russellb
Well-known member
First a quick background- I have been fly fishing for about 25 years, I have worked in a fly shop, taught fly casting and tying and done some guiding. I am certainly not the oracle of fly fishing knowledge but I have been around a bit. My general preferences in rods is a medium to medium fast action rod. I like to feel the rod load and flex but not be noodle soft. Classic Winston IM6 rods and Sage RPL LightLine rods are very close to nirvana for me.
The need- In my quiver of rods I have kind of a gap. One of my local rivers is pretty big but not super fast moving. A long and light rod is a great choice if it has a fairly fast action. This is because this river is often plagued by the wind, not gale force wind but enough wind that using my old school IM6 3wt is not very efficient. At the same time fishing my 10ft 5wt that while I love the length, is a tad heavy. I own a shorter 7'11 4wt that has a great medium action but I would prefer a medium fast action 4 wt in a 9ft length. Also, as I don't spend a huge amount of time on this particular river and I recently tapped my checking account with the purchase of 3 Abel reels and a Winston GVX 3wt I need the new rod to be fairly frugal.
Back years ago when I worked a the fly shop and taught classes there was not many low priced rods that were worth anything. It seemed that with a few exceptions that you had to shell out some cash to get a rod that had a soul to it. Today is a quite different with many rods available that offer a great experience and a substantially lower price- what a nice change.
So there I was, surfing the interwebs and I stumbled upon the Madison River Fishing Co website and more specifically, their clearance section. Here I found the Winston Vapor 9ft 4 piece 4wt for a mere 149.99. The original MSRP for this rod is 315 with the blank costing 158. How could I go wrong, click "add to cart".
On to the review-
Fit and finish first impressions were fairly good. This is a imported rod built many thousands of miles from Winston's home of Twin Bridges MT and you are quickly reminded of that when you open the rod tube. The cork grip is shrink wrapped in plastic and festooned with a "made in China" label. Quickly remove this and then pretend that you never saw it... For this series of mid entry to mid priced rods the maker uses cork that is somewhat figured. It's not bad, and to be honest, does not look that different than the cork used on my old Sage rods. That said, Winston felt compelled to go freaking filler crazy and under the aforementioned plastic the cork looks almost fake. I found this to be quite off putting and first order of business was hot water, dish soap and a stiff brush. What emerged was a normal looking cork grip that I am happy with. The rest of the rod looked pretty much perfect for a rod in this price range. Basically the wraps and guides looked well done, the graphics were applied fine and the hardware is what is to be expected. The rod is painted in a metallic olive green and delivers in a very well crafted aluminum rod tube painted in a color to match the blank.
Weight- This rod tips the scales at 3 3/10s ounces and the following is a few rods for comparison sake-
Sage TCX 490-4pc 3 3/16oz
Sage ZXL 490-4pc 3oz
Sage VXP 490-4pc 3 1/16oz
Winston BIIX 490-4pc 2 1/2oz
Winston GVX 490-4pc 3oz
TFO Lefty Kreh 490-4pc 3 1/2oz
Guideline Reaction 490-4pc 3.13oz
Buy comparison to both some high end and fellow mid range rods the Vapor does fairly well. In the case of this rod my reel of choice was my old school Lamson LP 1.5 from back when Lamson was just Lamson- before Sage bought them and uber perforated the reels, before Waterworks existed, etc. This reels weighs about 4.6 oz and is the perfect balance for this rod. If you like this rod and thought about throwing an Abel TR on you may find that even the number 2 TR is a tad light.
Fly line choice- as this rod is listed as a fast action I chose the new SA Mastery Textured GPX line in a WF4F.
On stream performance and impressions. I cannot say enough about this purchase, the rod, reel and line are in absolute harmony. The rod is lively, with the GPX line it loads with ease and can load with a few meters of line out. I had the chance to cast a wide range of flies from small dries to a indicator nymph rig with split shot to a 12 tungsten BH soft hackled wooly. This rod did everything I asked of it and powering the GPX line I could easily lay out line a long distance with confidence on every cast. My friend tested casted the rod, landing a nice rainbow and I had to pry it from his hands.
Changes and dislikes, these are mostly cosmetic-
This is my first rod that is painted, yeah I know all the cool kids over at Sage are doing it now but I still prefer to see the graphite fibers shining in the sun. Also, as I have the hands of a twelve year old girl I will have the handle turned on a lathe to fit my hands a little better. In fact the handle is simply big feeling compared to many other factory rods of the same size.
If I had paid the full price of 315 I think a little better up locking hardware and spacer might be nice, but all in all this is not bad. Performance improvements, I wonder how this rod would cast of it had a second stripper guide versus the single one that it is built with.
