X in favor of the then “New” RPL-Xi.
Sage builds good rods. They have, however, adopted the golf club manufacturing philosophy of changing names almost every year. It’s a marketing ploy designed to lead Fools like you and me into believing the “new” 2-Much Gravity ZZ rod will cast better than old faithful. (I learned this when I played golf and replace my clubs almost every year only to eventually learn the only thing that had to do with my score was, in fact, me.)
Doug