Guideline Le Cie 10' 3wt
"A recent trip to the Adirondacks in New York State provided an excellent opportunity to test my new Guideline Le Cie 10' 3 wt rod. "
By Arron Varga and Ivo Balinov
A recent trip to the Adirondacks in New York State provided an excellent opportunity to test my new Guideline Le Cie 10' 3 wt rod.
To help protect the rivers and locations I will not be mentioning any river names.
Day one was spent on a single river with the first stop at one of Ivo's favorite spots, with a deep fast run and loaded with browns and rainbows. Walking up into the run, Ivo ceded to the top part of the run as he said it held the best waters. I quickly evaluated the run and picked out a prime location to start. I was anxious to see how the Le Cie would handle the Czech nymph rig, which comprised three flies. The bottom dropper was one of my favorite woven polish nymphs, the middle dropper was a light waded hare's ear and my top dropper was partridge and orange wet fly.
Walking into position, I made my first cast slightly upstream and across from my rod tip. I did not even get a chance for my flies to sink before my first fish of the trip rose up from the depths and took my wet fly right on the surface, so much for seeing how the rod handled the Czech nymphing. It did however handle the 22cm brown brilliantly. Immediately the rod loaded and had load even from this small fish to avoid bouncing the fish, which is a common problem with faster rods. I quickly brought the fish to hand and released him back into his run.
The next cast I did managed to get a drift in and was amazed at the sensitivity of the rod. The tip was under load even from the weight of the flies which meant I could feel every tick my anchor fly made as it rolled along the bottom. It did not take too long before I caught my next fish from the run. As I was pulling my flies through the run on my third cast I felt a slight tug on the line and with a quick lift, I had my second trout on and quickly landed.
That day we continued to pull fish all day from the river totaling over 160 brown trout and rainbows between us with Ivo out fishing me about 2 to 1. After about 8 hours of Czech nymphing and all of those fish, I was in amazed how little arm fatigue I had from the new rod. Its balance was excellent and I had lost very few fish once they were hooked as the medium action meant even the smallest fish could load the rod.
The next day and river would prove to be a different experience. That day we spent most of our time on a small stream full of little wild brown and brook trout. This stream was too shallow to Czech nymph, so I switch over to a dry fly while Ivo tried his hand a French Nymphing. The Le Cie had already proven to be an excellent Czech nymph rod so this proved an opportunity to see how it handled dry flies and a little bit of casting.
Again the Le Cie preformed excellently. It handled the short casts very well and presented dry flies with great accuracy and little effort. The medium action of the rod again proved to be a benefit as the fish on this stream on average were very small 12-18cm.
At the end of the day Ivo decided to visit one of his favorite runs on another river that was known for holding large fish. After a long hike in, we arrived in the run only to find it being help be another fly fisherman and his son who were in the process of releasing an 18” brown trout. This was their fifth fish from the run and they decided to let Ivo and I take a crack at the run. He also was interested in learning about Czech nymphing and see how we would do in a run he and his son had already gave a good working over.
I decided to let Ivo have the first drift and handed him the Le Cie to try and compare to his Admira Czech nymph rod. His first drift through the run did not produce a fish but I could see he was impressed with the rod. Well it did not take him to long to hook up with a fish.
On his third cast, Ivo managed to hook into a large fish which took him for a run about 10 meters down stream. The Le Cie and Ivo proved to be more than a match for the trout and quickly he brought the 45 cm wild brown trout to hand.
So the Le Cie 10' 3wt can also handle big fish and again had managed to impress both Ivo and myself.
Our last day of the trip would also prove to be as good as the other 2 days. This time we ended up on another stretch of the same river Ivo had pulled out his trophy form the previous night.
This stretch contained several deep and fast runs which again would prove to be excellent Czech nymphing water. Splitting up I headed up into one of the runs that looked to be very promising and managed to pull several healthy rainbows in the 40cm range. Again the Le Cie exceeded my expectations handling this larger fish with ease with the medium action protecting my light tippet.
The Rod
The Le Cie 10' 3wt comes in 3 sections and is specialty rod designed for euro nymphing techniques, especially Czech nymphing.
Guideline is located in Sweden and has earned an excellent reputation in Europe for its Two-Handed and Single-Handed rods. They have a comprehensive line-up of rods at different price levels. Their high end model is the Le Cie. The Le Cie single handed rods come in wide variety of lengths, weights and actions to meet almost any fisherman's needs from the casual to the competitive angler.
The Good
The rod has excellent balance and avoids being tip heavy which is an issue for some other light Czech nymphing rods. It is a light rod and weighs in at 107grams. A light rod is important to European style nymphing which has lots of consecutive short casts and often has you extending your arm and rod for maximum reach.
