The Spanish company Maxia Rod (MR) was created and developed by Aldo Silva (from the italian company Modern Flies) accompanied by the casting champion and instructor Alejandro Viñuales. Maxia is today one of the leading manufacturers in flyfishing competition in Europe. The last world champion (who won the world flyfishing championship a few days ago in Italy), the Spanish David Garcia Ferreras, has been a member of Maxia team for a long time and will give us his opinion on the tested reference. The top-range series (MX) offers a wide range of different powers and lengths. We're starting today a series of reviews with a famous classic of the MX series: the MX4 10 '# 2.
Static test
The MX series has a unique look, including the famous yellow trims, symbols of the brand, present at the joints and the inscriptions on the first piece. The ligatures are black and there are 12 Recoil guides. The reel seat is dark gray metal with a carbon insert, which gives a touch of originality to the product. This 4-pieces rod is delivered in a black protective tube with a blue plastic anti-scratch net.
Measurements
The Common Cents System protocol was used to characterize the action, the power and the frequency of this rod :
Regarding the power, 32 cents were required to load the rod over a third of its total length, which gives after conversion an ERN of 3.72. The announced power is less than the real : this rod has a #3 line power. With an AA of 67°, the action is fast (AA> 66 °), but remains in the bottom part of this range : the rod is not ultra-fast. The frequency at 81 is very high for a 10' (this is the most important frequency we have measured to date), which shows excellent recovery and great dryfly fishing capacities. We have weighed this rod at 3.5oz (the manufacturer does not provide any weight in his description ) but the BTW is around 10.5oz. The first guide is located at a distance of 20in from the handle, so it requires to add a removable guide to fish effectively.
Maxia MX4 10' #2
The opinion of Alejandro Viñuales (Maxia blank designer), on the MX series :
"The particularity of the MX blanks (MX3, MX4 and MX5, according to the number of pieces) is the combination of various materials in variable proportions according to the model and section of the rod, distributed in layers, according to a specific method we have developed. We use different carbon fibers from several manufacturers, mainly Toray, Mitshubishi and Tenax, combined with several types of resins and nanoresins. Each blank is completely designed, we do not proceed by adding small changes to an initial product... Indeed, all our MX blanks have the same action. Each blank is manufactured according to the type of action we want and the flyfishing technic it is intended."
... and on the MX4 10 '# 2 model in particular :
"The MX4 10 '# 2 is a classic model, designed for euronymphing in a wide range of situations - it could be called the "off-road nymph" model - it's also able to cast dryflies if the situation requires it. The action is fast, but with some progressivity. This is not a specific rod for small or big fishes, but it is quite able to adapt and allow to fish small trouts without hooks off or to fight big browns on fine tippets. It allows to use long leaders (spanish nymphing) or cast a classic fly line. As all Maxia rods, it requires a small adaptation time to achieve maximum performances. We could recommend it for anglers who only want one rod to fish in all types of rivers ! "
The opinion of David Garcia Ferreras, 2018 World Fly Fishing Champion:
"Maxia gear is designed by fly fishermen for fly fishermen. The 10 '# 2 is a very versatile rod with which you can both nymphing and dry flyfishing. It is very pleasant to use with ultra-fine lines in fast streams where fish are of moderate size but numerous. It is a fast enough action, very useful to alternate several flyfishing techniques."
The opinion of the editor
A rod made in Spain very versatile according to its high reactivity and power (which is more important than expected): it is a real 10' #3. It can do everything (dryfishing, nymphing, tandem...etc) in all types of waters. The relatively thick handle (0.94in) will adapt to different morphologies, which is a very good point. The BTW at 10.5 Oz of this top-range model remains its main weak point.
