Breaking up with Sage Fly Rods

Dear Sage, 

      I’m sorry but we need to break up, and to be frank, it’s not me, it’s you.  Before you get all weepy and defensive, please hear me out.  I’ve thought long and hard about this and it doesn’t give me any pleasure to break up with you.  We had some great times!  I can’t help but smile when I think about all the fun we had with the “TCX”, the places we shouldn’t have gone to but the lunkers we landed on the old “Z-Axis”, and so many memorable days spent together with the “X”.  They were truly great times, but you’ve changed, you aren’t the same Sage that I loved and shared the water with for so many years, and frankly I deserve better, so it’s time we go our separate ways.   

     Maybe it was the stressors on the industry, supply chain issues, or the move to working at home during Covid that made things start to fall apart.  Me and all of our friends were on the water, fishing as much as we could, but when I sent a broken rod to you more than 9 months ago and didn’t hear anything from you, I started to worry that something might have happened to you.  I called and wrote you so many times, but you never got back to me.  This distance and lack of communication wasn’t the Sage that I had knew and loved. 

     I looked for you at the fly fishing shows this year, and honestly, I looked long and hard.  Edison New Jersey, Atlanta Georgia, and Denver Colorado, me and the boys looked for you in all of our old haunts but you never showed up.  We wanted to catch up and hear what was going on in your world, spend some time casting together on the ponds, and see what new magic you were cooking up in the rod shop but you were nowhere to be seen.  Its not even that we needed that much from you, its fine if your latest rods were delayed, we just would have appreciated your presence and a chance to connect as we were putting our live back together after Covid.  It feels like you’re all about the business and the bottom line these days and you’ve forgotten your friends and partners who helped get to where you are today.   

      I understand that we all grow and change, but I thought our relationship would have stood the test of time (God knows we’ve been together over 25 years!).  I trusted you and when you said you needed $50, then $95, and then $195 to repair broken fly rods, and while it was tough to hear, I loved you and we had history so I accepted it. You sure were quick to cash my check!  How was my act of trust and devotion reciprocated?  More silence and no repaired fly rod as I watched the fine fishing months of winter, spring, and now summer slip away.  It feels like you stopped caring, and you most definitely stopped pulling your weight and treating me as a valued equal in this relationship.  Sage, I know my worth (both as a consumer and ambassador) and I deserve better than this. 

      I’m still young and there are still so many fish I want to catch, so I’m getting back into the dating scene!  

I’ve been off the market for a long time, so I recently downloaded Tinder and what did I find, fly fishers are a hot commodity and there are lots of flexible, slender, sexy fly rods out there who would love to be in a relationship with me!  I think I’m going to date around and I’m sure that it won’t be hard to find a match who appreciated and reciprocates my love and loyalty. 

     Sage, I will always have a love for you and hope that you get yourself together.  Remember what we had, remember who you were, and go back to being the great rod company you once were!  I’m not writing you off completely, but I’d need to see you change your behavior before I give you another try.  Please, start communicating with those who have loved and supported you.  Please, return to doing what you did best, keeping top quality rods in fly fishers’ hands, and return to your special place in the community (first by getting more than 3 people working in the repair shop and secondly by showing up to industry events).  If you can show me that you’ve changed your colors, I’m open to giving you another chance, but if not, I wish you the best and will have no choice but to go my separate way. 

PS. You can keep the sweatshirt I left in your room, but please return my fly rod.

Broken Hearted on the River: 

Fly Fishers Everywhere 

Though written satirically, this letter does encapsulate a very real frustration of myself and countless other anglers as we wait in the dark for long overdue rod repairs.  This growing frustration and lack of faith in Sage is echoed on every fly-fishing forum, stream bank, and fly shop, and the overwhelming consensus of the community is that we would love to see Sage return back to being the responsive, quality, customer focused company that we once loved and championed.   

Sage Rod Team, if you read this and would like to speak to the community in order to address these grievances, to show us that you hear us, and that you are taking steps to do things better, we would love to hear from you.  You have and remain a valuable and respected brand in this industry, and we hope that you will return to treating your customers and ambassadors with that same respect and devotion that we have shown you.  We hope to hear from you and to see the old Sage come back to us soon!