The Le Cie is heavier than some its competitor's rods - Greys Streamflex 10' 3wt is only 94 grams and Modern Flies Technia 10' 3/4wt is only 90 grams or Admira 10' 3wt is only 86grams. Despite being heavier then its competitors its perfect balance offsets the extra weight.
The rod is a medium action rod with a progressive taper. The tip is very soft that allows you to feel everything your nymphs are doing and detect even the lightest takes. The soft tip also helps protect light tippets when hooking larger fish. It also helps keep smaller fish hooked. A common problem, with faster rods with smaller fish is that they will often bounce of the hooks as they do not have enough weight to load the rod tip.
The rod is a joy to cast with the progressive action handling short and medium casts with ease. Because it is a medium action rod, you need to slow down and use full casting strokes. At longer distances we did notice a dampening issue when casting, but this issue may have been due to the line being used - Scientific Anglers 4wt GPX WF. The rod would probably cast better with a double tapered 3wt line, so I will have to get some different lines and get out with Ivo again to test casting at medium to long distances.
This rod is not just for nymphing, it also presents dry flies very well. It is ideal for presenting dries of any size to even the wariest fish.
The finish and details on the rod does set it apart from its competitors. Both of Ivo and I, were impressed with the quality of the cork used in handle - many rod manufacturers have been cutting costs by using cheaper cork. The reel seat insert is a beautiful wood giving the rod a classic look. The blank is a dark blue with black wraps and gold highlights. Not only does the rod perform well but it is pleasing to the eye.
A recent enhancement to the Guideline rods are alignment markers which is a nice detail that helps make sure the rod sections are properly aligned.
The Not so Good
The rod is a bit on the heavy side when compared to its competitors. Guideline will have to do some work to cut down the weight. However, the weight can be managed by investing in an ultra light reel. Many people spend a lot of money on ultra light rods but then put a cheap heavy cheap reel on it. I was using a Lamson Velocity 1.5 Alox reel that is an extremely light and tough reel ideal for the demands of Czech nymphing.
I spent 3 full days fishing the rod for 8-10 hours each day and had less arm fatigue with the Guideline then I have had with any other Czech nymph rod I have tried. As mentioned above, in my opinion, a well balanced rod is more important to combat arm fatigue then weight.
Ivo commented he found the epoxy build up on the wraps a bit thicker than he would like, but this is all a matter of personal taste. It does not affect the rod performance, but cutting down on the epoxy might help shed a few grams.
Besides the minor issues above, there is nothing else wrong with the rod.
Conclusion
Besides being a bit on the heavy side, 107 grams, this is an amazing rod. For anyone looking at getting a rod designed for Czech nymphing, the Le Cie 10' 3wt is a hard one to beat for the money, balance, and sensitivity.
By Arron Varga and Ivo Balinov
The Trip
 Arron Czech nymphing a deep run |
To help protect the rivers and locations I will not be mentioning any river names.
Day one was spent on a single river with the first stop at one of Ivo's favorite spots, with a deep fast run and loaded with browns and rainbows. Walking up into the run, Ivo ceded to the top part of the run as he said it held the best waters. I quickly evaluated the run and picked out a prime location to start. I was anxious to see how the Le Cie would handle the Czech nymph rig, which comprised three flies. The bottom dropper was one of my favorite woven polish nymphs, the middle dropper was a light waded hare's ear and my top dropper was partridge and orange wet fly.
Walking into position, I made my first cast slightly upstream and across from my rod tip. I did not even get a chance for my flies to sink before my first fish of the trip rose up from the depths and took my wet fly right on the surface, so much for seeing how the rod handled the Czech nymphing. It did however handle the 22cm brown brilliantly. Immediately the rod loaded and had load even from this small fish to avoid bouncing the fish, which is a common problem with faster rods. I quickly brought the fish to hand and released him back into his run.
The next cast I did managed to get a drift in and was amazed at the sensitivity of the rod. The tip was under load even from the weight of the flies which meant I could feel every tick my anchor fly made as it rolled along the bottom. It did not take too long before I caught my next fish from the run. As I was pulling my flies through the run on my third cast I felt a slight tug on the line and with a quick lift, I had my second trout on and quickly landed.
That day we continued to pull fish all day from the river totaling over 160 brown trout and rainbows between us with Ivo out fishing me about 2 to 1. After about 8 hours of Czech nymphing and all of those fish, I was in amazed how little arm fatigue I had from the new rod. Its balance was excellent and I had lost very few fish once they were hooked as the medium action meant even the smallest fish could load the rod.
The next day and river would prove to be a different experience. That day we spent most of our time on a small stream full of little wild brown and brook trout. This stream was too shallow to Czech nymph, so I switch over to a dry fly while Ivo tried his hand a French Nymphing. The Le Cie had already proven to be an excellent Czech nymph rod so this proved an opportunity to see how it handled dry flies and a little bit of casting.
