I was at the LL Bean store located at exit 4 Marlton NJ on the NJTPK. I had a good chance to look and compare the LL Bean Rods to Sage's SPL's & VPS.

The LL bean rods are made on G Loomis blanks. G Loomis does make a good rod except they seem to be on the heavy side. The LL Bean rod uses single foot guides. This can be a plus if you prefer a little less stiffer rod. The trouble with the single foot guides that LL Beans uses is that they are wire with out ceramic inserts. The wire upon further investigation appears it would cause damage to a good fly line some where down the line. Hence is one of the many reasons that I prefer to make rods with ceranmic single foot guides. I really thing single foot guides are good but I still like snake guides better. To me it depends on how flexible or not so flexible the blank is to determin which way I go. My point here is if the rod is a little to flexible I can stiffen it up a little with snake guides. If the blank is to stiff I like to use single foot in order of creating a tomato stake to be used in the spring garden. Most rod blanks of good quality, I like to use snakes guides. For LL Beans rods that were in the store in the $300 to $350 range I was not impressed at all. The rod is heavier and stiffer and use lower quality parts compared to the Sage models in the store. If you had to buy a rod on looks and feel I would not recomend spending the money on LL Bean when you could get a Sage VPS or St. Croix Lengend Ultra for the same price. The rod casted OK but nothing to write home about. Just some observations that I thought you might enjoy.

Andy B