peter charles

Depends on what that would-be spey caster wanted in a rod. I've never
tried an Elite but from what I understand, the Elites are similar to
the current Gem line so I'll confine my comments to the Gem's I've
tried. Gem's are fast action, stiff, powerful rods that are equally
at home overhead as they are on the spey. They're not that great as a
"learning" rod as timing and loading a more critical compared to more
moderate actioned rods. They are a bit heavier than other rods of
similar size, but by the same token, are more powerful than most as
well. The T&T line-up would be the closest in American made rods.

The best word to describe the Gem's is "robust". Big, powerful
sticks that can take anything a caster or a fish can dish out. To
slow them down to learn on, it would be necessary to overline them a
fair bit and that takes away some of the sweetness of the rods.
Because of the power, they'll handle the heavy lines and I'm sure some
would prefer them lined that way.

Andy Murry of Hardy lines his rods very lightly and only the upper
third to half of the rod is working. At a clave in Michigan, we were
trying his Gems, Sirrus, and Origin double-handed rods with a variety
of lines and I asked him if these rods were not in fact underlined
when used with the Hardy linesthat were rated for them. He thought
not but a few of us like the rods with a bit heavier load.

All that to say that is that these rods are big, powerful, and fast
with superb quality hardware and fittings. Not for the faint of
heart.

Peter

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