Pascal Inc. just released a free "Fly Fishing 3D HD" game for the Apple iPad (you can buy the premium version to get rid of the ads). According to the company, "Casting is incorporated in tilted iPad operations, so it feels realistic, just like when you flick a real fishing rod backward and forward, draw a loop, and cast out the line. The river flow speed and direction are very realistic. The view is just like as if fly is flowing in a mountain stream." Watch the video for a sample.

New Asian carp "czar" John Goss will lead the attack against carp that are threatening to establish a fin-hold in the Great Lakes. "His challenge will be to oversee several studies — including one looking into shutting down the Chicago waterway system linking Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River — and to bring together Great Lakes states locked in a court battle over the response to the Asian carp threat." Joel Hood in the Chicago Tribune. (Thanks to reader Robert Tomes for this link.)

We've been fishing Sage's new TXL-F ($625) three-, four- and five-weights on Colorado's Elk River for the past couple of days and can confirm that Sage has engineered the rumored sensitivity into the new rods. Via Micro Ferrule Technology, and an exclusive, ultra-light guide package, Sage reduced the weight of the TXL-F by 33 percent from the earlier TXL series. Our favorite rod in this range is the three-weight: it seems to hit the sweet spot for lightness and control, and while we were challenged to land 20-inch rainbows with it, we can't say it wasn't fun.

Meanwhile Sage has used different materials, different mandrels, and even a new taper in its replacement for the XP seies. We fished the new VXP ($485-585) extensively and think the four- and five-weights are great all-around rods. They certainly don't have the sensitivity of the TXL-F's, but they did throw streamers and multi-fly rigs well and did fine on the Trico hatch as well.