Vision Merisuola

Vision Fly fishing released its premium saltwater rod series in late last year. The good folks at Vision's product development gave me a chance to test drive the pre-production models during last summer and fall, so here's a few thoughts about the rods.

I had a chance to fish with the 10wt and 12wt  Merisuola rods for pike, sharks, albies and a myriad of other species. The 10wt got most of the action, but me and my fishing buddies did give the 12wt a good workout too.

PassMeTheSalt

Big Brown fish. Nasty.

The rods look and certainly feel like a million bucks. The finish on them is high end and the components used are quality stuff. I love the dark gray color and the details on the rod. It is a very pleasing rod to look at.

The reel seats two lock rings lock up your reel really well and are very easy to work with. The fighting butt is made from composite rubber cork.

REC titanium stripping and snake guides.

The ferrules at first sight look kinda like spigot ferrules, but are actually normal sleeve ferrules.

Quality cork and a nicely shaped handle.

What the Merisuola rods are all about is their action. They are fast, responsive and very efficient fishing tools. They just work like a dream. Merisuola rods are in the top five of the best fly rods I have ever cast. Very similar feel to the Scott Meridian series and Sage Method rods. These new, "next generation" fast action rods are no broomsticks. They have just enough responsiveness to make fishing with them very enjoyable. That I think is the biggest change in rods when you compare the new ones with older, fast action rods that lacked feel. I used the 10wt with Vision Big Daddy pike lines at 23grams and their 10wt Merisuola floating line, but mainly with the Airflo Tarpon line. If you need a set up that can cut through heavy head winds, this is the one. Merisuola's action matches the Tarpon line perfectly and you can get high line speed and super tight loops that cut through the wind like a hot knife cuts butter. The 12wt was used with a 12wt Airflo Tarpon, 12wt Merisuola line and a 500gr Rio Leviathan.

There's really very little I can critique these rods on. The only thing that bugs me is the short reel seat and fighting butt. The reel sits too close to my belly when fighting a fish. Other then that the rods are great fish fighting tools. They can take a beating and have a nice backbone to lift a fish vertically.

Finishing this post up with a traditional pros and cons section...

+ The looks. I love them.
+ The action. Just perfect. If your in to fast rods. you will love the Merisuola rod series.
+ Plenty of backbone to fight vertical.
+ The 10wt was an awesome pike rod too. I like my pike rods fast and it did a great job at throwing big pike flies to the edges of the reeds.

- Reel seat and fighting butt are too short for my liking. Not a big deal if your fighting fish horizontally, but surely a hindrance when lifting a fish from the deeps. There's really no cons to making a reel seat and butt that's 3-5cm longer then they are now. Only pros.
- The 12wt would use a longer handle or a extra fighting handle on it. It would add comfort to its fish fighting capability's.