Weak in Review

We eventually found the second shop, despite the best efforts of the map app to send us in circles. Unlike the jerk guide a couple of weeks ago, the young man behind the counter, Adam, was helpful. Adam listened to what I was looking for in a rod, recited the pros and cons of some rods they carry, and recounted his experience with some of the rods with the caveat that “It may not have been the fault of the arrow but the Indian.” I like that honesty. No false bravado. We discussed warranties, which has been a hot topic in recent times. (See Kelly Galloup’s recent post regarding high-priced rods here. Or read Kirk Deeter’s 09/22 article about re-thinking warranties here ). Adam walked with us to the park to try the Echo Trout X and re-try the Scott Centric. No Loomis rods around. My testing found that I still don’t particularly care for the Centric 906-4, but picking up the Echo Trout X 906-4 and casting 90 degrees off shoulder felt like coming home. It flexed just where I wanted and in the amount I want for a fishing rod. It was easy to cast and felt good, at least to me. It’s not a distance casting tool, but easily could get to 85’. Adam hadn’t tried the Trout X, so he got a chance to test it tooand appreciated it as well. The thing I didn’t like was the reel seat, which felt and looked like aluminum foil. I’m thinking to myself, “What could go wrong with that?! It’d probably be just fine, but [scrunched up face] geez, I just don’t know ….”Thanking Adam for his time, and buying some tying material, I took his card and said I needed to noodle on it a bit before committing but would call if I decided to buy it.

Sunday was very busy with cleaning up ladder fuels, so fly rod questions and casting practice were set aside. Later we looked up Echo’s warranty policy, found here: Echo’s warranty policy . It’s doesn’t have mercy for stupid human tricks, like sliding/falling off a 4-foot-tall river-side boulder and breaking the third section, which I’ve done, or hurriedly pulling the line/leader connection loop through the tip-top and breaking the guide, which I’ve done, or hitting the rod with split shot and subsequently breaking the compromised second section while landing an 18” rainbow, which Steve has done. Whether the rod is warrantied depends upon Echo’s review of the broken rod and determination of the cause. The warranty page says you can buy a replacement tip section of a current model, but only the tip section. So what if I damage the blank below the tip section? I’d have to replace the whole rod? That would mean buying another $400 rod, not just a blank, so would I be better off buying a $900 rod to begin with?Echo’s warranty works best for the careful, mindful angler who doesn’t scramble over boulders and slide down scree ruining waders. It’s okay to have a warranty that precludes user error, but I need to be able to purchase any section.

Given all of that, Steve encouraged me to cast his TFO BVK 906-4. It’s too stiff for his liking, but if I liked it, he’d give it to me and buy another 906-4 in something that suits him better. That’d be a win all around because he has more “recreation funds” than I, and I still need to replace the stolen first-generation Ross Evolution reel. The good news is that I did like the BVK, and I’ll cast it again today to be sure.