Cork quality has gone WAY down in ALL modern rods.

I have paid top dollar for two 4-pc SAGE sticks.... old school RPL+ flyrods that were the premier rod of their day, a 7 wt and a 9 wt.

I foolishly drowned the 9 wt in the ocean along with a comparably priced Abel reel.

The replacement XP casts beautifully but quickly runs out of butt for fighting fish. It's been broken in the butt section 3 times... twice by yours truly... while line was leaving the reel.

The original RPL+ 7 is still my workhorse single hander and easily outguns the XP 9 in a fish fight. The RPL+ 7 has never been broken, even when aggressively put into lockdown mode.
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"Let every angler who loves to fish think what it would mean to him to find the fish were gone." (Zane Grey)

"If you don't kill them, they will spawn." (Carcassman)


The Keen Eye MD
Long Live the Kings!