Ok, 20 million dollar question ( or 149 dollar in this case). Does this rod feel "Winston-y"? Compared to the IM6 rods I have fished in years past I would say yes. With the GPX line the rod has a great feel and it certainly brings the Winston designed tapers to life.
The need- In my quiver of rods I have kind of a gap. One of my local rivers is pretty big but not super fast moving. A long and light rod is a great choice if it has a fairly fast action. This is because this river is often plagued by the wind, not gale force wind but enough wind that using my old school IM6 3wt is not very efficient. At the same time fishing my 10ft 5wt that while I love the length, is a tad heavy. I own a shorter 7'11 4wt that has a great medium action but I would prefer a medium fast action 4 wt in a 9ft length. Also, as I don't spend a huge amount of time on this particular river and I recently tapped my checking account with the purchase of 3 Abel reels and a Winston GVX 3wt I need the new rod to be fairly frugal.
Back years ago when I worked a the fly shop and taught classes there was not many low priced rods that were worth anything. It seemed that with a few exceptions that you had to shell out some cash to get a rod that had a soul to it. Today is a quite different with many rods available that offer a great experience and a substantially lower price- what a nice change.
So there I was, surfing the interwebs and I stumbled upon the Madison River Fishing Co website and more specifically, their clearance section. Here I found the Winston Vapor 9ft 4 piece 4wt for a mere 149.99. The original MSRP for this rod is 315 with the blank costing 158. How could I go wrong, click "add to cart".
On to the review-
Fit and finish first impressions were fairly good. This is a imported rod built many thousands of miles from Winston's home of Twin Bridges MT and you are quickly reminded of that when you open the rod tube. The cork grip is shrink wrapped in plastic and festooned with a "made in China" label. Quickly remove this and then pretend that you never saw it... For this series of mid entry to mid priced rods the maker uses cork that is somewhat figured. It's not bad, and to be honest, does not look that different than the cork used on my old Sage rods. That said, Winston felt compelled to go freaking filler crazy and under the aforementioned plastic the cork looks almost fake. I found this to be quite off putting and first order of business was hot water, dish soap and a stiff brush. What emerged was a normal looking cork grip that I am happy with. The rest of the rod looked pretty much perfect for a rod in this price range. Basically the wraps and guides looked well done, the graphics were applied fine and the hardware is what is to be expected. The rod is painted in a metallic olive green and delivers in a very well crafted aluminum rod tube painted in a color to match the blank.
Weight- This rod tips the scales at 3 3/10s ounces and the following is a few rods for comparison sake-
Sage TCX 490-4pc 3 3/16oz
Sage ZXL 490-4pc 3oz
Sage VXP 490-4pc 3 1/16oz
Winston BIIX 490-4pc 2 1/2oz
Winston GVX 490-4pc 3oz
TFO Lefty Kreh 490-4pc 3 1/2oz
Guideline Reaction 490-4pc 3.13oz
Buy comparison to both some high end and fellow mid range rods the Vapor does fairly well. In the case of this rod my reel of choice was my old school Lamson LP 1.5 from back when Lamson was just Lamson- before Sage bought them and uber perforated the reels, before Waterworks existed, etc. This reels weighs about 4.6 oz and is the perfect balance for this rod. If you like this rod and thought about throwing an Abel TR on you may find that even the number 2 TR is a tad light.
Fly line choice- as this rod is listed as a fast action I chose the new SA Mastery Textured GPX line in a WF4F.
On stream performance and impressions. I cannot say enough about this purchase, the rod, reel and line are in absolute harmony. The rod is lively, with the GPX line it loads with ease and can load with a few meters of line out. I had the chance to cast a wide range of flies from small dries to a indicator nymph rig with split shot to a 12 tungsten BH soft hackled wooly. This rod did everything I asked of it and powering the GPX line I could easily lay out line a long distance with confidence on every cast. My friend tested casted the rod, landing a nice rainbow and I had to pry it from his hands.
Changes and dislikes, these are mostly cosmetic-
This is my first rod that is painted, yeah I know all the cool kids over at Sage are doing it now but I still prefer to see the graphite fibers shining in the sun. Also, as I have the hands of a twelve year old girl I will have the handle turned on a lathe to fit my hands a little better. In fact the handle is simply big feeling compared to many other factory rods of the same size.
If I had paid the full price of 315 I think a little better up locking hardware and spacer might be nice, but all in all this is not bad. Performance improvements, I wonder how this rod would cast of it had a second stripper guide versus the single one that it is built with.
Ok, 20 million dollar question ( or 149 dollar in this case). Does this rod feel "Winston-y"? Compared to the IM6 rods I have fished in years past I would say yes. With the GPX line the rod has a great feel and it certainly brings the Winston designed tapers to life.