Ever since Hardy announced their Sirrus Glass rods with Sintrix technology, I have been curious. For the last two years I have tried to find reviews of this rod series. Hatch magazine posted a review, and the reviewer described it as a full flexing slow action rod that flexed down to the handle. Hardy described it as a slow, deep loading rod. Cameron Mortenson of the Fiberglass Manifesto also described it as in the Hardy ads. Bob Hallowell on Fiberglass Flyrodders said he had tried the 4 weight model at a flyfishing show and thought it was fairly fast and would be better with a 5 weight line. I finally decided if I was ever going to find out how the rod cast and fished, I was just going to have to buy one. A couple of weeks ago, I ordered the 6' 3 piece 2/3 weight rod from Harris Sportsmail in England, as they have by far the best prices on Hardy gear. I was beginning to wonder if USPS had lost my rod in Chicago, but it finally showed up 2 days ago. Initial casting with a Scientific Anglers GPX WF3 line showed me that this is not a really slow, deep loading rod. The GPX line is a half line weight heavy, and the rod was not at all overloaded, and even on a long cast, demonstrated what I would describe as a mid-flex action (as Orvis would describe it). Today I did some more lawn casting with several lines. A Barrio Small Stream WF2 was a little light, and there had to be quite a bit of line out before you could feel the rod load. I feel this line would work fairly well for casting dry flies. A Cabela's Prestige DT2 worked very well with this rod, as did the Barrio Small Stream WF3. Another line that worked very well with this rod was a Scientific Anglers Heritage Ultra WF3. Lawn casting is fun, but a rod really needs to be evaluated on the stream. We went to a nearby small creek, where we could find a precarious perch along the bank. I used the Heritage Ultra line and cast a small bead chain bluegill fly out along a ledge parallelling deeper water, hoping to at least pick up a few bluegills or longears. Instead, as the fly was swept along under the ledge, I suddenly had a solid hit that I knew was no sunfish. I had hooked up with a smallmouth bass of approx. 2 to 2.5 pounds. When I rigged up I noticed I had a very light tippet put on during trout season. I was too lazy to switch it for a heavier tippet, figuring I was just going to be catching a few small sunnies. I managed to get the smallie up to the bank, but I didn't have a net. At 71 years young, I am getting too fat to just bend over and bottom lip the fish, and if I squatted down, I wasn't too sure I could get back up without help. I grasped the line to pull the fish toward the bank, and of course that was when the tippet snapped. Oh well, at least I had a great time up to that point. This rod is a keeper.

Larry

Nice report. Rod sounds like alot of fun.