This summer I've started fishing the mountain streams a lot more. In the past I didn't really bother with them as much because the Bow is so close and is such an amazing fishery. I think this year with the low flows, high water temps, and lack of dry fly fishing on the Bow I started looking to the cutty streams to get my dry fly fix. The one problem I had on the smaller streams was that all my rods are medium-fast to very fast action, so they don't load very well at some of the shorter distances you're going to be casting. Any excuse to buy another rod really. I decided on a 3wt because I figured it would be light enough to make smaller fish fun to catch but still be able to handle the bigger cutties and throw a hopper in the wind.
I went down to the fly shop and looked around at the 3wt rods they had in the 7'6" to 8'6" range to test. The three rods I ended up casting were the G. Loomis NRX LP 8'8" 3wt, Sage Accel 7'6" 3wt, and Sage Circa 7'9" 3wt. (I realize there are lots of other 3wt rods that probably fit my criteria, but either the fly shop didn't have them in stock or they were not carbon rods.) I have to admit that I already had a bias going into this. A few people I know raved about the NRX LP rods, and I own a Sage Accel that I really like. At the same time I had cast a Circa once before when it first came out and didn't care much for the slow action. I fully expected that I would be walking away with the NRX or Accel but boy was I wrong.
Rather than bore anyone with a long description of how I tested the three rods I'll just sum it up. The Accel was nice when casting 20 feet or farther. At short distances the med-fast action just didn't load well at all. It's a nice rod, just not suited to the water I'd be fishing with it. Next up, the NRX LP was much better than the Accel at short distances but once you got to 20 feet or more I felt it didn't cast as well and lost a lot of accuracy. Maybe this was just because of my shitty casting and the wind that was blowing, but that was my experience with it.
So the Circa. Like I said, I cast one before (can't even remember which length/weight it was) and didn't care for it. I think when I did try it before I was probably trying to cast it like a fast action rod or maybe it was just poorly lined. When I tested it at shorter distances it loaded up no problem but was still able to cast up to 50 feet easily. If you try double hauling hard or muscling this rod it will end up being a mess, but with a smooth casting stroke it'll lay line down in a straight line every time. It feels a little strange going from something like a One or Accel to the Circa, but once you adjust your cast it's a sweetheart of a rod. I used it on the Livingstone last Sunday and had a blast. I don't think I've ever had a rod place my dry flies on the water as gently before. I caught cutties between 6" and around 12-14" and had fun, which is all that really matters. I currently have it lined with an Airflo Super-Dri River and Stream, which seems to be a great delicate presentation combo, but I'm still able to toss something foamy like a Fat Albert.
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