I was going to comment on my recent experience with the Hardy warranty. I have fished the 10'2" 2wt since 2021 but damaged a female ferrule a couple of weeks ago. I sent it back to Hardy in Florida (aka Pure Fishing) and received the rod back with a replacement section just 11 days later - at no charge. Thanks for the thorough review and confirming my suspicion that this is a very nice rod.
Thank you for this comprehensive review of the Hardy Ultralite series of rods. I find your comparisons especially enlightening. I look forward to a similar review of the next generation of Diamondback Ideal series.
This is an unbelievably thorough review / comparison, thank you so much: I think I now know what to get for my next rod. I really appreciate the content you put out. I have learned - and continue to learn - an enormous amount from you.
I own and fish the 10' 8" 3 wt, and the 11' 2" 2wt euro rods. Love 'em. I also matched them with Hardy Ultra disc reels. I like the downlocking reel seat with a locking ring. Excellent. Plus the nice color and finish of the rods. No complaints.
Great review. I appreciate it a lot. I fish the Hardy 10‘2“#2 and the 10‘8“0/2 a lot and like both very well along with the 3&4 weight dry fly rods (love the 9‘9“#4 and 9‘2“#3). Couldn’t agree more with the comparison of the Contact II rods and the Hardy LL Euro specific models. I really like the Contact II 10‘#3 and 10‘9“#3 but tend to prefer the Hardy a little over the T&Ts the last couple of years. Thank you again for putting the effort into this. It’s really helpful Should mention that the T&T 10‘9#3 is just a little bit stronger for bigger fish. I would order the rods from lightest to strongest: LL 10‘2#2, T&T 10‘#3, LL 10‘8#0/2, T&T 10‘9“#3 in a series
Great review of the 0/2 10'8" model - I found exactly the same!. This is superb quality rod. I'd bought this thinking it would be a sub sub 2 wt and it felt like a 3 wt to me, I couldn't cast single ultra light nymphs with it with any accuracy. It needed big heavy tungsten beads (3mm and above on two fly rigs) when using a long mono euro leader. Even handled a 3wt sa trout line. Returned it and bought the 10'9 T&T contact II from you. IMO, this feels much better for ultralight nymphing, with the rod feeling like it has more flex and closer to a 1-2wt, much more feel and better suited to small river ultralight nymphing on long mono leaders
Excellent review Devin. I have the Hardy 10’2 2wt along with the T&T Contact II 10’ 2wt, both are excellent rods. But I am very fond of my Adam’s XTZ. Tight Lines.
excellent review, despite being over an hour long, there isn't a bit of it that isn't useful. thanks for taking the time to put all of this together for us. would also be useful to create a table to graphically describe this in your blog for us visual learners.
Fantastic review. Thanks for putting so much effort into this one Devin. I have the 10’8” 0/2 weight and it’s really helpful to see how it compares to the other rods in the hardy range and at a similar price point from other manufacturers. I’m also really pleased you gave a clear opinion on what weight it really fishes at instead of that silly 0-2 weight nonsense. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d be interested to know what you’d consider a “big fish” that might overpower the rod. Here in the uk we’d consider a 2lb brown to be pretty big and find it a challenge to land one that size (on the rare occasions I hook one) without a lengthy fight but I don’t have your levels of skill and experience and I know you tend to get a bigger stamp of fish over there in the US.
@@adrianmowat I wouldn’t be concerned with a 2 lb fish personally unless it was in really fast water. I would fish the 0/2 weight unless I was expecting fish over the ~21-22” mark. At that point I would prefer to have the 10’ 8” 3 weight.
@@tacticalflyfisher3817 thanks Devin. That’s pretty much what I figured. I’ve had a few big hits in fast water that broke me off on lighter tippet but never found out just how big they were. Probably better to try a heavier tippet before I invest in a new rod though!
@@anton_gavrilov I’ll probably do one next year. In short, they’ve become my favorites. Incredibly light and surprisingly fast to recover given the relatively soft flex profile.
Great info as I have a few of these that were compared and I now know better what I have. I prefer Diamondback 10’10” 2wt and the Adams XTZ 10’6” 2 wt.
Another question, if you don't mind. As you know, all things can break. Could you give a quick overview of the warranty situation (cost and turn around time) of the various rods you review in this video?