Again the Le Cie preformed excellently. It handled the short casts very well and presented dry flies with great accuracy and little effort. The medium action of the rod again proved to be a benefit as the fish on this stream on average were very small 12-18cm.
 18" Wild Brown Trout Ivo caught using the rod while Czech nymphing one of his favorite runs. |
I decided to let Ivo have the first drift and handed him the Le Cie to try and compare to his Admira Czech nymph rod. His first drift through the run did not produce a fish but I could see he was impressed with the rod. Well it did not take him to long to hook up with a fish.
On his third cast, Ivo managed to hook into a large fish which took him for a run about 10 meters down stream. The Le Cie and Ivo proved to be more than a match for the trout and quickly he brought the 45 cm wild brown trout to hand.
So the Le Cie 10' 3wt can also handle big fish and again had managed to impress both Ivo and myself.
Our last day of the trip would also prove to be as good as the other 2 days. This time we ended up on another stretch of the same river Ivo had pulled out his trophy form the previous night.
This stretch contained several deep and fast runs which again would prove to be excellent Czech nymphing water. Splitting up I headed up into one of the runs that looked to be very promising and managed to pull several healthy rainbows in the 40cm range. Again the Le Cie exceeded my expectations handling this larger fish with ease with the medium action protecting my light tippet.
The Rod
The Le Cie 10' 3wt comes in 3 sections and is specialty rod designed for euro nymphing techniques, especially Czech nymphing.
Guideline is located in Sweden and has earned an excellent reputation in Europe for its Two-Handed and Single-Handed rods. They have a comprehensive line-up of rods at different price levels. Their high end model is the Le Cie. The Le Cie single handed rods come in wide variety of lengths, weights and actions to meet almost any fisherman's needs from the casual to the competitive angler.
 One of Arron's Rainbows…if you look closely you can see the nymph. |
The Good
The rod has excellent balance and avoids being tip heavy which is an issue for some other light Czech nymphing rods. It is a light rod and weighs in at 107grams. A light rod is important to European style nymphing which has lots of consecutive short casts and often has you extending your arm and rod for maximum reach.
The Le Cie is heavier than some its competitor's rods - Greys Streamflex 10' 3wt is only 94 grams and Modern Flies Technia 10' 3/4wt is only 90 grams or Admira 10' 3wt is only 86grams. Despite being heavier then its competitors its perfect balance offsets the extra weight.
The rod is a medium action rod with a progressive taper. The tip is very soft that allows you to feel everything your nymphs are doing and detect even the lightest takes. The soft tip also helps protect light tippets when hooking larger fish. It also helps keep smaller fish hooked. A common problem, with faster rods with smaller fish is that they will often bounce of the hooks as they do not have enough weight to load the rod tip.
The rod is a joy to cast with the progressive action handling short and medium casts with ease. Because it is a medium action rod, you need to slow down and use full casting strokes. At longer distances we did notice a dampening issue when casting, but this issue may have been due to the line being used - Scientific Anglers 4wt GPX WF. The rod would probably cast better with a double tapered 3wt line, so I will have to get some different lines and get out with Ivo again to test casting at medium to long distances.
This rod is not just for nymphing, it also presents dry flies very well. It is ideal for presenting dries of any size to even the wariest fish.
The finish and details on the rod does set it apart from its competitors. Both of Ivo and I, were impressed with the quality of the cork used in handle - many rod manufacturers have been cutting costs by using cheaper cork. The reel seat insert is a beautiful wood giving the rod a classic look. The blank is a dark blue with black wraps and gold highlights. Not only does the rod perform well but it is pleasing to the eye.
A recent enhancement to the Guideline rods are alignment markers which is a nice detail that helps make sure the rod sections are properly aligned.
The Not so Good
The rod is a bit on the heavy side when compared to its competitors. Guideline will have to do some work to cut down the weight. However, the weight can be managed by investing in an ultra light reel. Many people spend a lot of money on ultra light rods but then put a cheap heavy cheap reel on it. I was using a Lamson Velocity 1.5 Alox reel that is an extremely light and tough reel ideal for the demands of Czech nymphing.
I spent 3 full days fishing the rod for 8-10 hours each day and had less arm fatigue with the Guideline then I have had with any other Czech nymph rod I have tried. As mentioned above, in my opinion, a well balanced rod is more important to combat arm fatigue then weight.
Ivo commented he found the epoxy build up on the wraps a bit thicker than he would like, but this is all a matter of personal taste. It does not affect the rod performance, but cutting down on the epoxy might help shed a few grams.
Besides the minor issues above, there is nothing else wrong with the rod.
Conclusion
Besides being a bit on the heavy side, 107 grams, this is an amazing rod. For anyone looking at getting a rod designed for Czech nymphing, the Le Cie 10' 3wt is a hard one to beat for the money, balance, and sensitivity.