Gorge Fly Shop Blog: Thomas and Thomas Exocett SS Rod Series Review

Big Flies! Big Fish!

We place big demands on fly rods in this modern day of extreme fly fishing. Flies are bigger, lines are more aggressive, our casting is more aggressive and we go after big payoffs! It's no wonder we are in constant search for the next better fly rod to appear on the market.

A bit over a year ago my friend and guide Lance handed me a rod to fish that I will say without hesitation has since changed my understanding about rod actions.

You see, I'm a big fly junkie! If I need magnifiers to tie on a fly than that fly is too small! I don't even like flies in the double digit range unless it's on the big (?/0 = aught) size. Streamers, sliders, frogs, beetles, hoppers, sculpins and crawdads, whatever is on a predators menu is fair game.

The rod that I experienced was the Thomas & Thomas Exocett SS 250gr.

The game was for big migratory brown trout in Chile. The freestone river was extreme in diversity from high winds to slot canyon bluffs. Casts were either short and precise to pockets or across stream long.

No Tip Quiver

The first characteristic I picked up on with Exocett SS was it's ability to make short upstream one backcast flips and not express a tip quiver. Up till that time with my personal rod each flip ended with a disturbing little tip quiver that inherently pulled my fly a foot from target every cast. No matter how much I tried to adjust my cast my rod did this. Guess what, most of today's fast action rods do this with heavy flies.
Exocett SS has amazing dampening action and does not quiver.

Lifting Power

Next, I notice the extreme power to lift. Heavy flies and lines don't always pull easy from the water. This fact can consume a lot of your arms energy throughout the day. Exocett SS is way easier to lift heavy flies and lines from water. Like quite noticeably easier.

Since this first encounter I've tested this rod against many others in lifting power alone and the next best rod I found is still no comparison to the Exo SS.

Fighting Power

On my last day at end of day I hooked a giant! Due to the big browns advantage in situation I still can't believe we landed it.

We were fishing boulder pockets and a big brown thrashed the surface hard just downstream from where I was wading. Lance yelled to me to throw across stream and swing my headbanger fly across where that brown just jumped. I did! He nailed it, hard! I returned a hard hook set. Immediately he turned head for downstream.

The quarters where tight in a canyon with rapid after rapid. If he would have made it past the first downstream rapid there would have been no way to hang onto him.

With rod bent through the cork, butt in my gut and two hands on the grip I battled that brown from rapids and brought him to lance's hand. He was the star of the trip easily surpassing 30". I don't think the rod I brought could have done it.

Since that first encounter with the SS250 I've also had the privilege to experience the SS160 and the SS350 grain models.

The Exo SS160 is a hopper/popper dream rod. Precise and easy, cast after cast. On missed strikes it will pick up gobs of line and make one shot recast back on target with precision. It also handles mid size streamers with ease.

I took an Exocett SS350 to New Orleans and battled some bull reds. It's was absolutely perfect for this fishing. Easy short, precise cast with powerful hooksets and quite capable of reaching out to those far out targets in the wind.

Our last day was a fish frenzy. With my regular rod I would have had my arm in a sling by the end of that day but I wasn't sore at all. The Exocett SS powered through every fight and begged for more.

The Exocett SS's will adapt to many lines but my favorite "big power" line thus far is Scientific Anglers Amplitude Smooth Titan Long. The rod is quite capable of shooting the entire line. For the SS250 run the WF7 for easy flies but go up to the WF8 for the heavy stuff. Run a WF5 or WF6 on the SS160 according to your needs. These rods adapt well to lines so be willing to match line according to fly size and worry less about the rod.

The Exocett SS also comes in a 200 gr and a 450 gr both of which I've not yet had the pleasure to fish. I'd like to change that soon.