Shootouts

Tippet is an often overlooked piece of gear, but it is crucial to your success on the water. Considering the amount of time, energy, and money we put into our angling pursuits, the last thing we want is our tippet to fail when it matters most. Although there have been previous tippet shootouts performed by other fly shops, they are now outdated. We wanted to update you on the current products available, and how they perform in a series of tests.

In this shootout, we’ll examine a plethora of 20lb tippet materials from several manufacturers, and test them to see which tippet material is the right choice for your fishing endeavors. Continue reading to learn which tippets came out on top, and how we tested each material for this 20lb tippet shootout.

Sage is a brand with a long history of building legendary saltwater fly rods. However, their past few flagship salt series have largely disappointed. Sure, there were a few solid models, but most were too stiff, fast, and clunky for the average angler. When we had the opportunity to cast each rod in the new R8 Salt series, we were immediately impressed by Sage’s commitment to developing a salt-specific series that is enjoyable to cast for the average angler.

With the R8 Core, Sage seems to be back on track by making rods with a smooth, progressive taper that gives the caster exceptional feel and feedback but still delivers plenty of power. When Sage announced the new Salt R8 would replace the Salt HD, we were excited about the rod’s prospects but a little apprehensive over a new salt-specific Sage Rod. Has Sage finally delivered? You will not want to miss this review!

Hook strength is an important measure, especially if you’re chasing large fish. In fact, choosing the right hook can be the difference between landing a trophy fish and losing one. When it comes to Tarpon hooks, there’s very little research available that shows the strength of individual hooks. Fortunately, our Admet Universal Testing Machine allows us to provide strength profiles for the top Tarpon Hooks. We’ve used this machine in past shootouts like the Fly Line Backing Shootout to compare products across brands. In this Buyer’s Guide, we put some of the top Tarpon hooks to the test and crowned a winner.

5wt fly rods are (by far) the most popular rod model in contemporary fly fishing. A 5wt can be used in a variety of freshwater angling scenarios but is most commonly used to target Trout. There are dozens of 5wt rods on the market at a variety of price-points and each rod offers something different to every angler. Here at Trident, we carry over one hundred 5wt fly rods. That’s a lot. This buyer’s guide is designed to help anglers of all skill levels with any price-constraint find, compare, analyze, and purchase the 5wt that best fits their needs.

The most talked about and least understood part of fly fishing equipment is fly lines. To better understand the variety of tropical 8wt fly line options the industry provides, we set out on a data crunching, line cutting, sore arm casting mission to better understand every warm water 8wt fly line we could get our hands on. We reviewed each one, compared them, measured them, and inspected tapers to demystify one of the most essential pieces of equipment in fly fishing. Tropical anglers take note, our 2020 tropical fly line shootout is here.

The Orvis Helios 3F Series (along with the Helios 3D Series) replaces the much-loved Orvis Helios 2 Rod Series as Orvis’ flagship fly rod. Orvis has packed a bunch of technological advancements into these rods and they’re lighter, more accurate, and more dynamic than ever before. If Orvis wasn’t at the top of the fly rod game before with the Helios 2, they are now with the Helios 3. What’s better? The team over at Orvis designed the 3F Series to include rods that are highly specialized, rods that are versatile, and rods that shocked us with their quirky ability to offer unexpected performance. After a visit to the Orvis headquarters and the thorough casting of each and every rod model, we’ve put together a detailed model-by-model review of one of the most popular freshwater fly rod series to date. Read on to find out more about every model of the Helios 3F.

One of the questions we’ve gotten most often about our recent Trout Spey Shootout has been in regards to our line recommendations. More specifically, why our recommendations for Scandi lines are much heavier than one might expect, relative to our Skagit recommendations. This has been particularly true for Pacific NW anglers who have been indoctrinated into thinking that Scandi is ALWAYS lighter than Skagit, no matter what. Read on to find out why we recommended the lines we did in our Trout Spey Shootout.

Have you ever wondered which Trout Spey rod is the very best? Well, the wait is over. We’ve ranked the industry’s top 3wt Trout Spey rods based on a comprehensive criterion. Which rod took home the title as ‘Best Trout Spey Rod on the Market’? Read on to find out. Plus the Best Buy and fly line recommendations for every rod. Don’t buy a Trout Spey rod without reading this shootout.

It’s always a cringe-worthy moment when a trophy fish runs you into your backing. Maybe you’re worried about your fly line to backing connection, maybe you’re worried about backing strength or abrasion resistance. Whatever the case may be, most anglers don’t spend a ton of time thinking about backing until it’s too late. We’re writing this shootout to provide backing information so you can think about backing before your trip to the Seychelles or South America. Different types of backing have different applications and some are clearly stronger than others. Which backing is the best? Read on to find out.