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The Zephrus is giving me great presentations at 25 feet. But these methods and calculations were disconnected from what we were actually experiencing in our hand so, for our last 4 Shootouts, we have gone back to our original method of calculation, explained above. But there are a lot of good reasons. Now were talking! Ive fished with Howard here, on our Montana Spring Creeks, and better understand how and why he came up with these designs. Does the tip of the rod load well enough in close to give you the feel and accuracy you need with little line or only the leader out of the guides? The overall weight is good, but the swing weight is greater than all the other top ten rods. The rod weighs 2 5/8 oz. Nothing to write home about. Thomas and Thomas $55 repair charges for the original owner, includes shipping. The 8 foot Pure had a much heavier swing weight, and would not be as much fun to false cast all day as this 8 footer. The swing weight was fairly light, but not quite as good as either the Hardy rods or the Orvis rods. Very tricky and very attractive. The Hardy Zephrus comes in a hard rod tube and wrapped in a nice rod sock. These will hold up longer, even with hard usage. This one is simple The least expensive rods get the highest points. The fancy burl wood insert just jumps out at you with its striking color lots of red and orange mixed in very attractive. The tips on the faster rods bend more. A little wiggle helps you to feel this. Since the blank fares so well, the accuracy does too. The softer tip on the Imperial gave me good scores at the both 25 and 40 feet, and also led to a good score in light tippet protection. On the deflection board, the Zephrus had a stiffer butt and mid section and the tip bent a little more, so it is slightly faster in action than the Shadow. The light swing weight made casting effortless, and Im getting excellent accuracy combined with delicate presentations. #23. One year warranty on hardware and guides. The overall craftsmanship is excellent. Long distance was hopeless. Scott uses a stack of thinner cork rings on this handle and the quality was excellent. In all the rods of any manufacture weve sold with these guides, we have yet to see one break! The 79 model was far better and a lot more fun to cast and fish. One of the things I like the most is that they have a large drag knob and a very wide range of drag adjustment. The 8 foot Pure had a much stiffer butt and mid-section and a soft tip that is much softer than what we found on the Nimbus. The components are not in the same class as the Helios 3F, but that is to be expected considering the price. The TFO rods, the Taylor rods, the Mystic rod, and the Waterworks rods are all designed here in the U.S. and built in Asia. The Recon is a very pleasant rod to cast wonderfully light in hand, and responsive. Only out long did I feel at a disadvantage to the best rods and I think part of this was due to the lighter Trout line. The wraps are darker green and the epoxy coatings were nicely done. A black anodized double uplocking seat is used with an attractive wood burl insert. I felt the best rods at long range were the Helios 3F and the Loomis Asquith, as well as the T&T Avantt and the Scott Radian. At long range no rod has more power. Shop Now. Images: Tim Romano and Jeremy Roberts. I like a lot of things about this rod. The craftsmanship was very good, but not good enough to give it a perfect score like the Pure. For others, seeing how a rod performs in an expert casters hands, convinces them it would make them great anglers as well, or at least take them to the next level. The 79 TFO Finesse was far better. The locking ring was harder for me to grip than most. #27. Overall the craftsmanship was ok but not nearly as good as the best mid-priced rods like the DXF or the Recon. Feel is good and the rod is very light in hand. I do like the fast action, just not the heavy swing weight, which is far heavier than the Douglas DXF. Even with the Livingston wind, the Zephrus outdid itself at this distance. Hardy is using their best Sintrix 440 graphite in this rod, also used in the Zephrus. The Zephrus Ultralite has a gorgeous dark green finish that glistens in the sunlight, along with some really intricate cross-wraps from the winding check up to the end of the rod inscriptions. You know it has power when the rod almost effortlessly shoots line. This fast action produced extremely good feel and accuracy, especially at 25 feet. Shop Now. The stiffness did not allow much feel but the accuracy was surprisingly good. We set out three sets of paper plates as targets, with plenty of distance between each casting line so that no one was getting tangled up. A contrasting dark composite cork ring is used at the top of the grip. An attractive X-pattern graphite wrap is used on the butt, behind the logo. Once the grip of the rod is placed precisely on the foam pellet, with the rod horizontal, we