For any rod you might consider buying, it's important to do some research on them to see how they handle warranty issues. Our purpose in this video is show the performative differences between the rods.
Great review,im looking for a competition rod for dry fly,dry dropper and euro nymphing..strongly thinking of a 9"9 3wt LL..would you recommend one?..also what line would you pair it with?..thanks
There's a lot to unpack there to be honest. It would work well for the dry fly and dry dropper if you adjusted your cast to it. I think it's a bit shorter than I would like for Euro nymphing but it would do the job if you were limited to one rod. And I would go with either the Airflo Tactical Taper or the Scientific Anglers Amplitude Trout line.
The Cortland is a very nice rod for the money but it doesn't quite stack up with the Hardy, or the other better rods in this video, in terms of swing weight and recovery speed.
Personally, in my opinion, the pairing should be focused the other way around. The rod is by far the most important tool for your fishing success. The specific model should be chosen to fit the type of fishing you expect to do the most. The reel is a complement to the rod. You could make that reel work with any of the models, but it will be too light to balance almost all of them given their lengths. You could add some lead golf tape to the arbor under the backing though to bring up the weight if desired.
As Devin covers in the video, the rods are worlds apart. The Diamondback is a 10ft, small fish, small water niche rod. The Hardy 0/2 is a 10’8 all-around workhorse.
Hi gays Which rod should I buy Thomas & Thomas Contact 2 Fly Rod 10fit 9" 3wt, or Hardi Ultralite LL 10fit 9" 3wt. Please help me with this. I also like Dry fly fishing 13 Reviews
I was going to comment on my recent experience with the Hardy warranty. I have fished the 10'2" 2wt since 2021 but damaged a female ferrule a couple of weeks ago. I sent it back to Hardy in Florida (aka Pure Fishing) and received the rod back with a replacement section just 11 days later - at no charge. Thanks for the thorough review and confirming my suspicion that this is a very nice rod.
Thank you for this comprehensive review of the Hardy Ultralite series of rods. I find your comparisons especially enlightening. I look forward to a similar review of the next generation of Diamondback Ideal series.
wow man you put a lot of work into this video. good stuff!
@@taeshank thanks! It was definitely a bit of a labor.
This is an unbelievably thorough review / comparison, thank you so much: I think I now know what to get for my next rod. I really appreciate the content you put out. I have learned - and continue to learn - an enormous amount from you.
I'm glad the video helped. When you go to pull the trigger on a new rod we'd be happy to help you out.
Thanks for your time and views on this rods. Tight lines!
I own and fish the 10' 8" 3 wt, and the 11' 2" 2wt euro rods. Love 'em. I also matched them with Hardy Ultra disc reels. I like the downlocking reel seat with a locking ring. Excellent. Plus the nice color and finish of the rods. No complaints.
Great review. I appreciate it a lot. I fish the Hardy 10‘2“#2 and the 10‘8“0/2 a lot and like both very well along with the 3&4 weight dry fly rods (love the 9‘9“#4 and 9‘2“#3). Couldn’t agree more with the comparison of the Contact II rods and the Hardy LL Euro specific models. I really like the Contact II 10‘#3 and 10‘9“#3 but tend to prefer the Hardy a little over the T&Ts the last couple of years. Thank you again for putting the effort into this. It’s really helpful Should mention that the T&T 10‘9#3 is just a little bit stronger for bigger fish. I would order the rods from lightest to strongest: LL 10‘2#2, T&T 10‘#3, LL 10‘8#0/2, T&T 10‘9“#3 in a series
Great review of the 0/2 10'8" model - I found exactly the same!. This is superb quality rod. I'd bought this thinking it would be a sub sub 2 wt and it felt like a 3 wt to me, I couldn't cast single ultra light nymphs with it with any accuracy. It needed big heavy tungsten beads (3mm and above on two fly rigs) when using a long mono euro leader. Even handled a 3wt sa trout line. Returned it and bought the 10'9 T&T contact II from you. IMO, this feels much better for ultralight nymphing, with the rod feeling like it has more flex and closer to a 1-2wt, much more feel and better suited to small river ultralight nymphing on long mono leaders
Excellent review Devin. I have the Hardy 10’2 2wt along with the T&T Contact II 10’ 2wt, both are excellent rods. But I am very fond of my Adam’s XTZ. Tight Lines.
