Review of Esoteric 4 in 1 Nymph Rod By Dave Southall

Lengths: 10’ 6”, 11’, 11’6” or 12’ depending on which sections are used

Number of rod sections: 6 (4 full length & 2 short)

Weight: 151g/ 5.3oz at 12’, inclusive of 3 removable counterbalance weights that attach to the end of the handle (weight 11g), 132g/4.7oz at 10’ 6” (inclusive of counterweights)

Blank colour: a pleasing non-flash brown

Handle: half wells camo EVA

Made in: China

Cost: £249

This rod can be fished at 4 lengths, 10’ 6”, 11’, 11’ 6” & 12’. There are 4 main sections plus 2 short additional pieces of 6” & 12” that fit between the butt section & the next section. The 12” section has a ring on so changing length with this piece will require the line to be restrung.

The quality of finish is very good & the EVA handle is comfortable.

The 5.3oz weight at 12’ may seem heavy but in the hand the rod does not feel anything like this weight since most of the rod’s weight is in the handle & reel seat where it is less obvious to the angler. I compared the weight of the butt section with that from a Hends 11’ to 12’ Czech nymph rod: Esoteric 4 in 1 2/3 weight nymph rod butt weight = 100g/3.5oz, Hends 11’ to 12’ 3 weight rod butt = 60g/2.1oz. I also compared the total rod weight with the Hends rod & with the new Sunray Zero (hybrid Tenkara/Western) rod, Hends 11’ to 12’ 3 Czech nymph rod, weight 98g/3.5oz, Sunray 10’ 6” to 11’ 6” Zero, weight (version with EVA handle) 83g/2.9oz. With a Danielsson Midge reel plus line weighing 108g/ 3.8oz at 10’ 6” the balance point is 1.5” above the handle & the rod (with all 3 balance weights) feels quite light & responsive, whilst at 12’ the balance point is 7.5” above the handle & the rod feels a bit tip heavy but not excessively so. Of course, a heavier reel would improve the balance significantly.  When I attached my old Hardy’s Marquis 6 geared fly reel weighing 175g/6.2oz the balance point at 10’ 6” was 1” below the top of the handle & at 12’ it was 3” above the handle. Out of interest I taped the Hardy reel at the bottom of the rod to see how a down-locking reel seat would have altered the balance & the balance point was 2” above the handle which did improve the feel.

All three rods that I compared are very different. The Hends rod has a fairly light tip but a stiff lower two thirds. It casts a 3 weight line well & also performs quite well with a micro nymph line, but it is a powerful rod which does not protect light tippets (0.10mm & thinner) particularly well & it doesn’t cast a light level Tenkara fluorocarbon line well. The Sunray Zero is a very soft, through-actioned rod, bending right down to the butt & that performs very well with super-light lines (1 weight, 0 weight, micro nymph & 0.285mm diameter/3 weight Japanese scale Tenkara lines). It also gives great protection to very fine tippets. The Esoteric Nymph rod fits midway between these two, with a soft, forgiving, top half & a sturdy lower half. Like the Sunray rod this rod was designed to bridge the gap between Western rods with a reel & fixed-line Tenkara rods, but Daniel has opted for a different approach to that of Tom Bell at Sunray. The Sunray Zero is a super-light rod that excels with very light lines (1 weight conventional lines to 2 weight (Japanese scale) level fluorocarbon Tenkara lines), dry flies, spiders, Kebaris, small nymphs & light tippets, whilst the Esoteric Nymph rod handles lines from 3 weight to 0 weight & micro nymph lines very well & will cast light Tenkara lines reasonably well when required. Since it is much beefier in the butt it is well suited to fishing on big rivers where there is the prospect of playing big fish in fast flows & also for fishing a team of heavy nymphs in deep, fast, water.

First I tested the rod with an Esoteric 0 weight, weight forward, floating Nymph line that was sent with the rod to test, plus a 7’ tapered section cut from the butt of an Essential Fly 12’ 6x tapered leader (tapering from 0.43mm to about 0.2mm) with 4 to 5’ of tippet. When nymphing I attached a semi-curly tricoloured monofilament indicator between the tapered section & tippet (except when sight-nymphing when I had no indicator). As mentioned in the description on the Esoteric web site casting the zero weight line at short distance is better with a short, wristy, Tenkara style casting stroke to generate a fly-first, delicate presentation, however the Italian Style of casting worked very well when fishing dry flies & small nymphs at long distance. It was surprisingly easy to cast relatively long distances in calm conditions & even in a light headwind casting was good. When required this combination will generate very tight loops that cut into the wind.

Initial testing was carried out on my local small Stillwater where I fished everything from size 24 CdC Midges & size 24 Buzzer Pupae to size 16 Squirmy Worms. The rod coped well with rainbows up to a bit over 5lb & the soft top protected the 6x tippet used with the tiny flies.

Further tests were carried out on my local small North Yorks. Moors streams where I caught good numbers of smallish grayling, a few stocked rainbows & a number of out of season brown trout, again using everything from small dry flies to heavy nymphs; also on Driffield Beck where I caught some nice sized grayling & some big out of season trout on shrimp patterns.

My final test before submitting this review was with level fluorocarbon Tenkara lines on a calm day. Casting a short 2.5 weight (Japanese scale) Tenkara line (the same length as the rod plus 3’ of tippet) & a Kebari fly was no problem & accuracy was good, however a 4 weight (Japanese scale) line loaded the rod better. For short range Tenkara casting a typical wristy, short stroke was best, however for a longer line (1.5 to 2x the rod length) a long, smooth casting stroke was required to load the rod tip enough (either an Oval Cast or Italian Style Cast) & some accuracy was lost. Inevitably it felt a bit clumsy & heavy compared to a typical Tenkara rod, but when really big fish might be encountered a fixed-line Tenkara rod is not an appropriate tool (in 2017, on an Austrian river, my friend Steve broke 2 Tenkara rods & lost 2 very big rainbows on two consecutive days).

In conclusion, this is a nice rod, well made & at a sensible price. It is a versatile tool that can be fished at 4 lengths. It handles well for both dry fly & nymphing with very light lines, but will easily cast a 3 weight DT line. It is not a light rod, although it feels nowhere near as heavy as its weight would suggest. If you need the length & versatility offered then the weight is little price to pay. However, a down-locking reel seat would improve the balance of this rod, particularly at its longest setting, enabling lighter reels to be used without the feeling of the rod being tip-heavy. Definitely a rod to consider if you fish big rivers with the prospect of big fish & particularly if you fish with nymphs but want a long rod that will also perform well with dry flies