Quest Outdoors

Direwolf · Alevin Joined: 06 Mar 2004 Posts: 10

Hi all,
I am looking at having a custom rod built by Dave Lewis at http://www.performanceflyrods.com The blank will likely be a Sage Z-Axis 11' 8wt rod with some custom stuff added. With that I am considering a Ross CLA 4 or 5 large arbor reel.

Here are my questions:

I have used the Sage XP and liked it, how does the Z-Axis stack up against it?

I have never used Ross reels, I had wanted a Harris but it looks like they are going or have gone out of business. Can anyone review the Ross CLA series of reels?

Lastly, would this rod work well for a Spey rod should I decide to give that a shot?

Thanks!

TheSteelheadBum · Lunker Joined: 17 Dec 2005 Posts: 517 Location: The Joe

I wouldn't say this is a "spey rod" but it does spey cast a 400 grain skagit line with 109 grain 15' tips cut back to 13' very nicely. It all depends on the water you fish whether the rod would be worth a darn or not. If you are fishing smaller water then it would be a very nice rod. Will work on bigger water too, just would not be my first choice.

Those CLA reels are very nice reels...

Another option which would be cheaper would be to have Gary Anderson build you one of his 11' 8 weight rods. I think they are better than the Z-Axis sticks myself, but a little cheaper... Just type Anderson Custom Rods into a Google search and you will find his site...

I will say this: If you are going to be indy fishing for steelhead the 8 weight is to much rod. Go with the 7 weight lined with an 8 weight S.A. Nymph taper line... These 11' sticks are more beefy than a standard 10' single hand 7 or 8 weight would be...

Direwolf · Alevin Joined: 06 Mar 2004 Posts: 10

Primarily I would be fly fishing with it, I just wondered if it were versatile enough to spey fish with should I decided to try that in the future.

TheSteelheadBum · Lunker Joined: 17 Dec 2005 Posts: 517 Location: The Joe

I can't say I really understand what you mean... Spey is just a form of casting used while fly fishing. It can be used with every form of fly fishing there is. You can use it on a 6' 1 weight to a 17' 11 weight. That rod will spey cast well as long as it is lined properly, just like basically any other rod...

If swinging streamers is what you mean by spey, this rod does it very well and you will be very happy with it. I used a 400 grain Rio skagit with the tips I mentioned above and it performed great. As long as you are not standing in to deep of water, you can bang the backing knot through the guides with that combo and toss some good sized flies with it.

You may also try a Airflo Compact Skagit on it, that head is shorter than the Rio head and would probably be even sweeter on that shorter rod. When I owned that rod, the Compact Skagit heads were not available at that time...

If/when you get that rod and you want to try different lines on the rod Poppy at www.redshedflyshop.com will send you out any line he carries for you to try on it free of charge, you just have to pay to ship it back to him...

That rod will be at the spey clave we are having here on the Joe May 17th if you care to try it before you buy it...

Direwolf · Alevin Joined: 06 Mar 2004 Posts: 10

Thanks! I will definitely be wanting to try some different lines on it once it arrives!