Winston Nexus - USA Built Under $500

Winston Nexus

USA Built Under $500 - Article 1262017

This article series is intended to review Fly Fishing Rods and Reels under $500. The criteria for these reviews is that the actual product is tested in real world fishing conditions. They are not just wiggled in the showroom or cast in parking lot or show pond.

In doing some research I realized there are a few rods that demand our attention. They fit a budget, provide fish-able actions and are made in USA by top well known manufactures such as Sage, Scott and Winston. My goal is to fish a few of these rods and report what I find. In this article I will review the...

Winston Nexus 890-4 

$495 (Scale Weight 3.7 oz) (Published Weight 3.25 oz)
I liked this rod the first time I cast it at IFTD 2014 and I still like it today. It just feels like what I think a good graphite fly rod should feel like. The feel of this rod recalls me to a time when we never questioned if graphite was the material of choice for best fly rods of the day. It's light, it's responsive and does not feel complicated. The Nexus can be as easy as you want it to be and yet progressively it adds power as needed and/or requested.

Hard to turn down a Swinging D

Considered to be fast action but I like to rate the Nexus as a mod-fast action rod. Just relax a little and the Nexus really shows its positive attributes. While not designated as a saltwater fly rod it could certainly pull duty as one and might even be a great choice for intermediate level casters.

With the Nexus one can back off of the over-weighted two bump shooting head lines and get back to a more versatile comfortable fly line taper. I go as far to say that of these three most recent rods I've tested including Sage Motive and Scott Tidal, the Nexus probably holds the most true to line weight of any of them. My preferred line for this rod and the testing I did with it was the S/A Wavelength Titan series BUT,  I downsized it by one size to a 7wt line. Since Titan is a two bump line by downsizing one size I bought it to a one bump level. The Nexus actually cast the same line in a 6wt size very well also but it wasn't enough line to easily turn over the big bass flies I like to fish with such as Feather Game Changers and Spun Deer Frogs. For average use the Nexus lines up great with a S/A Amplitude MPX or one of the new Winston Energy Fly Lines.

Bass Bug Box

I found the sweet spot of the Nexus is fishing normal. Dry lines and moderate flies like top water poppers, terrestrials and unweighted streamers is where this Winston really excels. It's light, comfortable in hand and easy to get in tune with your cast.

What! It's not Winston Green? While the Nexus is a deep black color rod blank it still has all the incredible finish qualities every Winston Rod is known for. It comes with a black powdered coated aluminum rod tube and cloth sock and of course Winston's Lifetime Warranty.

Final Thoughts

The Winston Nexus has an easy progressive taper making it comfortable for a wide range of uses. I guess the question you want an answer to is: Would I own this rod? Yes, but for the right reasons. I would buy the Nexus for the build quality and because it holds closely to line weight. I would buy it for it's relaxed action and comfortable casting stroke. I wouldn't buy it to be an all out big bug chuckin power stick but for average size streamers, salt flies, nymph rigs and dry lines the Nexus is a great stick and an absolute great value for the price!

Greg Darling 

Gorge Fly Shop Internet Sales Manager | Product Specialist

"Fly Fish the World with Us"

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Echo Glass 7129-4 Rod Review

"Giving you the feedback missing from stiff graphite actions."

Echo Glass 7129-4

ECHO GLASS - Two-Hand rods are the smooth easy casting rods.

Recently, I was lucky enough to be able to demo the new Echo Glass 12’9” 7wt spey rod for a few days.  I was pretty eager to get my hands on one, and having heard some rumors about it’s potential, I really wanted to put it to the test.

Dark olive guide and accent wraps

I quickly realized that my prejudice towards glass rods was stronger than I had thought.  My first impression of the rod was based completely on years of bias against glass rods.  I was expecting this rod to be heavy, awkward, lackluster in power, and too slow in action.  This soon developed into a lesson in putting prejudice aside and just going into it with an open mind.

While the rod is a bit heavier than my graphite 7126-4 rod, (8.4 oz vs 6.4 oz) it still balances out a Lamson Speedster 4 just fine, and that is not a heavy reel.  8.4 oz is still not very heavy.  A Sage One 8136-4 weighs the same as this glass rod.  The biggest factor that makes up for the weight of the rod is that it is incredibly powerful.  There is very little effort required to cast a country mile.  You are expending less energy to get more distance.  A heavy rod is a burden if it requires a lot of energy to generate the line speed necessary to get it moving, but I quickly forgot all about rod weight and was more interested in dialing in the big slow cast that catapults my fly and line across the river.

I fished both the Hood and the Deschutes with this rod.  A few hours on each river and I had fallen in love.  I certainly enjoyed casting Scandi and Rage Compact lines on the Deschutes.  The slow, gentle casting stoke was a breeze and came very naturally.  I had honed in my spey casting skills on a G. Loomis Skagit Dredger years ago, but have never found a rod that was slow and deliberate, yet powerful like that rod was, until now.  The glass rod is even more powerful than the Dredger, but has a similar action.

While the small fly and Scandi line set-up was a ton of fun, the rod really excels at casting Skagit lines and big flies.  I tried a couple of lines and decided that I like the Airflo Skagit Compact 480 or 510 grain head the best on this rod.  While the 510 was my favorite, it was on the heavier side of the grain window, which is not a terrible thing to do with a slower action rod.  Speaking of which, I have cast quite a few single had glass rods and almost all of them have been a very slow action.  This glass spey is quite moderate.  I mean it is slower than most of the graphite rods on the market, but I was certainly expecting it to be much, much slower.

