[work2fish]

I have a Sage 490LL rod that is a few years old now. While hiiking in the mountains, I broke the rod into four pieces (yes, it was a two piece rod) :'(. I know Sage has a lifetime warranty -- has anybody here used it? Anything special I need to know? How long does it take?

Thanks for any help,
Mike

 

[_colorado]

Hi Work2Fish

I see you have excellent taste in fly rods. I happen to have a Sage 590LL as my casting rod. It's a little light for nymphing but it sure is sweet and soft.

About 4 years ago my reel seat took on some water after a trip to 11 Mile Canyon and swelled up in the tube. I did not discover this until after I had hiked into the Crestones with my son up to the South Colony Lakes. The fish were rising all over the lake. I strung up my sons fly rod and sent him on his way. Then I began to string up my rod and noticed that the locking rings wouldn't move in the reel seat because the wood had swollen. I'm proud to admit that, though it saddened me deeply, I did not hesitate to whip out my knife and whittle that handle down until I could get those locking rings free. We fished for a couple of hours, landed many beautimous cuttbows and hiked out before the afternoon storm.

I contacted Sage, got the mailing address, allowed them to charge $30 to my credit card, loaded the rod into a pvc mailing tube that I borrowed from a friend, and two weeks later it came back to me in such pristine condition that I thought they had simply replaced the rod! No questions asked.

My friend, not only are you the proud owner of one of the finest pieces of graphite ever assembled into a flyrod you are also doing business with simply the best graphite fly rod company in the business. Sage has my allegiance!

_colorado

 

[rottal]

Based on my experience from returing damaged rods back to Sage in the past it can sometimes take awhile...for some time the turn around was around 6 weeks or so, as Sage has a lot of returns to deal with at any given time. they do honor thier repair/replacement policy, but you might want to make sure you include your origional owners reciept to expidite the process...if you dont have it contact them over the phone and see what you can work out with them--they are usually pretty easy to work with. i own 5 Sage rods and love them all---they make an excellent product, no arguing with that...

 

[work2fish]

Thanks for the tips and information, guys. I'm afraid it would be difficult if not impossible for me to find my receipt as I bought this rod several years ago... I recall doing some sort of registration with Sage, however, so maybe they can find the records. I also remember the store I bought it from.

I'm also hoping I can get something comparable to the 490LL as I was very pleased with this rod...

Thanks again,
Mike

 

[Bronco]

I bought my first sage back in 1986 and have had it repaired 5 times and have never had a problem. I call them up get someones name, attach it to the pole and ship it back. Not only have they been a stand up company, but my pole was so old they didn't make the blanks anymore and completly replaced the whole rod twice.

 

[bitafurnfeather]

I'd like to tap on the brakes when it comes to singing the praises for Sage. Yeah, they'll fix it, and it won't take forever, and they'll do a nice (well, decent anyway) job of it. But, the "handling charge" which I remember being about in line with postage about 10 years ago, climbed to $35 last year, which is easily two and probably three times what Priority Mail would run.

They make a nice rod, but don't ever think you weren't paying for this warranty up front. And as much as I like my SP for much of my fishing, it's one of the most "breakable" rods they ever made (and dropped it pretty quickly, too. In the last year or so of production, some models came with two tips -- shows you how durable Sage thought it was!) Last year I broke the butt section of my 5wt BEFORE my 5X tippet broke. C'mon! And the break was right at the edge of the stripping guide foot, so it's hard to believe that the break wasn't due to some damage caused by the foot or the wrapping process. So I wasn't delighted to pony up the S&H again.

When I think of the custom rod I could have got for the money I spent on that SP -- well it pisses me off enough that I'll never buy another Sage factory rod!

 

[rottal]

I have an old SP+ that i got as a demo a few years back...a very fast 4 weight i sued for nymphing on the South Platte a lot....i havnt fished it lately though. now that i think of it i do remember seeing a lot of the SPs coming back in the shop i worked at for warrantee repairs...broken tips mostly. Yeah, I guess every manufacturer comes up with a lemon now and then. my favorite rod is still Thomas and Thomas, but Sage is a still a good rod and i dont think you will find many high end rod makers whom dont charge at least a small fee for repair work...

And yeah, you pay for the warrantee up fron, thats for sure---but then again nothing good is cheap anymore it seems...

 

[amster]

I broke my Sage 4 pc last summer in Boulder Canyon, the tip top section and half the next section somehow got unleashed from the line and disappeared downstream.
I took the remaining half to the fly shop where I bought it, and for $35 shipping and handling they sent it back to Sage. In a couple of weeks I got those two pieces replaced and now it is all good.