In fly rod length, that is...

Test Results

Casting Distance

I would rate myself as a slightly-better-than-average caster, but not particularly accurate, and sometimes distance-challenged. I found that with my usual 26 - 30' shooting heads, there was little difference in distance between the short rods and my 9' rods. A slight change in timing was about all I needed to get back to my normal working casting range, which is 90 -100'. Occasionally, with the longer heads and a tail wind, I would need to resort to a water-haul (letting the head touch the water slightly on the backcast) in order to keep things under control.

I did notice that with regular weight-forward fly lines, I was not able to carry as much fly line in the air as I normally could with a 9' rod. That was expected, and not an issue most of the time, because I usually use regulation or shorter shooting heads. I would have had problems with "long" shooting heads (such as the Rio Outbound® integrated shooting head), because the head sections are significantly longer than 30' (37.5' in the case of the Rio Outbound®).

Line Weight Ratings - Or...What Does "8 weight" Really Mean?

Both the Sage BASS Series and the TFO Mini Magnum have line weight designations based on grain weights (330 grains for the Sage rod, 350 grains for the TFO Mini Magnum). Why did they take this approach? The answer is rooted in the way in which manufacturers rate fly rods for line weight.

It's become common knowledge that rod manufacturers rate heavier fly rods using 40' of fly line (what they consider to be the normal working distance for heavier rods), rather than the 30' length that AFTMA uses when classifying fly lines.

Thus, an "8 weight" rod is normally designed to optimally handle the weight of 40' of 8 weight fly line. However, if you look at what that equates to in terms of weight in grains, you will see that, depending on the taper of the fly line, the weight is about the same as 30' of a 9 or 10 weight fly line. So...if you were going to use a 30' shooting head with the same rod, you should use a 9 or 10 weight head, not an 8 wt. This is where the practice of "overlining" a rod when using shooting tapers originated.

From this perspective, it's probably more appropriate to rate a rod based on the "grain weight" of fly line that it is designed to handle, rather than the "AFTMA line weight". If a rod is designed to handle 330 grains (Sage BASS Series), you would use an 8 wt. line if you are casting longer distances with a full fly line, or a 10 wt. line if casting short distances or using a shooting head. For our purposes, since we use short (30' or less) shooting heads, you would suspect that the rod would work best with a 10-11 wt. shooting head. This is precisely what we found.

Now consider the TFO TiCR X 7'6" 8 wt. The rod was designed for short casts, and as expected, it balanced very well with 15' - 22' of an 8 wt. line (25 - 35' casts, with a leader). However, I had a lot of problems trying to cast a full 30' 8 wt. shooting head on the rod - I just could not do it.

Dropping down to a 6 wt. integrated shooting head solved the problem. With this lighter AFTMA line weight, the rod handled 30'+ of fly line like a charm, and I could easily launch 65 - 80+ foot casts with a small Clouser Minnow. The little TFO is a fun rod with light tippets, and has actually become one of my favorite rods for fishing San Diego Bay.

Fish fighting

Rods designed for short distance casts with bulky flies tend to be softer in the butt. The Sage BASS Series rod and the TFO TiCR X rod definitely seemed to fit in that category.

However, as you might expect, the problem with softer rod actions when fishing "beyond the breakwater" is that you lose some lifting power. The rod bends a bit too deeply, shortening the lever arm so that you can't move the fish quite as much as you want.

But it's a delicate balance. Too long and too stiff a lever arm, and you're going to get "worked" by a big fish. Too short and too soft, and you can't move the fish when you pump the rod.

We also found that if a rod bends too far in towards the grip, it becomes tempting to high-stick the rod when pumping a fish. You keep wanting to grab the blank somewhere above the handle to get a little more leverage, which is courting disaster. Keep that rod hand on the grip!

Of the three rods, the TFO Mini Magnum, with its more powerful butt section, turned out to be a more effective fish fighting tool. That's not to say that the Sage and the little TFO couldn't handle big fish - it's just more work. But then again, neither of these rods were designed as bluewater sticks.

Fish Landing

Our original premise was that the shorter rods would make it easier to handle the fish at boatside. The good news is that the shorter rod length does seem to help. Not a lot, but enough to make me feel like it's worth using the shorter rods on a day-to-day basis. Controlling the fish at boatside is easier, especially when fishing by myself. It's still not a piece of cake, however, since even the short fly rods are still basically long, flexible graphite sticks.