TEST SAGE BASS II Largemouth 330gr
6 ratings

Please, may we have a warm welcome to our new Mouching contributor, the terrible Jérôme Servonnat, the kind of guy that will take your gear and test it with everything he finds! 

 

Sage has been of the (simply The ?) brand having a series of short 8’ flyrods for bass flyfishing, and for any fish that you target with big flies. Originally, the Bass series has been developed at Sage’s to target black bass specifically, especially in the highly lucrative competitions in the US (the rod length is limited to 8’ feet max). It has been developed to fish at short distances, pickup and cast, no longer than 12m (a little bit more than the length of the flyline belly). We’ve had the pleasure to test the Largemouth model to fish, guess what, our beloved pikes. And it’s a true fishing machine to fish the cover from a float tube.

Technical and aesthetic description

Sage Bass 2, Largemouth, pike, flyfishing, peche mouche, test, Mouching

The Bass 2 is not a casual rod. With it’s 7’11’’, it could not only be wearing the same dress as her 9’ sisters : a beautiful olive varnish, red-bordeaux tying, and red aluminum anodised reel seat (suitable for saltwater) ! Fun, but once again at Sage’s, it’s very classy. As for the One series, the rod has hard chrome snake guides, and two Fuji ceramic stripping guides.

It comes in a  olive rod case, with an integrated reel case. And moreover, it comes with a custom flyline developed for this rod, the Sage Bass 2 Taper flyline.

Description of the rod action

The Bass 2 is a very smooth rod, a medium-progressive action. On the pictures showing the rod under pressure, we see that the rod top (the last two feet) bends easily. With a growing pressure, the rod starts to show a nice circle shape on the upper half of the rod, with no stiff point. We can also see the power of the rod on its first 1.5m, typical of a rod designed to fish in the cover.

 

The rod loads with only two meters of flyline. At those very short distances, one can feel the rod tip bending, and you only to cast a few meters of line more to feel the upper third of the rod loading. It loads and gives the energy back almost by itself. It is really at its maximum efficiency and comfort at less than 12m. Its action allows multiplying short casts to target any meter of the bank. The real strength of the Bass 2 is that it allows fishing without struggling at short distances. What it is not especially the case with a stiff fast action rod. Sage has been promoting for short casts, and for multiple pick-up and layback down issues. This is exactly the feeling we’ve had with this rod.

Avec un streamer à brochet

As said previously, Sage has developed its own flyline for the Bass 2 rod, the Bass 2 Taper 330gr (for the Largemouth model), that we have tried with the rod. We have also put on the rod a Rio Outbound Short 10-weight floating line, and an Airflo Depth Finder 300gr. The common point between those flylines is that they are all very short and heavy. The Bass 2 took them all very well. It the Bass 2 already gives you the best of this flyrod, there is no doubt that the Rio Outbound flyline deserves a special distinction.

Thanks to its smooth action, the rod is able to cast any type of pike streamer. You don’t feel the streamer « hit » the rod, it absorbs the shocks. We have fished with 4/0 size streamers as well as with big tandem flies. Of course, all of this is true while you fish it in its efficiency domain, fishing at short distances. We would not advise this rod for somebody who would like to fish wide areas and make long casts. This would be like advising a Mini to some salesman driving more than 500km per day with a lot of products to carry with him. The Bass 2 is a fishing machine, for the one who loves sight fishing, and cover fishing.

General evaluation

A true Sage aesthetic, an uncommon rod, very light, with a smooth and comfortable action. A wonderful rod dedicated to the predator hunters, searching for an efficient tool to fish the cover.

You can find it at Ardent Fly fishing.