I have yet to cast a "One." Last night a friend gave me his review and deemed it a very good rod. At $800 I won't be buying a One, for a couple simple reasons. For me to spend $800 on a plastic fly rod I want it to perform four times better than a $200 rod, although I might sucker for it if it were only twice as good a performer. The other reason I don't buy $800 plastic rods is that I'd rather up the ante and for $1100 or $1200 buy an heirloom bamboo fly rod that will retain its value and likely appreciate in value over time, whereas all plastic rods, including the "One" begin depreciating in worth even before your Visa bill arrives in the mail, even before you pay for the damn thing. Used plastic rods generally sell for 50% of their original cost, which might not be so bad if its performance was truly two or four times better than the lower cost counter part. But it isn't. Any good caster knows that.
However, I'm really glad that companies like Sage and others that produce high end products keep moving the cutting edge of product technology. That is the energy that causes the lower end rods in the marketplace to constantly become better and better. All but the very worst graphite fly rods available today, and there aren't very many of those, are vastly superior to the very best fly rods that were available at any price 40 years ago. Trickle down technology really does work, unlike trickle down economics, but that's a lesson for another day.
Sg
Edited by Salmo g. (09/15/11 01:43 PM)