HYPER SPEC 3/4 9FT 4PC

HYPER SPEC 3/4 9FT 4PC

A groovy little powerhouse of an all water fly rod for the light stuff!
The Hyper Spec blanks are made for us specially by CTS of New Zealand and as stated in a previous post, are sensational performers. We firmly believe these are the best dual weight fly rods in the world today. And we do not say things like that lightly. Enjoy!

special client custom: 6 piece 6wt 9' NZ back country

This is a specially commissioned 6pc that will see it travel back to New Zealand to be used on seriously big back country trout.
It is based on a 9' CTS Affinity X 6wt blank in the bare graphite finish.
The client brief was to keep it light and  crisp so we opted for titanium guides and a nice light Struble seat.
He also wanted the look to be stealthy and low key... A beaut 6pc thet feels and behaves like a 4pc. Works great close and if you find yourself on a lake, throwing a full line would not be  an issue. Amazing blanks.

This image is special... See the white dots? See how they get closer to the tip as the section diameters get smaller? 

That is because CTS engineer the blank so that ferrule sections gradually decrease in size to keep the action as true & natural to the blank action/taper as possible. And it works! This 6pc casts just like a 4pc.

Hyper Spec feedback

We've been working on our new Hyper Specs (Designed & developed by us here at HCE & the blanks are made for us by CTS in New Zealand) and are looking to officially launch them soon - but sometimes, customers want something special so we invariably let the cat out of the bag early. Not always a bad thing...

    

And this from Phil, for whom we customised this first off the bench Hyper...

How good are these HCE rods?

I first cast one of Tony and TJ's Comp Spec 5 weight rods last year. On the same day I watched as multiple Aussie Casting Champ, John Waters, picked up the 5 weight and threw close to 140 feet.

This rod had a real presence about it. I don't do distance competition casting like the Southern Cross Challenge events - frankly I'm in not that class.

But the 5wt Comp Spec felt very good in the hand. It seemed to have more power than the 5wt TCR I once owned, plus it had better manners. In fact, despite its obvious power, it felt more fishable than the 5wt TCX I had.

I could see real possibilities for polaroiding finicky Tasmanian trout from either the boat or shore and had to have one. I know from past experience that the cruising trout in Arthurs and the Western Lakes are easily spooked by fly line flash, and additionally, often there isn't time to change flies. I've got to have a fast action rod ready to go when fish are spotted from the casting deck of my tinnie. Just imagine picking up 50 plus feet of line, one back cast, and............. (maybe) a take.

The success of this beautiful 5wt made me think, how good would a 10 feet 6 weight be for casting big wets into the breeze, or maybe casting at the 'sharks' on the Great Lake, or even some light salt water fishing. I like 6 weight ten footers for lake fishing.

A chat with TJ and Tony over a coffee, some pooling of ideas, and finally last weekend the Hyper Spec was hand delivered. It felt like my birthday. But in fact it was TJ's, rather than mine. He'd happily driven to Milbrook so that I could blood the rod over the weekends fishing.

That's the thing with HCE - nothing is ever a trouble.

I'm really fussy with my gear and it's often the little things that really make a rod. I love the flexibility you just can't get from a factory rod. 'Guys, can I have markers so the ferules match perfectly; guys, I do a bit of competition fishing - it would be handy to some fish measures on the rod, and that extra guide on the Comp Spec 5 makes the line feel soooo smooth.' Of course the answer was a 'not a problem Phil.'

As this was a special build I knew it would take some time for the blank to be built to our agreed specs, and then tested. But like every other fly fishing junkie, I could hardly wait to get my hands on it. I tried gently to prod the guys into rushing it, but they quite rightly insisted on taking time to get it perfect, including being individually tuned.

And it was worth the wait!!! The finish and components on the Hyper Spec are the best I've seen. But it's the rods performance that amazes me. This is the best fly rod I've owned - and I've owned a few.

It's smoother and better finished than my Hardy Zenith, it's more powerful than any other 6wt I've cast, much more than my old TCR 6wt - in fact it blows my old Sage SP+ and XP 7 weights to the wind - but it's not a broom stick. It's sensitive in the tip, like a Greys XF2 - perfect for loch style, wonderful for throwing big wets into the wind or that long cast to a 'shark' cruising in the waves on the Great Lake.

Over the weekend at Milbrook I caught fish big and small, close in and at long distance - the Hyper Spec handled it all with ease.

As TJ said, you have to slow your cast down to load this road, but once you do - WOW!!!!

It's light in the hand but is capable of throwing 100 feet all day. Personally, I find I'm casting 70 - 80 feet with the sort of ease I'd previously used with 50 - 60 feet casts.

I'm still matching lines for the Hyper Spec but my feeling is that that the HCE Hyper Spec may well be the best fly rod I'll ever own.

Thanks guys.

No. It is us who thank you Phillip – Tony & TJ.

