Spare your wallet, check out these fly rods

Several years ago, fly-fishing developed a bad rap as an expensive sport for dandies. Of course, an element of truth lurks behind that reputation, but even gear makers realize the absurdity of thinking every angler will spend $800 or more on a deluxe carbon-fiber fly rod.

Indeed, offering affordable, but still high-performance, gear is a growing trend among even the elite fly-fishing equipment companies. We explored this trend recently, testing the performance of several lower-priced fly-fishing rods, focusing exclusively on 4-weight models for trout.

The new Flight series from Sage proved a favorite of our testers, male and female. The 9-foot Flight 490 — available in two- or four-piece configurations — provided ample power to push line through the wind that blasts down the channels of the upper Yakima. Yet the fast action was tempered enough to allow delicate presentations of tiny flies in the tree-lined pools of the Cedar River, too.

The four-piece design means it's a backpacker's tool as well. Easy to pack, yet powerful enough to sling flies on wind-swept alpine waters. At $280 for the two-piece design ($330 for the four-piece), the Flight isn't the least-expensive rod we tested but it's substantially less expensive than Sage's other series, without giving up the power and performance for which Sage rods are famous. More information: www.sageflyfish.com.

Running a close second among testers — and even capturing a couple first-place votes — was the Imperial series from St. Croix. Personally, I found the 7-foot, 6-inch St. Croix Imperial 4-weight to be the ideal rod for small mountain streams where brush restricts casting angles and skittish fish require accurate presentations.

This medium-action rod allows pinpoint placements to fish even when cedars and vine maples crowd your casts. With this supple wand, I was able to bring to net 10- and 12-inch bull trout on the very narrow Wolf Fork River of Southeast Washington, and several respectable rainbows along the tree-lined Skate Creek near Packwood.

The 8-foot, 6-inch four-piece Imperial deserves mention as an affordable travel rod. Besides catching fish on the South Fork Snoqualmie, we put this rod in a carry-on bag during a recent trip to Utah and used it to hook lunker trout in the upper Provo — including a few hard-fighting 18-inch rainbows. The St. Croix I764.2 runs $160, while the 4-piece I864.4 runs $180. More information: www.stcroixrods.com.