For a few years, Sandro Soldarini, renowned Italian fly fisherman and competitor has been designing fishing equipment in several price range. These products, initially based on the euro-nymphing, are now covering all the needs of a fly fisherman. It includes those who are tying their own artificial flies. Trout and Co decided to explore the 2020 catalogue, starting with the Tournament series, the most successful to date. Ladies and gentlemen, the euro-nymphing specialist : Soldarini Tournament 10’6 #2/3.
Static test
The Tournament series breaks with the usual blue look of the Elite, Soldarini’s previous high-end, to renew with a discreet black set. Red trims bring a touch of colour by the fittings. This series has been entirely built with top-quality materials (Titanium Recoil guides, High-quality cork extra floor). The standard size cigar handle surmounts a black 6061 aluminum reel seat with carbon insert. This 4-piece rod is delivered inside a compartmentalised tube.
MEASUREMENTS
The Common Cents System protocol was used to characterize the action, the power and the frequency of this rod :
Regarding the power, 27 cents were required to load the rod over a third of its total length, which gives after conversion an ERN of 2.97 and a #2/3 line power, exactly the expected power. With an AA of 64°, the action is moderate fast (63°< AA < 66°) The frequency at 77 is high and pledge of versatility. With a BTW at 8.6oz, this rod offers very comfortable 10'6 fishing: the balance is one of the best on the market. The stripper guide is located at a distance of 10 inches from the handle, witch avoids the creation of a slack line, especially when euronymphing.
Soldarini Tournament 10'6 #2/3
The opinion of the manufacturer
"To present on the market a product that is superior to the present Elite series, more powerful and innovative, we have reserched the best materials on the market ; the combination of 8 different types of high modulus carbon, with an important innovation in the use of carbon fibers at 45 degrees, so far used by any manufacturer, allow us with enthusiasm to be able to say that we have the most highly technological product on the market.
All the details, from the use of special resins, nanitechnology, the new 45-degree carbon and the new material impregnated with the new radial carbon resins, allow us to build a super reactive, extremely sturdy and very light shaft, the only one able to do it to use thin lines to catch important fish. Innovators in the construction of ultra thin blanks, we wanted to further thin the barrels making them even richer in materials and even more robust.
Thanks to the use of the new carbon at 45 degrees, the blank does not undergo torsions, making it more performing in the fishing action, and guarantees maximum performance during casting phase. Equipped with the best components on the market such as Titanium Rec Guides, Sea guide double-deck stripping guide and single in the stillwater model, which in addition to being lighter, affect cast performance, ultralight reel seat in stock bar 6061 and wowen carbon insert."
The opinion of the editor
We submitted this rod to our test, among others, during our last fishing trip in Aragon region (Spanish Pyrenees). The whole trip was under the tough rules of very low and crystal-clear water. The Soldarini Tournament 10’6 #2/3 delighted us in every light and fine fishing actions. With its BTW at 8.6oz, it’s one of the most comfortable rods on the market for this range of length and power. This simply shows that the down-locking reel seat and the fighting butt are not necessary when the blank is balanced.
The Soldarini Tournament 10’6 #2/3 real power of #2/3 (perfectly consistent with the announced power of the manufacturer, as the weight) allows it to cast lighter nymphs. We mostly used tandem dry-nymph with a 2.4 mm bead head topped with a size 16 dry fly. With this rig, cast are accurate without effort to about 10 m. With its moderate fast action, the rod allows to use very fine tippet (10/100 or 7X) if the need arises. Despite this very soft action, which provides another evidence of the high quality of that blank, the reactivity is still present. The Soldarini Tournament 10’6 #2/3 obtained 77cpm at the recovery test which allows to consider dry fly fishing without any issue. For that, using a DT2 line would be the most appropriate. Obviously, the price is up to the quality of the product, but this Tournament won’t have much competitors in the fine modern approaches.
