By the way Hardy is pitching its weight behind the new Sintrix material, then it's going to be the biggest talking point amongst fly fishers since cane versus fibreglass, or the great carbon versus boron argument of the 1980s. Managing director, Richard Sanderson, is already predicting that 60-70% of Hardy rods will be made of Sintrix within five years.

The closest we anglers have came to this new material was titanium rods. Then, nano particles of titanium were used in the resin. Do you remember them? Lightweight and fast, some of them were spectacular at snapping. Years ago, I remember seeing one belonging to a friend of mine explode in silhouette on a bonefish flat as he played a good fish. Hardy reckon the reason for high breakage rates of titanium rods was due to inconsistent alignment of the titanium nano-particles in the resin. If the nano particles were present in too high a concentration at some point in the mix, this would form a weakness in the form of a brittle spot - a pretty exacting science. This theory does makes sense - my mate from the bonefish flat received a replacement titanium rod - the same model - and he still uses it, with no hint of any breakages. So, using nano particles within the cloth's resin is not a new idea, but silica is the element that Hardy has introduced, and Sintrix is the material which is of the quality to eliminate any chance of fracturing. Hardy is confident about the material's consistent nature and strength due to extensive - somewhat horrific - tests on its rods, which involve pulley machines straight out of Madame Tussaud's torture-chamber in the factory, and Florida's shark population in the outside world.

So what does a Sintrix rod handle like?

I tried a double-hander on a recent visit to the Spey. Hardy's Ian Gordon has been working on a 15ft and a 13ft blank. They are both still very much prototypes (they are probably still a year from release) and both had makeshift fittings, but the first most noticeable feature is how thin the blank is at the butt. Extra strength and lightness is the key behind the Sintrix product, but Hardy haven't appeared to have jumped on the obvious ultra-light band-wagon immediately with the Sintrix material. However, the strength of the cloth does allow for much less material to be used - hence the slim butt. In the hand, the 15-footer did not strike me as being incredibly light, but then again I later realised that this rod wasn't a 15-footer, it was actually a 15ft 4in model, as it is based loosely on the old Hardy De-Luxe. So already we can see where the development of Sintrix rods might be going. Today's salmon rods require Spey casting power, particularly towards the tip and the 15.333-footer appears to possess this; during the day I experimented with various models of all Hardy salmon rods, but it was the Sintrix that I kept falling back on for my fishing. Well, the Spey's a wide river and it demands a long Spey line, and I found this model helped me push out a good line against a stiff upstream breeze. Magnus tells me that you can't review a rod until all the fittings are chosen and mounted, but this initial sortie suggests that today's power and action are easily attainable with Sintrix. The strength factor will I believe most obviously come in the saltwater fly fishing section, but I expect lightness to have an increasing influence in development once the material catches on. Interesting times ahead ...

• Magnus Angus takes a look at the new material following his factory visit in the August issue.