Pikesaber review by Simon Graham There aren’t many pike fly specific rods on the market from manufacturers, which surprises me with how popular the sport is becoming. During the winter I was sent the “Pikesaber” from Piketrek to try out and test but due to the extreme winter we experienced this last year I’ve only been able to fish with it for the last 3 months. I’ve fished on average with it around 4 hrs a day. 2 hrs in the morning and 2hrs in the evening which has given me around 240 hrs in total so far with this rod and have caught 63 pike all ranging in size with the largest being 96cm 16 lbs. I used 10 different lines with it and had 7 different reels attached and fished in all conditions from warm to cold, calm to blustery with all manner of different rigs and flies, so I’ve put it through its paces, so to speak. As I mentioned there aren’t that many pike fly rods on the market, so it’s nice to be able to test and use a rod which has been specifically designed to target pike on the fly. This has made my assessment a lot easier purely because it is a species specific rod and not one which doubles up as a saltwater/pike fly rod which many manufacturers and retailers these days try to market.

Packaging To be truthful PIKETREK couldn’t have given the rod a better name “The Pikesaber”. This 4 pc 9ft 10wt 139gr rod comes in its own black travel tube holder and segmented felt bag. I have the Gun smoke grey model but it also comes in a jet black version as well and retails for £ 189,00 € 228,00 or $ 273,00 at the current exchange rates.

The Blank The blank is Multi-modulus pure carbon blank with spiral wrap and is where my 1st observations of this rod come into question. Piketrek state “The raised profile of the spiral wrap allows the fly lines to slip through the rings without ‘sticking' to the rod like it does on smooth ground blanks, especially on the back-cast, where the line comes into contact with the blank. With PIKESABER's spiral blank profile; more line can be released on the back-cast which loads the rod better, enabling the angler to cast further, and quicker, than ever before. This is something we have yet to see in any of our competitors” This might be so, but the reason why this process is not seen by any of their competitors is purely because this is an outdated way of producing blanks and why 90% of all top fly rod manufacturers don’t use this method anymore. To me It’s very reminiscent of the blanks that were produced during the mid eighties to early nineties and especially mass produced blanks coming out of China these days. The blank has an extremely rough finish….which I put down to lack of quality control from the manufacturers…….well mine does and so do those that I have spoken to who already have this rod. If I run my nail down the blank towards the butt end it isn’t as obvious as when one runs his nail against the grain up towards the rod tip, which over time has the same effect as very fine sandpaper. It sounds and feels as if one was running his finger against a very fine comb. This of course is the direction the line moves as you lay out line to cast it which has a slow but definite damaging effect on your lines coatings and only after 3 months of use I have had to scrap one of my Loop intermediate shooting heads due to it being worn rough. Maybe the first batch of blanks produced didn’t have this rough finish, but they could do with another coat of resin to eradicate this problem. With the price of new lines these days it will become a costly affair having to change it every season.

At 139gr the complete rod feels light in the hand which for some will be a god sent. Personally I like a slightly heavier rod of around 169 gram but weight isn’t everything, what’s important is that it feels comfortable to use, which the Pikesaber does. I particularly like the cork handle’s shape and feels comfortable to grip and after 240hrs of fishing it still looks brand new.

The Butt and reel seat The reel seat is a rather simple construction with no frills attached. Looks aren’t important here for me, what is important is that it holds the reel in place which it does admirably. Not once in all the time I have been casting with it did it start to rock around and I had to nip it back up again. Both threaded washers once screwed up tight against the butting washer stay tight. The Butt though in my eyes is purely just a gimmick which I’m sure is a major selling point with this rod especially, with the younger generation. The people at piketrek told me that the ball which

can be screwed off allows you to be able to wrap some heavier wire around it just in case you need to balance the rod out depending on the size reel you are using. Also I’ve been told that the perforated ball shouldn’t osculate once the end screw has been tightened, yet no matter how tight I try screwing it in, the ball still revolves around. This rod would be far better suited with a rubber cork fighting butt purely because of the stability it gives when fighting the larger fish you will encounter. The rounded ball butt tends to slide around and as mine also revolves it compounds the problem even more.

Another great feature with the Pikesaber is the white marker dots found at each section end. I wish all fly rod manufacturers would do this as it helps in joining each section up in line with one another. Small touches like this might not matter to some, but personally small details like this go a long way in the overall package of any rod.

Eyes If you’re going to design a rod for a specific species then all aspects need to be considered especially with regards to a pike fly rod. After 3 months of use I can honestly say this rod was not designed with shooting heads in mind which is a pity because there are a lot of us that do use this method. I for one have used a shooting head for over 17yrs now and often change between a floating and an intermediate set up during a day’s session. For the last 6 yrs I’ve been experimenting with several set ups but all have a loop to loop connection from fly line to shooting head. If your one that uses this kind of method, or uses loop to loop connections, then you are most certainly going to struggle. The eyes on the Pikesaber are just too small for loop to loop connections to pass through them freely. Sure this is an inherent problem with most “Pike fly rods” but I truly did battle to load the shooting head with the Pikesaber. Time after time I spent recasting the same length of shooting head trying to eradicate the loop to loop connections from either the second to last or last eye that I eventually just gave up frustrated & pissed off. Off course once I changed over to a normal fly line with a heavier weighted front end like, Vision’s vibe 85 9wt floating and Guidelines Coastal WF8F Intermediate Saltwater, then casting obviously became a lot easier.

