About 3 years ago I acquired two fly rods. One is a Sage XP 9 1/2 foot #6 which I bought second hand from a friend. He payed ca £550 for it. He only used it about 6 times.

The other is a Sonik 4 9 1/2 foot rated for 6/7 lines. I paid just over £100 for this rod.

Both rods are in 4 pieces.

After 2 years when I have attempted to fish with these rods on an even basis, I have come to the following conclusions:

The Sonik has much better rod rings, being single leg hard chromed. The Sage has a rather cheap snake rings, all of which are now grooved. The Sonik has two ceramic stripper rings, the Sage only one. None of the Sonik rings are grooved.

The Sage has a cheap cork handle, two of the corks coming loose(I fixed them myself). The reel seat has a hardwood spacer and a nickel silver uplocking screw location system. The Sonik has a uplocking full wells handle made with what I am sure is better cork. The anodised aluminium reel seat is top class with a screw system that locates reel in the righ place. The Sonik also has markers on the blank which facilitates assembly; the Sage doesn't!

And now casting performance:

This was evaluated with a #6/7 Micheal Evans (Shakespeare) Arrowhead forward taper floating line.

Both rods are supplied with 4 section bags and a tube. I don't see the reason for an aluminium tube in the case of the Sage.

Without going into too many details, the Sonik is far far superior to the Sage. It casts better and overall handles better.

In mentioning this, I have absolutely no personal or financial interest in the Sonik company.

Have you found the same conclusions as myself when comparing Sage with other rods?

The snakes on the Sage - British made. I am not casting aspersions here but you really do seem to have an aversion to the Sage brand and I suspect that this clouds your judgement. Please don't sully the name of other manufacturers, Hopkins and Holloway in this instance, in your crusade.

Eyup Ron , Sonic only started last year - honest !

Best wishes

Steve p

Are Sage rods over rated or over priced? Without question, but their 'marketing' is highly effective. But I think what a person wants/needs in a rod action is really the key here.

Same rod designation as to 'action,' line weight, etc., but from that point it's all over the map from one design to another. Is it necessary to spend seven-eight hundred dollars to purchase a very good fly rod? Rather doubt it as the smaller sellers are proving every day. A rod you may 'love' I might find to be the pits; or the other way around.

Can think of two rod makers (in my immediate area) that 10 years ago both were a 'who?' Both now can't turn out rods fast enough to meet existing demand. Part of how they got there was by joining boards just like this one where they joined in talking about their products, even if was just in response to a posted question.

One built his early reputation by sending rods (actually all over the world) out for fly fishermen to 'test drive' a new design and give him feed-back on how to 'tweak' the product. Want to 'try before you buy?' He'd build the rod and put a hold on your credit card, and if you like the rod (my guess is 99% of the time) rod was 'sold.' Don't like the rod ... send it back. Given the demand for his rods now, tend to doubt he's doing that now save for well established customers.

Try that with a Sage/Orvis/et al rod and see how far you get?

Know the brand name, but nothing about the company. Google is good, here's who runs the company. Interesting group of folks.

Who's behind SONIK

Given the 'heavy hitters' who get their Bio's on the site, this fellows inclusion had me scratching my head: "Frank Coleman -
Warehouse Assistant"

Who would you call if your order went missing?

__________________

Help fund the WTT study of the Softmouth

Time travel?... worm holes?...

Overpriced - Hell Yes! Over rated - Not sure about that one as Sage have some fantastic actions.

I am with you on price though

TCR #4 and #6
XP #4 #5 and #6
Z-Axis #4 #5 and #6
ZXL and SLT #4 #5
TXL all models.

I have found all above rods hard to beat

Take Care

Col

__________________
"It is not easy to tell one how to cast. The art must be acquired by practice.

.....er don't forget this principle will hold equally in reverse. People who spend £600 on a rod will also find it difficult to be totally objective about it.

Just my twopenneth

It was May 2008 actually, still it is only 2 years not 3.

So Ron is actually comparing a used rod he bought second hand 3 years ago against a rod which can only be a maximum of 2 years.
So the comparison hardly seems fair to me.

How about a proper comparison then?