There’s like a billion of these, “Vice” reviews, so the main thing that I’m going to do to distinguish mine from the 999,999,999 million of them is this:
I will not make a pun about fishing being a vice, or rod collecting being a vice and so on and so forth. This I solemnly swear.
You know honestly now it’s actually more tempting than ever to make a pun about the name of the rod, my friend Poe wrote about this temptation, calling it the “imp of the odd”. I won’t make any more sentences rhyme now and if you’ll keep reading I won’t make any more references to Edgar Allen Poe either. This is a fly fishing blog after all.
Look, I will always be a Redington fan. They produced the first fly rod I ever bought, they got me into fly fishing and when I moved to Arizona and thought that my fly fishing days were over, it was actually a Redington video that showed me I could fly fish for carp in the tepid community ponds that spot the AZ valley, thanks KC Badger and Kenny Price! So yes, I’ll admit there’s some minor allegiance to the company. They don’t always like my stuff on Instagram though. It’s like, hey, if I tag you, show me some love. I hope I’m establishing credibility here; I’m not some Redington shill. I’m not in their pocket. I promise.
The Redington Vice rod is awesome. It’s looks alone made me want it. A sparkling Kelly green that would make a leprechaun blush, with lovely bands of gold wrap and shiny black hardware. It’s pretty, it’s different, and it’s fun.
I took it out a few times and was an absolute gentleman. For the first few nights I actually let the Vice sleep under the covers and I slept on top of the covers, you know, classy chivalrous stuff. I guess I just sorta felt like this one was different, this one was special.
When I finally took it out, it was to a place called Otter Creek. Supposedly it was fishing really well. The Vice was to be my streamer rod. I’d previously been using a 8wt TFO BVK and I didn’t really like it much for this application, it was a little too spongy. I got the Vice as a 9ft 6wt. So I showed up at Otter Creek, ready to change my streamer game. I imagined myself throwing out some serious hashtags on Insta. #streamer #streamerjunkie #meateater #rippinlips etc… it was going to be pretty intense. Inherently ready to love the Vice, I stepped out of the car and realized the wind was going to be a complete nightmare, but I’d driven for over 3 hours to get to this place that was supposedly fishing really well so I put the Vice together and headed down to the reservoir. Yes, Otter Creek is actually a reservoir. I threw far casts into the wind. I was a hero. Everyone knows that 99% of fish are caught around 99 feet away from where you are standing so with a little mathematica you’ll see that 90ft of fly line and 9 feet of fly rod will get you exactly to the place where the fish are. Truthfully even with my terrible casting skills I was able to throw a lot of line with a weighted fly into the wind and I was impressed by how easy it was, if you are buying a rod to cast far this rod is going to be really good for that. If you are buying a rod for catching fish, I will also recommend this rod and here is why:
I can throw streamers with this rod easily; I fished the Provo River with it a few days ago and caught one of the biggest fish I’ve ever gotten out of that river. I had a sink tip line on and some tremendously heavy flies because the flows were going really fast and the water was really high, which meant I had to cast the fly a lot higher upstream and throw a monster mend way up top so that the fly would have some time to get into the strike zone. I threw huge articulated Sex Dungeons at the fish and had a blast doing it. The rod did exactly what I wanted it too and that’s really all that needs to be said for a rod. The best thing about the rod, like all things Redington, is that they tend to produce quality at a really affordable cost. The Redington Vice is here at Fishwest for $199 in a lot of different sizes. At the 6wt 9ft size it makes for an awesome streamer rod and there’s a lifetime warranty on it too so you don’t have to baby it. I plan to buy it in a 4wt because I think it will be an awesome nymphing rod too. If you are considering getting a new rod and you are thinking about something that has a fast action feel this is a solid choice, plus with the money you save picking this one over another manufacturer’s fast action offering you could buy some spectacular line and toss it on a Redington Behemoth, and maybe even buy a plane ticket to go fish some waters where known monsters lurk below the surface. You’ll have to sleep in a tent or something though because it’s not ridiculously cheap, it’s just inexpensive.
I’ve thrown pike flies with this rod, I haven’t caught a pike with it yet, but that’s not the Vice’s fault. The Redington Vice rod is so good that sometimes when I fish it I catch myself humming Lil’ Kim’s parts to “Magic Stick”. If that’s not a sign for what a good rod can do, I literally have no way to further convey value…
