Over the winter I made two rod purchases; a Sharpes plus 3 10 foot rated 7 and Flextec CDX66 10 feet rated 7/8. I bought the Sharpes to replace my now redundant Hardy Deluxe and the Flextec to see if a £40 rod was useable. Various issues have meant a late start to the season so on Saturday I took both rods to Loch Eye. Cosmetically the two rods couldn’t be further apart. The cork handle on the Sharpes is flawless, on the Flextec it’s heavily filled and roughly shaped. The reel seat on the Sharpes is top quality with two locking rings and rubber grommet to stop them jamming, nice touch. The Flextec reel seat looks a bit odd, like a bunch of washers with spacers between and only one locking ring. Reminds me of the old Shimano Twin power which continually worked loose. Snakes and rings on the Sharpes are again top quality titanium, the Flextec has what looks like silvered snakes rather than hard chromed. The Sharpes is three piece rich blue blank with matching tyings, the Flextec is a four piece brown blank ( although everyone else says it burgundy it looks brown to me) with burgundy threads. There are alignment dots on the sections with the Sharpes but not on the Flextec. The Sharpes comes with an aluminium tube the Flextec comes with a plastic fabric covered tube. The finishing on the Sharpes would put an Orvis Helios to shame. In fact I can’t think I’ve ever seen better. On the Flextec, well it’s adequate with the flashy writing on the blank making the rod look tacky.
In hand, held side by side the Flextec felt noticeable heavier. A quick wiggle revealed a little tip bounce in the Flextec, with none in the Sharpes. I matched the Sharpes with my Revelation Genesis reel and a double taper seven. The Flextec with my Caimore reel and a 9 weight shooting head. The Flextec balanced better with my old Hardy St.Aiden, the Caimore being a little light for it.
The lack of dots on the bottom two sections of the Flextec was a tad irritating, with no line ring on the bottom section you have to use the hook ring at the top of the handle or put the reel on and then line up the sections. Try that in the dark. The Sharpes being three piece doesn’t need section dots but has them anyway. With both rods setup the difference in weight is not really noticeable and disappears in use. The Plus 3 is described as having a medium action, which goes against the grain of the current trend for lightening fast rods. I wanted a work horse that could cover all situations; could lift five yards of fly line with a dry fly and lay it down on the water delicately, fire a full 30 yard line through the ring tip when required, damp a smash take without breaking off the leader and subdue a lively seatrout quickly. Before going for the Plus 3 I wiggled a Sharpes Gordon 2 in a shop and found it to be fast, too fast. There is a tendency for newcomers to the sport to get fooled into thinking that a fast stiff action means more power, us old dogs know this not to be true. The Plus 3 lifted five yards of line off the water and laid it down with no effort and the rods action cast the line. Whipping the line into the air with a roll cast, woofing it back and humffing it forward with a smooth forward haul and the whole fly line shot with ease. One thing I’d forgotten was how a good breeze affects a softer rod in the back cast, takes a little getting used to again (and believe me the wind was howling down the loch on Saturday).
I had no expectations of the Flextec, just wanted to see whether it was a serviceable rod for the price. The action was described as fast . I wouldn’t describe it as fast but as fast-ish, if that makes sense. In use the tip bounce wasn’t apparent which was a surprise. There has been some question about the strength of the top section of these rods which is why I used a nine weight head to put the top section under a good amount of strain firing out the line double hauling. Happily there were no issues, and stood up to some fierce hauling. The action is stiff but not too stiff and certainly has plenty of power. Not what I would call an all round rod it struggled to cast a dry fly at close range with a short line, it needed 10-12 yards through the ring tip to open up the action. It did however tame a 3lb brown at some distance. I don’t use gold heads or leaded flies but I’m fairly sure these would be cast without issue. In normal use I can’t see how you would break the top section of the rod. The 3lber put a lovely bend in the rod. Interestingly the reel didn’t work loose so the reel seat worked fine, but I still don’t trust it.

The Sharpes Plus 3 will be my first choice for my seatrout/brown fishing, it will cover any eventuality and is beautiful, elegant and flawless. The Flextec is a tad rough, flashy and tacky but ideal for punting size 4 salmon irons into the salt. For the Plus 3 think Cleo Roccos, for the CDX66 think Jordan. The Plus 3 retails at £250 they’ve been around for a few years now so you can get one for £150 I bought mine of Ebay for £100. The CDX66 is £40+PP. If your on a budget or just can’t justify over a hundred quid for a rod then I have no hesitation recommending the Flextec, 10 years ago you wouldn’t have got a rod of this quality for less than £100.