ECHO Spey

I threw on a 12.5’ T-8 tip and a big weighted intruder onto the Skagit head.  That combination was absolutely perfect.  After a few minutes of slllloooowwwwiiinggg it down, my casting stroke had relaxed enough that the fly was effortlessly hitting the other side of the river.  I wish the Hood was bigger because every cast screamed for thirty or more feet to work with.  It was actually hard to stop cast from hitting the end of the line at full speed, nearly yanking the rod and reel from my hands.

This rod is the absolute opposite of the 12’6” 7wt graphite spey rod I picked up last year.  The action, the classic feel, the casting stroke, the action of playing a fish and the price tag are all about as far off as you can get from each other, yet still provide the same high-quality experience.

Echo Glass - Smooth easy casting rods

As our awesome Rajeff Sports rep Eric Neufeld said, a lot of guys will buy this rod as a backup or a toy to play with, but will quickly move it into the go-to slot in the arsenal…  This is a rod that can be fished regularly with ease and is such a joy to cast that my Winston and my Sage might see a little more time in the closet this winter.

Thanks again to Eric Neufeld of Raging River Sales for letting me demo this rod for the weekend.  I can’t wait to see the full line-up coming this winter.

ECHO GLASS Rod features:

• Alignment dots for easy assembly
• Traditional down lock cork barrel reel seat
• Classy Golden Carmel blank
• Dark olive guide and accent wraps
• Chrome snake guides
• Ceramic ringed stripper guides
• Premium grade cork handle
• Cordura covered rod case and cloth rod sock
• ECHO lifetime warranty

Andrew Perrault
Gorge Fly Shop
541.386.6977

Echo Glass Rod | Glass Spey | Glass Switch 

ECHO Glass Single Hand

"Fly Fish the World with Us"

Winston BIIIx 590 Rod Review

Rod Review, Winston 590-4 BIIIX

I haven't bought a high end trout rod for a long time for two reasons: 1) they're expensive 2) haven't found one I liked. So, this year I upped my game and added a couple of Winston BIIIX rods to my trout quiver. So what changed my mind? Winston, of course! For some time, the trend for new fly rods has been lighter and faster. Translation: not very much fun to fish, think “broomstick.” To me, a rod should fish as well as it should cast and I think the folks at RL Winston Fly Rods agree. 

First off, I'm not a wine connoisseur but I like wine and I can tell the difference between good and not so good. What I can't do is say the wine has hints of alder or a floral...I'm the same guy with fly rods. Now, I’ve been casting a fly rod since I was eleven years old, that’s 1981, and I’m a pretty good fisherman but a tournament caster I’m not. All that said, for me a rod should first and foremost fish well. Fishing well means bending when you hook a fish, it should feel good to hook and fight a fish. Most of the trout rods I've encountered could cast a mile but sucked to fight fish on so away they go and here I sit with the old Sage DS rods.

So where am I going with all of this? Let’s back up, I’m talking about a 590, pretty much the 30-06 of trout rods, a nine footer for five weight line. The do it all utility rod has to handle fish from six inches to twenty inches and even an occasional summer steelhead. The 30-06 can make a delicate presentation with a size 24 midge out in the desert and still chuck an indicator rig through nuclear wind storms on the Deschutes.

I was shaking rods a while back at the Gorge Fly Shop when I picked up the 590 BIIIX, I knew right away I was in love. Not knowing whether this new love would last I got the 690 BIIIX as well, just in case things get rocky down the road. I called the local Airflo guy, and talked about lining these rods up for my upcoming trout season on the Deschutes. After a nice chat it was the Airflo Exceed for both rods (more on the lines next time). I had a couple of Sage Click IV reels sitting around and after some running line discrimination I was ready to go.

Rewind to last week. Eastern Oregon, Owyhee River, 21 CFS, big bruiser German browns pooled up and getting picked on. They could see me and I could see them, not good! This wasn’t my destination; it was a road to nowhere trip. I stopped at the Malheur River but it was much too low to fish and rumor had it Mann Lake was dry. So here I am with my Deschutes box and my Deschutes rod fishing the most discriminate fish I have ever seen. I mean it! These fish were cruising and feeding all day, midges, midges and more midges. Did I mention these fish average 18-20 inches? Guess what I didn’t have? You got it, no midges and here’s why that matters in this conversation. I fished every fly in the box. I fished dries, I fished indicators, I pulled buggers, I pulled bead heads and basically put the 590 through all the paces. This is the first new generation rod that I’ve liked, easy and smooth casting no matter the bug or the leader length, an absolute pleasure to fish. Now that’s not to say I didn’t booger up a few casts, my fault not the rod but it was minimal.

Yes, I caught some fish, lost some fish, broke some fish off, but this rod’s a winner. The 690 never made it out…next time.



So, my grade on this rod is A+ and here’s why:

• Easy to cast, easy to fish, progressive, light tip
• It cast everything in my box
• Able to make delicate close range casts
• Able to generate great line speeds and easily reach 60 feet straight into the wind
• The same Winston green, unchanged
• Great new rod case, also pretty green
• A joy to play fish on, it flexes
• Honestly, I can’t think of a single complaint

Sam Sickles
Steelhead Outfitters

"Fly Fish the World with Us"

NRX vs ONE...Who rules the flats!

Margaritaville

Recap Trip

2013’s Mexico trip came to an end on May 3rd. The gang packed it up and headed out of the little town of Punta Allen on our way to catch a flight in Cancun. The long bumpy gravel road from the lodge to Tulum seems twice as long on the way out. We had a great time at the Palometa Club. Good food, good drink and lots of good company swapping stories back and forth. The Permit were elusive to us this week but we had some good times with the Bonefish, watched Tarpon tail dance while spitting flies and the occasional Barracuda rip towards our fly at lightning speeds. A warm thank you goes out to Dick and Kaye, Host of the Palometa Club, for providing plenty of entertainment and Margaritas. Watch out for the third Margarita!