Like any rod manufacturer, Snowbee describes its Prestige rods in glowing confident terms, viz. “light, effortless, crisp action.” For the most part I agree.

The #4 line loads this rod. I can make this rod bend against the line, even with just a few yards of line outside the tip ring; the designer clearly wanted a rod which offers that feedback. So casting is quietly confident. The rod powers up smoothly and delivers a tidy, controlled loop. I can hit the brakes as I deliver the line and make the tip tremble a little – more my doing than the rod’s.

In the hand this feels light, almost from the first cast I felt relaxed, casting felt graceful and deliberate. After a few casts I felt utterly at home, with a great sense of touch and ability to place the line so it landed delicately. Loop control is good, tight enough when that’s needed to place a single dry, or drive a line through wind, or adjust the stoke and power a little and loops are more open when I want a long leader and team of flies to land without tangling. And did I mention this is light? Stick my arm straight out and start fishing bugs and the Prestige is deceptive, I could do that all day.

Strike into a fish and the moderate action of the Prestige cushions any shock, fine leaders are not really a worry. This is not a power rod. Its more rhythm and delicacy, rather than punch and grunt. That said I did set the hook easily, suggesting the Prestige has enough middle and low end grunt!

The length and line weight of this rod have me thinking of modern river tactics for grayling and wild trout, I am quite sure it will also be used a delicate stillwater rod from both bank and boat.

River fishing can mean fishing short and close - not all fish are on the far bank. In those close quarter, clear water situations flashy rods put some anglers down because, they claim, rod-flash puts their target fish down. I’m not wholly convinced by their arguments, I suspect holding a rod high while prospecting with a team of bugs or fishing down stream is at least as likely to spook fish. However, I am not convinced the top two sections of this rod need to have those gold tips on the whipping. It's very much a matter of preference, but I would rather have the tip sections without those wee, gold bands. That said this is a very pleasing fishing rod. It's ideal for light tippets and delicate flies. To coin a phrase it is very bug-able.