After almost a full season fishing with the new Prestige GXS I felt it’s time to talk a little bit about it & share some of my experiences…
We have subjected this rod to all kinds of tortures with totally different species. Fishing high in the mountain with fine tippets where crystal clear waters flow & powerful, wild and wary fish lurk!! Delicate presentations are needed and often require setting the hook at distance with fine tippets and the chance of trout of differing sizes including the chance of a monster Mediterranean Trout.
We have fished large Barbel in the river using both dry fly and nymph tactics. Black Bass and big Chub using large streamers and to finish testing it & wanting to push it to its limits, we have fished for big wild trout & giant Carp in our rivers!!!
First impressions were very good. As always, Snowbee put in our hand’s rods of the highest quality & finishes, rods that are visually attractive, beautiful, well compensated and with actions that adapt to our needs.
Going into the detail of the rod, after testing it with different floating & sinking lines, using both the corresponding #6 wt & going above to a #7 wt to increase the load to identify how it behaved and responded, I can say that it is a very good casting rod, a rod that makes it much easier for the angler, casting long distances with ease, the metres were flying out but still managing to place our fly precisely where we wanted it.
It has a fast and a sensitive action, offering the best of both worlds, we have fished with it from trout in high mountain to dry with a tippet 6x (0’125mm) to large trout and carp with tippets of 0’26m m – 0’28 mm forcing her to the extreme, a very powerful rod, no fear of putting the pressure on to turn a big fish the curve takes it in its stride yet the rod action still cushions the tippet from sudden jerks.
Although we have used it with very fine tippets satisfactorily, as a detail I will say that it performs better in a medium to powerful fishing, which is where it most realizes its full potential, so to speak, with tippets 5x (0’145mm) onwards, so we will work it as it should, let’s not forget that we are talking about a rod of 10 feet line #6 wt.
It is a very balanced and comfortable rod to use. It is light, it is a beautiful and elegant rod, and provides me with confidence to face any fishing situation that I may encounter be it fishing with streamer in medium rivers of or stalking large trout using nymphs and dries with medium & large flies. Or equally fishing along the banks of rivers and lakes fishing different species with streamer, dry fly or nymph.
After fishing with the Prestige G-XS for a few months now I can say that it has become the main rod for my trout and multi species fishing trips.