apply pressure, by pressing down with a fingernail to the very end of the reel seat, and then read (and note) the weight indicated by the scale. The Hardy Zephrus is still the best all around 4 weight made. Performance at 40 feet: 20 points out of 20. The Hardy Ultralite is a slimmed down version of the Zephrus made for small water fishing and delicate presentations. The epoxy coatings on the wraps were excellent. The action of these two rods is very different. Also, the Galvan Torque reels are basically maintenance free, using a rulon bushing that requires no lubrication. He wanted another 4-weight that was very accurate and delicate, yet one that had more power in the butt and mid-section. The rings should be easy to grip and tighten. The uplocking skeleton reel seat is silver anodized aluminum, with one good-sized locking ring and sliding band, similar to the Avantt. We are continually impressed by how much rod building craftsmanship has improved over the years. The best rods will throw very tight loops at this range with consistently good accuracy. Ive always liked the smooth lines, as they dont make so much noise running through the guides. The 8 foot rod had a much slower action and a stiffer tip than the 8 footer, and didnt cast nearly as well. This rod has a medium fast action with tons of power in the butt and mid-section, which allowed it to perform pretty well at the longest distance. Then the dark green finish just sparkles. Wraps are a darker red, (almost black), trimmed in brighter red on the butt. It was a little better than the Avantt here, but not as good as the H3F. The added weight and relative stiffness over the other best rods hurt many of its scores. is hung from the tip-top of the rod. Well come out with you and give you some help to fine tune your casting stroke, or just help you with the basics. The 4-weight Asquith was one of the stiffer rods in our Shootout and this hurt its scores at the shortest distance of 25 feet. Performance at 40 feet: 19.7 points out of 20. Ive fished this Zephrus myself for the past two years, and it has been my go-to rod when Im fishing small dries, emergers and spinners in the surface film. The DXF and both Scott rods were better, while the Zephrus and Pure were in a totally different league. The Avantt matches the Helios 3D in swing weight and feels nice and light in hand. #16. Some good alignment dots and lines are used. Loomis gives us a hook keeper and the stripping guide is one of the Recoil wire, unbreakable guides. However at long range, it had no guts, and was one of the worst in our Shootout. I look for rods that feel totally solid and track well. How did the 99 4 and 5 weights feel throwing dries? This is still a very good casting rod overall, but it just doesnt come close to matching the scores turned in by the top rods in this Shootout. For most of my fishing with a 4-weight rod in critical conditions Im using one of our 12-foot leaders down to a 5X or 6X tippet, but in the Shootout we stick with 4X Rio Powerflex as a tippet in order to minimize breaking off the yarn indicator. With the Ultralite at hand, your shoulder will be thanking you after a long day on the water. The reel seat is a black anodized, single uplocking skeleton seat with a dark wood insert. The Recon was much better. Weight From streamers to small dries to my standard dry-dropper rig, the Zephrus Ultralite put my flies where I needed them. This rod gave me better control and accuracy at long range than any other rod in our Shootout. Notably light. Im getting nice loops but the Scott rods were better. After fifty years in the fly fishing business as a guide, shop manager and shop owner, Ive learned a lot about what it takes for a fly rod to perform well. The best rods certainly need to handle this distance easily, but most anglers are buying a 4-weight rod for fishing at closer distances, which puts the emphasis on 25 to 40 foot casts. The Pure is unquestionably one of the best looking rods in our Shootout, with some of the best craftsmanship. The Expeditor service for the NRX or NRX LP rods is $100, while the IMX Pro rods are $85.00. When you read everyones comments on the Zephrus, you will see that we all agreed that this is a very special rod, for a variety of reasons. Here Im getting nice loops and decent accuracy, but Im working a lot harder than with the Avantt or the Helios 3F. These single foot guides are finished in a dark color to complement the blank. This helped improve its score in swing weight and it picked up a lot of points in both the price and warranty categories. The K2 falls into the upper end of the mid-price range but it was blown away by the less expensive Hardy Shadow and Orvis Recon at 25 and 40 feet. This and the Pure were the only two rods I scored a perfect 20 out of 20 at 45 feet. Gear Reviews Multiple Fly Rod Weight Rankings Yellowstone Angler The locking ring is easy to grip, but Id prefer a double ring seat as this one looks like it will loosen up more easily than most. Some anglers may not be, though. A counterbalance opposite the handle is used to keep the reel running smoothly when a fish is racing away from you. But this is a fairly soft rod, and didnt have the butt power to handle the long distance quite as well as the more powerful rods. It was very light in swing weight, and quite accurate in close, but it just didnt have much feel in close like the best rods. However, the 8-foot Aetos turned in much higher scores in several categories, including performance at 25 feet, swing weight and light tippet protection. I have the utmost confidence in using this rod with very light tippets to fool large spring creek trout. 