(Not Quite) Putting the Sage Bluegill Rod Through the Paces

I have a go-to fly rod for smallmouth bass fishing that generally relieves me of any fears of covetousness. It's an old Fenwick Feralite fiberglass rod, 8-foot for 7-weight line. It casts nicely, has the slow action that I love, but isn't noodley like many fiberglass rods. It also has a nice brown color that glows when the sun hits it just right. It's right in my sweet spot -- plenty good, but nothing fancy, and likely enough to get strange looks from other anglers. But my cousin Jeff has this Sage Bluegill rod from its Bass series that gives me the urges.

I'd worked it out with Jeff that on a recent outing, Aug. 25 in northern Wisconsin, I'd give the Bluegill a whirl.

It's a sight to behold, with a gold-green hue that Sage calls Treefrog, because that apparently sounds a lot cooler than gold-green. It comes in at 7-feet 11-inches, which is designed to make it legit for bass tournaments. That fact took a little of the high-gloss sheen off the thing for me, but I am a sucker for odd-sized rods even still. I have an old Abbey & Imbrie glass rod that is clearly marked as 6 2/3 foot, which is probably the main reason I bought (and keep) the rod.    

I planned to fish the Bluegill, catch many large (smallmouth) bass, and live to tell about it. There was just one flaw to my plan. I was floating down the river with my teenage son, and fatherly instincts would kick in, meaning I'd spend all my energy putting him in casting position and only make a few casts myself, on the odd occasions where we anchored or got out to wade fish a bit. That didn't lessen my enjoyment in the least, but it meant this would amount to a brief test drive rather than a day of full-on casting and, ideally, catching. 

When I did get a chance to cast -- whether seated in the canoe or standing in the river -- I can say I was more than impressed with how the Bluegill performed. These rods are built to eliminate the need for false casting in many circumstances, and false casting or not, I could easily throw 50 feet of line without working at it. A better caster on a bigger river would scoff at those casts, but it was all I needed on this water, and with my casting prowess, it's probably pretty close to my limit on any rod anyway.

I like the fact that while it's often not necessary to false cast, it's easy enough to do when you need to. Or when old habits kick in. Sage bills these rods as fast action, but I found that my casting improved when I slowed down my pace a bit. (Not surprising.) I guess I'd call the Bluegill's action medium-fast. That probably makes sense as the lightest rod in Sage's Bass II series. It weighs in at 3 3/8 ounces. As all rods in the series do, it comes with a line built for the rod. This one comes with a 230-grain Sage Bass II Taper line. My guess is that translates to about a 7-weight, although I didn’t do the research.

I was casting a size 8 black wooly bugger with green flashback, my go-to fly on these waters. The rod chucked the bugger easily. Later, I'd try a size 4 swimming deer hair frog, since my friend Eric, in another canoe fishing (Jeff's) Sage Smallmouth rod, was doing quite well on the frog. The deer hair frog was castable with the Bluegill, but the Smallmouth rod appeared to handle it much better. As Eric reminded me at several points throughout the day, it sure would have been nice to be able to switch between the Smallmouth strung up with a frog and the Bluegill, with a wooly bugger. I think he meant it would be nice for him, but I wasn't budging.

The first smallie I hooked up with was, in fact, small -- maybe 10 inches. It felt like a much bigger fish. The rod seemed to transfer every bit of that fish's fight to the full-wells grip and fighting butt. The rod obviously has a lot more than was necessary for that little guy, but the quick contest telegraphed the fact that a bigger fish would be amazing on this rod. Unfortunately, I wasn't the guy catching the big ones on this day, fishing mostly after each spot had been fairly pounded by three other anglers. The biggest fish I hooked up with went around 13 inches and was a riot.

The brief test drive left me with a great first impression of the rod. And it left me making plans to give it a better workout in the near future. But with a price tag north of $500, I'll have to stick to stealing the Bluegill from Jeff's arsenal.