Thomas & Thomas Sextant 9-foot 9-weight Fly Rod

A 9-weight fly rod is a bit like that sportcoat in your closet that’s too casual for a wedding, but too formal for drinks with the boys. But in certain situations, there’s really nothing better. A bit too light for big tarpon, or roosters, and too heavy for Yucatan bonefish, the Thomas and Thomas Sextant 9-weight is just that–a rod you will not use every day, unless you can afford to fish for more than your fair share of permit, but the confidence tool when that permit is waving its tail at you. 

Facing stiff competition at the luxury end of the market from the Sage R8 Salt, Winston AIR 2 Max and Scott Sector, the Sextant (I never did figure out the name’s significance) must be more than a pretty face.

The Sextant is the successor to the (equally eccentrically named) Solar and Exocett fly rods–both hard acts to follow. The improvements are incremental, but significant, depending on your casting skill. If anything, the Sextant feels slightly faster. 

Beyond the talk of permit fishing, this rod could easily throw big musky flies, or haul largemouth from deep cover. If you haven’t crossed to the dark side of spey rodding, you can even add a selection of sink tips and chase Atlantic salmon, or steelhead, with this rod.

Build and Cosmetics

If rods were sold on looks alone, Thomas and Thomas might be a Fortune 500 company. The build is of “pass down to the grandkids and their grandkids” quality. A classic blue blank, flawless two-tone cork Wells grip, engraved double locking rings that stay locked and heavy-duty reversed titanium stripping and recoil snake guides complete the picture. The blank feels chunky enough to survive bouncing around in flats boats and pangas that have less than perfect rod storage. Thomas and Thomas, like Winston, adds a serial number to each rod section (for potential replacement purposes).

Test Conditions

Magazines would like you to believe that hero casts catch permit. The reality is that most permit are hooked within 20 to 40 feet of the casting platform. At the outside limit, picking up 50 feet of tropical floating line and shooting another 20 feet defines this rod’s comfort zone. This friendly blank cries out for a “pick up and go” style that will not have the guide yelling at your extra false casts. 

The Sextant explodes the myth of overlining saltwater rods. I found it handled the Bruce Chard Tropical Punch 9-weight line and, to my delight, it also performed well when underlined with an 8-weight Wulff Triangle Taper Bonefish line. It was quite at home with the Rio Outbound Short up to 11-weight, which is the standard Baja set-up. With these options, you are expanding the rod’s useful range, i.e. getting that coat out of the closet. As a Los Angeles resident, I only had the chance to cast this rod in a local casting pond, but got a real sense that it had the chops for offshore tuna trips. It’s hard to imagine this rod being outgunned if larger fish show up. Bottom line: It casts like a 9-weight, but acts like a 10-weight.

Feel

On the downside, despite its 3.9 ounce actual weight, this rod feels heavy through the casting stroke. This may be due to the blank diameter not being as skinny as others, or its chunky hardware. This is defined as “swing weight” which other reviewers have quantified using technology outside my scope. Despite this, it loads comfortably through the blank and is neither too fast, nor too tippy, and definitely not from the broomstick school of design. For a day of flats wading, a lightweight reel would be in order.

A friend saw me casting this rod at the famed Pasadena Casting Pond and, after a couple of casts, declared “this rod has soul.” If by “soul,” he meant ease of loading and sensitivity through the blank, then he got that right. I would call it soul with substance.