SAGE Xi3 9wt "25"

Another 9wt heads north! This time a Sage Xi3 for customer Tony H in Queensland.
As a special little touch, we weaved a '25' under the trim band... The rod was self gifted as a milestone reward.
Enjoy her mate!

                                                         

Southern Cross Challenge distance casting event 9-6-2012

Long before we started HCE, Tony and I embarked on a personal development journey... Although we have both been fly fishing for quite a while and you might say pretty good fly casters in our own right, we wanted to get better.

The reasoning was that we had to be the best casters we could be, we had learn all about casting dynamics and have a total understanding of the various techniques and mechanics as well.

Essentially, we felt that to develop great fly rods meant not just understanding fly rods & components but also being able to cast fly rods properly: To cast them so as to be able to assess them more thoroughly and accurately. To work out how to get peak performance from each blank...

My personal casting journey gravitated towards comp casting in distance events. I was lucky enough to have great sessions with John Waters and some very good CCI's from NSFFC helped me along my journey as well.

With improved technique came a greater understanding of how rods could be developed to compliment the technique: To extract every available ounce of power & energy from the rod and achieve maximum performance.

From there, Tony and I developed our "Comp Spec" rods. These rods are used for the 5wt, 7wt and 9wt distance events. Each caster has only 3 minutes to blast as many casts down a casting range with only the best cast counting.

The Comp Spec rods are compliant with the rules of the competition and boundaries of blank construction. We chose the CTS Affinity X blanks as our high performance platform. As it turns out, a very good choice. Our 5wt has been described by John Waters as "an international event winning rod".

To give you an idea of just powerful these 5wt Comp Spec rods that we build are, John has blasted a cast of just over 135' with one!

Today I cast with many other casters in my second year of competition and only my third actual event (I missed a couple last year due to other commitments).

Conditions were anything but favorable. Heavy, cold, still air and constant drizzle making for a very wet event.

I cast our 5wt 9' Comp Spec (SA MED line) 105' 1" to come in 3rd behind John Waters and Matthew Howell (CCI MCI)

In the 7wt event, I cast our 10' 7wt Comp Spec (SA MED line) 106' 9" - many casters commented very positively on this rod. I came in second place behind Matthew.

The surprise result for me was in the 9wt event. We have a 10' 9wt Comp Spec that was unavailable today so I chose to cast our 9' SWoFF Spec: Our saltwater build. Whilst we have many 9wt lines, the only line I could get for today (I'd totally forgot about the line until the last moment!) was an old beat up test line we use for hard surface test casting. I still came in third with a distance of 108' 2" behind John Kruska and Matthew. I was very pleased with that! John incidently was a worthy winner, blasting a huge cast to win the 9wt event.

So overall, a pleasing day of PB's. Thanks to all the competitors for making it a great day regardless of the horrible weather that reflected the ordinary distances achieved. There was a definite wall in those heavy air conditions! 


And thanks CTS, for making great blanks that make so-so casterbators like me look good!

T.J.

HCE NOW THE AUSTRALIAN AUTHORISED DEALER FOR SNAKE BRAND GUIDES!

We have just confirmed today with Mike McCoy that the team at HCE is now an official Authorised Dealer for Snake Brand Guides and Components!

With Mike back at the helm, we are confident that both supply and service of this great product will be better than ever. We are looking forward to growing our relationship with him so that we can supply to local rod crafters in a timely fashion and at prices that make buying local worthwhile.
Naturally, this also means that we can now offer Snake Brand guides as yet another high quality alternative for our custom rod builds!

It is very early days yet, but we should have good stock in the very near future of both Original and Universal snake guides and other components.

Check out their product range here & stay tuned for more information!

Lukes new Custom SWoFF Spec CTS Affinity X 9wt

At HCE, we have our various 'Specs'.
Essentially, these are what we feel are optimum builds for certain forms of fly fishing.
We've tried and tested each Spec until we were satisfied our customers would love them too!

The great part about being custom fly rod builders is our flexibility.

Luke from Queensland loved the idea of the SWoFF Spec - he asked if we could change the cobalt blue blank for a matt black one and if we could alter the trim bands on the bindings so that they better matched his new, blue reel...

   

Naturally, we said yes! And here is his new CTS Affinity X in his own customised SWoFF Spec. This rod is a powerful 9wt with a fast action, extra fast taper - perfect for blasting out fast casts and plenty of backbone for stopping big fast fish!




A quote from Luke... "the 9WT SW Spec I ordered from the guys at HCE arrived recently and can I say the finish of the rod is brilliant. 
I kept my rod as a pretty standard SW Spec with a couple of changes to make it 'mine' and so far have found the CTS blank to be awesome. 
I have been putting some time into getting the feel of the rod (she's fast!) and I can't wait to get up to Airlie Beach and give it a work out!! 

Again thanks to the guys from HCE for great product and if I can get it past the minister for finance and war I will be giving you a call!"