mrchunk
Member
- Joined
- May 25, 2007
- Messages
- 245
I finally received my long awaited shipment from Hardy. I got my Zenith 9 ft 6 wt. I had ordered this rod from a shop in Oregon about a month ago. When I ordered it, I knew to expect to wait. Hardy is not sending as many rods in to the States as originally expected due to their quality control on the product. Fewer of the rods are passing their rigid testing than I guess they originally thought. That said, if you get one, you can guarantee it will be strong! In any event, I finally got the rod. My intended use for it was big streamers for trout on bigger water, light smallmouth/largemouth fishing and possibly even some inshore salt applications. The shop I dealt with gave a $100 line credit for this rod so I paired it with a Sharkskin GPX 6 wt line from the shop (I won't name the shop etc but if you PM me I can give more details. They were excellent to work with and had great incentives ).
When I finally got the rod and removed it from the case, I was blown away (again) by the look and feel. I hadn't had my hands on one since the VF Fly Fishing show and even then, I touched so many different rods, it was hard to remember how well this one looked and felt. The cork is very high end and the wraps and finish are just very pleasant to look at. I would compare the color and finish to that of the Z Axis with a little more flare. The reel seat is different than anything else I've ever owned (I'm a Winston guy for the most part) but I find it kinda cool and different.
The weight and feel of this rod is like no other 6 wt I've used. It feels like a high end 5 wt. I put it to use on the Tully for about 3 hours of streamer fishing below the road to nowhere. I used everything from size 12 unweighted buggers on thru size 4 articulated weighted streamers. The difference casting the 2 different styles was negligible at worst. I didn't grow tired at all casting for 3 straight hours and found myself enjoying every cast. I wasnt catching much and had a few bumps here and there so it wasn't as if the fish were giving me a big reason to stay. Past experience for me at least was I could go 1 maybe 2 hours doing this before ADD took over and told me to hang it up because I was bored.
I did take one break from streamers and tied on a heavy nymph rig to change it up (both to test the fish and the rod). Casting this rig was effortless with a big stonefly for the top fly and a weighted SJworm on the bottom and a big thingamabobba about 5 ft up. I was throwing this set up all the way across stream, throwing big mends, the whole deal and the rod performed admirably.
Overall, I am thrilled with the rod. Originally I thought it would be a specialty rod for me but I am beginning to think it may have more use than I had intended.
The rod comes with an aluminum tube which is wrapped in an outer canvas with a drawstring. It also has an internal bag and aluminum ferrule plugs.
When I finally got the rod and removed it from the case, I was blown away (again) by the look and feel. I hadn't had my hands on one since the VF Fly Fishing show and even then, I touched so many different rods, it was hard to remember how well this one looked and felt. The cork is very high end and the wraps and finish are just very pleasant to look at. I would compare the color and finish to that of the Z Axis with a little more flare. The reel seat is different than anything else I've ever owned (I'm a Winston guy for the most part) but I find it kinda cool and different.
The weight and feel of this rod is like no other 6 wt I've used. It feels like a high end 5 wt. I put it to use on the Tully for about 3 hours of streamer fishing below the road to nowhere. I used everything from size 12 unweighted buggers on thru size 4 articulated weighted streamers. The difference casting the 2 different styles was negligible at worst. I didn't grow tired at all casting for 3 straight hours and found myself enjoying every cast. I wasnt catching much and had a few bumps here and there so it wasn't as if the fish were giving me a big reason to stay. Past experience for me at least was I could go 1 maybe 2 hours doing this before ADD took over and told me to hang it up because I was bored.
I did take one break from streamers and tied on a heavy nymph rig to change it up (both to test the fish and the rod). Casting this rig was effortless with a big stonefly for the top fly and a weighted SJworm on the bottom and a big thingamabobba about 5 ft up. I was throwing this set up all the way across stream, throwing big mends, the whole deal and the rod performed admirably.
Overall, I am thrilled with the rod. Originally I thought it would be a specialty rod for me but I am beginning to think it may have more use than I had intended.
The rod comes with an aluminum tube which is wrapped in an outer canvas with a drawstring. It also has an internal bag and aluminum ferrule plugs.
