Hot New Products

Winston Boron IIx Rods

continued from Hot New Products

Well, we are excited—the new Winston Boron IIx rods are awesome!

We have always been fans of the Winston WT series (these are the original rods that Tom Morgan designed) The WT Trout rods cast beautifully at short to medium distances but were not in the same class with either the Loomis GLX rods or the Sage XP's when it came to throwing long distances with larger flies, nor were they as adept at handling strong windy conditions.

The Winston Boron IIx rods do it all! These rods have a nice soft tip, like the WT rods, that allow for superb accuracy and delicate presentations at shorter distances. The softer, more flexible tip is also the key to protecting light tippets when you set the hook a little too hard on 5X and 6X.

A strong new boron/graphite composite is used in the butt section, and combined with stiff mid sections and softer tips—these rods redefine the fast-action category! Now you can make delicate presentations at 25 feet or make extremely long casts up to 100 feet with a rod like the standard 9 foot #5 weight! The most amazing thing to all of us here was how light these rods felt when we picked them up. They're close to a full ounce lighter than most comparable rods. Nothing on the market comes close to having the same power to weight ratio as these Boron IIx rods.

Lighter is always better, and Winston has gone to great lengths to come up with an extremely light rod. The use of boron/graphite makes a big difference of course. All unnecessary weight has been eliminated from the ferrules, and then the new strong but lightweight titanium "recoil" guides are used. In addition to being very light, these guides actually flex under pressure, and are almost indestructible. On some models, a very nice looking green graphite spacer reel seat is used.

These new Boron IIx rods are all 4-piece rods, perfect for the traveling angler, yet their actions make them feel like a one-piece rod in your hand.

No matter how great a new line of rods seems to be, there are always some rods that stand out above the rest. When we are casting these rods out on our lawn and testing them against other manufacturers rods, often we'll all come to the same conclusion that this particular rod is "right on the money".

Although nearly all of these Boron IIx rods feel great, but of the rods we cast, two were really special. Here are my top two picks in the series:

Winston Boron IIx - 9' #7

I know what you are thinking, "a 7weight, who buys a #7?" Well, I was in that camp until I cast this rod. I knew after the first cast, I was going to buy one and I did! This rod feels as light as any 5 weight, yet has the perfect amount of power to launch big hoppers or any dries out of a drift boat, and it will handle anything from smaller nymphs to larger streamers.

Winston Boron IIx - 9' #5

We were all very impressed with the 9 foot #5. This is a rod that can do it all, and will be perhaps the best all around rod we'll offer for sale this year. Extremely light, yet loads perfectly with a #5 line. This is a wonderfully accurate rod, even in a stiff breeze. If I weren't so impressed with 9' #7 this would be the top dog. Even with my sales pitch for the #7, we'll sell far more of the #4, 5 and 6-weight rods in this series.

All the 8 1/2 foot rods were terrific. You have your pick from an 8 1/2' #3, 4, or 5, and all seem to be well matched with their line sizes. These Boron IIx rods load very well at normal fishing distances with the line size that is recommended for them, unlike other rods from Sage or Loomis that are so powerful that we often go up one line size to get them to work for the average guy.

The Boron IIx rods come in line weights from 3 up to 12. They are all 4 piece rods and prices run $595 for the 3-6 weight rods, $615 for the 7-10 line rods, and $655 for the 12 weight.

If you have been waiting for something better in fly rods to come along, it's here!

George Anderson