Michael Gracie

I whipped this rod around for ten hours straight, just like I said I would. I’m anxious to describe how I feel about its performance, but I think a little primer is due first…

Roughly ten years ago, one of my fanatical fly fishing friends booked a trip to the Bahamas and stuck me with half the bill - so I went, if only to make sure he didn’t bullshit about all the bonefish he caught. We were out on the skiff day one, and he won the flip for first on deck. A few cruisers were spotted, but my buddy couldn’t reach them. Then I stepped up to the plate, and my bat was a rod (sorry - different brand) I had picked up in Miami just a month before during a secret Biscayne Bay practice session. It was a rocket launcher - nearly impossible to load without half the spool in flight, but when she did the bend right it was sayonara Crazy Charlie. Anyway, my buddy sits next to the guide watching, in awe that quickly turned to disgust - finally he gives, and we spent the rest of the day using one rod. When we returned to the dock, I picked up the gear and he sprinted back to the hotel - when I arrived he was on the phone with outfitters on the mainland, looking for that stick. He finally found one, in California, and had the shop do a FedEx Priority (yes, to the Bahamas).

The Orvis Zero G 906-4 Tip-Flex 10.5 may well find itself in a similar predicament. All I have to do is wind up on someone else’s big trout trip - I’ll demand we fish streamers, and then I’ll pull this puppy out. We’ll make sure there’s a company FedEx account handy.
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There are several people in the world who were tired of my incessant research on a new streamer rod. I’d been searching for months, read reviews until my eyes were sore, and cast at least a half-dozen different models. Sure, I already had a decent rod for streamers (the Sage 690-3 SP), and my short casting stroke and obsessive use of sinking lines and 6-inch pieces of dumbell-ed rabbit strip was pushing it - nonetheless I was pretty satisfied with its performance. I’d been lucky too - no multi-ounce flies had yet knocked a tip off - but I was in need of a backup quarterback just in case. Instead I wound up with what may be a starter - the Orvis Zero G 906-4 Tip-Flex 10.5.

Like my last ostentatious and frivolous purchase rod review I’ll being doing this one in two parts: paint and trim, and track acceleration (reels do the braking). I purchased this beauty from (where else?) Orvis - specifically from the Cherry Creek location. I’d hinted to the folks there that I was in want of a rocket launcher, and a few days ago Kerry Caragher said I had to cast this one. Fast forward to this afternoon - I was back in the shop, BYORL (bring your own reel and line) and out on the grass for a test drive. I’ll have more to report in regards to performance later, but I can say I was false casting 30+ feet of 5 inch/second sinker with barely a twitch of my elbow and some short tugs on the line - you guessed it…I was sold.

Following is the first half of the review, and some pics, of the latest addition to the quiver…
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Started off chasing dinks, and still rolling!

I guess it’s my dirty little secret - I haven’t been trout fishing all that long. I held my first fly rod when I was maybe five or six (a bamboo something) and remember catching plenty of bream out of a South Florida canal that day. I was certainly “hooked”, but didn’t buy a fly rod with my own money until I was like ten - and I don’t know what ever happened to it. The bottom line is I grew up on bass and bonefish, and didn’t actually catch my first trout until I was twenty-something.

When I first took up the pursuit of Salmoninae, I purchased a Sage 6-weight DS2 after checking it out in the shop. It felt good in the hand, had a comfortable weight, and stiff action. But my tutor laughed hysterically the first time they saw me with it on this little East Coast tailwater we were fishing. “You should take that rod to the bass pond,” they noted. Up until that time all I’d ever cast was 7’s, 8’s, 9’s and 12’s, and soon after the exchange I was pulling the jaws off of 12 inch rainbows. “Maybe I need a lighter rod,” I thought.

That inkling became a Sage 389-3 LL, which I got a decent deal on (including a good price for my ‘overweighted’ trade-in).

Why did I buy this rod? I knew diddly about trout rods, but this one came highly recommended. And I think because it was so beautiful - the finish was that glossy deep blood red, and the reel seat was an excellent mahogany tint with silver hardware. I put a Lamson LP 1.5 on it, and fished almost every afternoon for an entire summer with the rig. Since that time I’ve built up my trout quiver, and this little gem sees much less use. It last saw action on the Arkansas River during the Mother’s Day caddis hatch, winding up being the perfect compliment to #18 elk hairs (as well as morning nymphs). The rod/reel couple remains together until this day, and the rig remains one of my favorites.

And why did I bring this up? Tom Chandler of Trout Underground fame has been bragging profusely about his seemingly never-ending trip to Montana, and the latest of his jaunts was to yet another untouched small stream. While reading Tom’s blow-by-blow I heard a rattling in the closet - it was the LL wanting to get out. The poor thing wants some attention, and of course Mr. Chandler immediately volunteered to assist through the freshly chartered non-profits The Underground Home for Underused Sage LL Rods and the Underground Rod Rescue (A Home for Under-appreciated fly rods).

So where does that leave me? Well…I’m about to get hauled in for rod neglect, and I’ve got other fishing folks queuing up for adoption. I better get this baby wet, and soon. So I guess I’m now frantically searching for some small Colorado streams. Please don’t call the authorities on me - provide venue advice instead.

Classic, seasoned, and pristine - needs owner that won’t leave me in the closet all the time. Loves throwing double-taper lines and #20 Adams’s. Email sage389-3LL@lonelyflyrods.com with pictures of habitats frequented and potential partners (reels).