Casting Over the 3 months of testing this rod I used no fewer than 10 different lines all varying between 8wt and 10wt and I can honestly say that it’s more suited to an 8wt line than its ten weighted rating. All top rod manufacturers have AFTM spec ratings for their rods with regards to what lines are best suited yet there is no information available with this rod anywhere to be found on the Piketrek site so one has to believe that its rated for a 10wt line yet while at the Swedish, Helsinki and the Tampere fly fairs I gave my rod to numerous fly casters who all agreed that it cast an 8wt line better than the 10 wt. With each line tested I used the same length and weight flies between 100mm – 200 mm. Of course with an 8WT Line One has to down size slightly on the length of the fly you’re going to be fishing with for obvious reasons, and I have to say that it really did cast all my synthetic baitfish patterns of around 100 mm very nicely indeed. This wasn’t the case when I started casting my Raccoon bunnies and feathered fur streamers which obviously retain a little more water…even after the second false cast I was finding myself double hauling a lot more to get the same desired distance. A lot of my early cast testing was done in an enclosed environment on casting pools while at fly fishing shows due to it still being winter here and overall with absolutely no wind resistance to hinder my casting it punched a variety of lines out 15 - 20 m…..no problem. This all changed when I started casting outdoors, and as its generally windy here around Replot 5 days of the week with wind speeds varying between 3m per sec – 12m per sec, I began to struggle with the heavier lines (Vision’s Big Mama 10wt floating/ Scientific anglers Pike/Muskie Fly Line WF9F/ Loops Intermediate 10 wt shooting head) this rod is supposedly rated for especially with the larger heavier flies I was using. As I’ve mentioned before Loop to loop connections struggled through the eyes of the Pikesaber, especially when I was casting either into the wind or with the wind behind my back. Piketrek state that the rod has a stiff action especially the front 2 ft which is needed not only to cast heavier lines with heavier flies but also helps in fighting the fish. Again, once I changed over to an 8 wt line, casting in these conditions was made a little easier but with the disappointment of having to use shorter and less weighty flies. This slightly hindered my approach as well as my enjoyment towards the sport purely because I wasn’t able to fish the way I’m used to fishing for pike. Granted this isn’t how everyone tackles pike on the fly and my way is certainly not the best way but as a pike fly fisherman for over 17yrs now one needs to have the confidence in the equipment he is using that it will perform under all conditions and unfortunately this rod falls short in the casting department especially in windy conditions.

Lines used Vision’s vibe 85 9wt floating Vision’s Vibe 85 10 wt intermediate Vision’s Big Mama 10wt floating Guidelines Coastal WF8F Intermediate Saltwater Scientific anglers Pike / Muskie Fly Line WF9F Rio floating pike fly line WF8F Rio mainstream saltwater fly line WF8F Loops Intermediate 10 wt shooting head Loops Pike booster twin tips WF10F (Low float) Loops Pike booster twin tips WF10F (Sink IV)

Fighting fish

In total I’ve caught 63 pike with the pikesaber all ranging in size from 50cm to 96cm/16lbs/8kg (being the largest). I had the most fun with this rod with pike around the 70cm mark but I truly did struggle with fish over 80cm. I found the rod just too soft for my liking especially when playing the larger pike and would hate to play a fish over 20lbs purely because it just doesn’t have the grunt to administer enough pressure when fighting bigger fish. I’m a firm believer in getting the pike in as quickly as possible. Anyone who fights a fish longer than 5 minutes is generally putting that fish under a lot of unnecessary stress and with this rod I found myself more times than not spending longer trying to get the fish close to the boat or shore. One need to bully pike which I felt I just couldn’t do with the pikesaber. The main reason why we go fly fishing for pike is because these fish get to monstrous sizes and you just never know when you might encounter one. The image above is of me fighting this fish, only a 4.1kg 72cm and the rod was bent over like a stick of liquorice.

The largest pike I caught with this rod was 96 cm and took me over 12 min to land. Sure great sport but if you are as conscious about catch and release as well as the welfare of the pike as I am, then that was 7 min to long.

Conclusion

Overall the rod feels good in the hand and looks the part, and would probably be a great Small mouth/Largemouth Bass rod or even a decent trout rod, but as a pike fly rod “In my eyes” it falls short. For the £189 price tag it retails for, I can think of several rods in and around the same price bracket that are far better suited to pike on the fly. This I would like to add is only “MY” opinion, and who am I anyway, especially after reading some of the experts that have already reviewed this rod. It’s approved by the Pike fly fishing association in the UK…..so it’s got to be good!!!! I would also like to say that since being given this rod to test, Piketrek have deleted PikeFFArticles from their links page so I’m sure they won’t be placing this review anywhere on their pages in the near future. This was only brought to my attention by a regular reader of my blog a few weeks back I might add. Sad isn’t it, that constructive criticism changes your perception about someone or something!