If I knew I could get it repaired and returned for less than $100 and turn around of about a month I would already own an Adam's rod.
excellent review, despite being over an hour long, there isn't a bit of it that isn't useful. thanks for taking the time to put all of this together for us.
would also be useful to create a table to graphically describe this in your blog for us visual learners.
Fantastic review. Thanks for putting so much effort into this one Devin. I have the 10’8” 0/2 weight and it’s really helpful to see how it compares to the other rods in the hardy range and at a similar price point from other manufacturers. I’m also really pleased you gave a clear opinion on what weight it really fishes at instead of that silly 0-2 weight nonsense.
If you wouldn’t mind, I’d be interested to know what you’d consider a “big fish” that might overpower the rod. Here in the uk we’d consider a 2lb brown to be pretty big and find it a challenge to land one that size (on the rare occasions I hook one) without a lengthy fight but I don’t have your levels of skill and experience and I know you tend to get a bigger stamp of fish over there in the US.
@@adrianmowat I wouldn’t be concerned with a 2 lb fish personally unless it was in really fast water. I would fish the 0/2 weight unless I was expecting fish over the ~21-22” mark. At that point I would prefer to have the 10’ 8” 3 weight.
@@tacticalflyfisher3817 thanks Devin. That’s pretty much what I figured. I’ve had a few big hits in fast water that broke me off on lighter tippet but never found out just how big they were. Probably better to try a heavier tippet before I invest in a new rod though!
You've been noticed testing a Soldarini rod. The rod looks nice. Waiting for the review!
@@anton_gavrilov I’ll probably do one next year. In short, they’ve become my favorites. Incredibly light and surprisingly fast to recover given the relatively soft flex profile.
Great info as I have a few of these that were compared and I now know better what I have. I prefer Diamondback 10’10” 2wt and the Adams XTZ 10’6” 2 wt.
great video, very insightful
@@guygreen4607 glad you found it useful
Another question, if you don't mind. As you know, all things can break. Could you give a quick overview of the warranty situation (cost and turn around time) of the various rods you review in this video?
For any rod you might consider buying, it's important to do some research on them to see how they handle warranty issues. Our purpose in this video is show the performative differences between the rods.
Great review,im looking for a competition rod for dry fly,dry dropper and euro nymphing..strongly thinking of a 9"9 3wt LL..would you recommend one?..also what line would you pair it with?..thanks
There's a lot to unpack there to be honest. It would work well for the dry fly and dry dropper if you adjusted your cast to it. I think it's a bit shorter than I would like for Euro nymphing but it would do the job if you were limited to one rod.
And I would go with either the Airflo Tactical Taper or the Scientific Anglers Amplitude Trout line.
Fantastic video, Fantastic Chanel... What about comparison with Cortland competition MK2 10.06 #2 and #3 ?
The Cortland is a very nice rod for the money but it doesn't quite stack up with the Hardy, or the other better rods in this video, in terms of swing weight and recovery speed.
I broke a Hardy Artisan rod that I bought 13 years ago. They sent me a new Marksman rod in less than a week. No questions asked.
I just bought a hardy ultraclick UCL 4000. Which rod would you recommend forvthis reel? Thanks in advance
Personally, in my opinion, the pairing should be focused the other way around. The rod is by far the most important tool for your fishing success. The specific model should be chosen to fit the type of fishing you expect to do the most. The reel is a complement to the rod. You could make that reel work with any of the models, but it will be too light to balance almost all of them given their lengths. You could add some lead golf tape to the arbor under the backing though to bring up the weight if desired.
Would you say the hardy 0/2 weight or the diamondback ideal nymph 1wt is more "ultralight"? I euro nymph pretty small flies and fish
I cover that in the review but the 1 weight definitely has the softer flex profile.
As Devin covers in the video, the rods are worlds apart. The Diamondback is a 10ft, small fish, small water niche rod. The Hardy 0/2 is a 10’8 all-around workhorse.
Hi gays Which rod should I buy Thomas & Thomas Contact 2 Fly Rod 10fit 9" 3wt, or Hardi Ultralite LL 10fit 9" 3wt. Please help me with this. I also like Dry fly fishing
13 Reviews
Can buy 3 or 4 good rods for the price of one Hardy, but then you have to live with the burning shame of not being the 1%. 😂