I'll be interested to hear how it handles those salmon and steelhead when you tangle with them. The one knock I have heard on the Z-Axis series (very little personal experience, as priorities usually dictate that can't make an $800 fly rod purchase) was that they didn't flex deeply enough when fighting big fish to hold them as well as most would like. I get that those were fast action rods, which would explain why they might be stiffer, but people who know have told me there are other fast action rods out there that flex better during the fight (although most seem to agree the Z-Axis was about tops for casting). If the ONE addresses that issue with any satisfaction, based on what you have to say about its casting capabilities, it would be a tough act to follow. With a name like "ONE", I suppose it had better be - the Sage marketing folks are going to have a tall order ahead of them when they have to come up for a name for their next top-end series.

Either way, since most of us do a lot more casting than fighting fish, and because you can't hook many fish if you can't make consistent casts, casting capability would seem to be a good area to place heavy emphasis. Sage has been as good as anybody for a while now in that regard (IMO). Congrats on what should prove to be a great purchase!