The three musketeers

The nice weather inspired me to have a look at my 9ft 4 weight rods (yes, I love 4 weight rods!). The three musketeers are the G. Loomis 490-4 IMX, Sage 490-4 RPL and the Sage 490-4 LL. All three from the same era of fly fishing history.

The fast graphite rods as we know today began in the end 1980's with the introduction of high modulus graphites developed by the aircraft companies like Boeing.

G. Loomis introduced in 1987 the IMX graphite and the rods with the same name. Sage (originally started as the Winslow Manufacturing Co.) introduced in 1989 Graphite III with the legendary Sage RPL series. These days we might even call these rods medium-fast action rods as rods have become faster and stiffer.

The RPL (Reserve Power Light) series were manufactured for quite a long time. Starting from 1989 and discontinued in 1997. The blank reincarnated in 1997 as a budget rod series called the VPS. In 1987 the LL (Light Line) series started as rods using a slightly lower modulus graphite called Graphite II. In 1989 the LL rod series (discontinued 1999) were also built with the new Graphite III.


Update March 2019:
I sold the Sage 490-4 RPL