Hi Andrew
Mike and I tested the rod with pretty much the whole Barrio range from 4-6wts when we were experimenting.
We found its a blank that will accomodate a wide variey of lines to suit different styles and abilities.
A breif synopsis of what we found would be.
The 5wt mallard was really sweet with too and would be a great all round compromise, in fact since the testing, i've been using it for seatrout/finnock with a cut back WF5 mallard and a 7ft sinking polytip, a great roll casting combo for the high banks on my local stream.
The GT90 5wt suited the rod perfectly and would be great for single fly presentation stuff, lots of control and a nice turnover., the 4wt version felt a bit underlined and too light to control properly, the 6wt version felt a bit too heavy but was great for close up stuff, with lots of control.
With the 5wt SLX the blank was a cannon and i could punch into a strong wind with ease, it also turned over really heavy lures with bead heads with comparative ease. It felt really powerful, it was similar with the the GT125 5wt and 4wt but was able to turn over at an even further range. At first throw i loved the combo with the 5 SLX even with just 5-6ft of flyline out of tip it will turnover a long leader.
The 6 wt SLX was far too much, the rod coped with it, but we couldn't see anyone ever wanting it to feel like that
The 4 wt SLX just flew, it felt like it was less powerful but that a higher line speed was being generated, the control was just as good as the 5 and it kept the wind cheating effects of the 5 but i felt far more confident of fishing it with smaller flies. I'm a big fan of the 4wt SLX and fish it on a Scott S4 9ft 4wt as my goto river combo, i also use it on my 5wt Cane rod which feels very similar to the Epic. I have also found with the lighter SLX i can over-hang the head a bit more out of the tip if i'm strecthing for a bit more distance and therefore i can cast it further than the 5wt, which is handy on occasions.
So i headed to the river with the 4wt SLX and it did exactly what i expected, it laughed at the wind, presented the dry with precision on a 15ft leader and allowed me to cast comfortably at all the ranges i needed to reach. The line roll cast beautifully and i never felt overgunned or undergunned, either for the conditions or for the fish. I also seemed to get less wind knots than i usually do too
But a good thing
What more can you ask for from a river rod/line combo. I believe i have a new goto combo, in fact when i took my Scott out at the weekend for a trip just to compare experiences, i missed having the Epic with me and it may have impacted slightly on my confidence
Its very much a rod that will probably suit different people using different lines but for me personally i really liked it with a Mallard WF5, GT90 5wt and the SLX 4wt. (although i have to confess i have 2 SLX 4wt set up for it now, one with two flies for nymphs and spiders and one with single fly for dries, i did this for the Cane but it suits the Epic just as well, if not better).
Its something people will need to try, to find out how they like it
Sandy