4. So, for $530 you will get 2 set ups so you can begin to contrast and compare the differences between the 2 rods. For reels, we again decided to use one of our all-time favorites, the Galvan Torque (T-4), loaded with 100 yards of 20 lb. Rods are repaired or sections replaced. Of these rods built in Korea, the Hardy rods are designed in England, the Douglas rods are designed here in the U.S., the Loop rods are designed in Sweden. In fishing to wary trout, I often set my false casts up short and to the side of the fish, and then shoot a little line in on that last cast. So if you like what we are doing, the best way to thank us is to buy a rod, reel, or outfit from the Yellowstone Angler. Unbeatable performance, this rod deserves the win. Now Im getting nice tight loops and I can punch it hard into the breeze. A hook keeper is used just above the handle, and the one black SiC style stripping guide is followed with silver hard chrome snake guides, that are small and light out on the tip. TFO uses an olive green blank for this rod, with olive wraps that are trimmed in gold on the butt sections. Get this rod out in the sunlight and it really lights up. Usually takes 1-2 weeks. Fly selection is far less important. This is one of the best rods at long range. It is important for any fly line to shoot well, and even clear well, when you have extra line at your feet and a fish is streaking for the horizon. As you have seen, the best rods in this 4-weight Shootout are medium fast or fast action rods with softer tips. The blank is finished in a dark olive green with dark green wraps, that include a little light green trim on the butt. The nice soft tip allows me to cast off the tip of the rod with a flick of my wrist. Here the lack of butt power hurts a bit but it was better than the Shadow out long and matched the Scott G-Series. Good, just not great. Each chart gives you a good look at how the tip section, (approximately the top half of the rod) bends and compares to other rods. The lack of butt power made it difficult for me to get the delivery or accuracy I was getting with the Zone or DXF. The craftsmanship is second to none and it earns a perfect score along with the Winston Pure and T&T Avantt. We also kept on hand, and compared, what we felt was the very best rod the Hardy Zephrus. I did not find that to be the case. Hardy ZEPHRUS ULTRALITE 89 #4 $679.95. Craftsmanship is second to none, and is what we have now come to expect from T&T. Both offer terrific performance at half the price of the best rods in our Shootout. Click on any rod to see the full write up. (Click here to see more deflection charts). Usually takes 2-4 weeks. Im really surprised it is so far down in our finishing order as a 4-weight. It tracks well and I was getting very nice loops and good control, especially at mid to longer distances. Howard Croston, Hardys rod design genius in England, has given us another outstanding rod that performs extremely well at all distances. Nearly all manufacturers now have some kind of limited Lifetime warranty. Well, the Orvis unconditional guarantee is only 25 years. I realized last week just how spoiled I am to have the South Fork of the Snake River in my backyard. It is comfortable to cast all day and versatile enough to throw anything from small dries to heavier nymphs or small streamers. To improve on the previous Zenith, which won our original 4-weight Shootout, Howard gave the Zephrus a slightly stronger butt and mid section as well as a softer tip. Rods are repaired, not replaced except for broken sections. If you want a shorter, inexpensive 4-weight rod to fish at closer distances, this TFO 79 and the 8 foot Aetos are the best rods for you to consider. Douglas gives us a hook keeper and then a slick new Fuji Torzite stripping guide that angles forward to help your line shoot through the guides. Head to head, the Radian and Avantt were better. The Orvis RECON, at $429 wasn't far behind! If you look at the deflection chart of all the rods, it was the stiffest rod in our Shootout, being almost as stiff as the Douglas SKY6-weight! But then rather than a beautiful piece of burled wood insert as on the Avant, there is a plain piece of blue colored graphite that also shows the tape marks. Now it tracks perfectly and Im getting nice tight loops.