Fly Rod Question

[Clay Goforth]

The situation: My business is looking into expanding into the building of fly rods

The background: I know fly fishing basics as far as casting, stripping line, etc.

The problem: I don't know the first thing about fly rod weights, preferred lengths, preferred actions, and so on...

I need to have some pretty in depth discussions with as many people as I can who are fly fishermen about their preferences in fly rods. They don't have to be lengthy, just somewhat detailed about what you like.

If you are interested in helping a fellow fisherman learn more about an area in which I am not well versed, please reply to the thread or send me a PM. I really appreciate any help that can be offered and I look forward to learning from the people on this forum who seem to have so much knowledge on this particular subject.

[KATroutman13]

Clay,

Are you looking to build your own blanks (rolling your own graphite with your own resins) or just custom fly rods out of manufacturer blanks purchasing blanks from Sage and then building the rods from that point?

If I were going to do this, I would build rods that varied b/w medium fast to fast action. I would also go cheap on the first 100 blanks and sell them super cheap just to get my name out and to get good at building these rods, see what styles you like, people like, etc.

Give us some more information about what you are wanting to do.

[Gavin]

Depends on what niche you want to fill..Breaking into the fly rod biz is tough because there is a lot of comptetion based on price, and you have to consider the impact of some of the rod guarantees that certain fly rod manufacturers offer. Break it, send it back, and get a new section, or rod for a couple bucks. Probably the most popular trout rods are 9' 4, 5, & 6wts. 7.5'-8' 3 & 4wts are also popular..Rods in the 7wt and up category arent in much demand. Rods smaller than a 3wt arent of much use. Cheers.

[Danoinark]

Both of the above comments are right on Clay. Another consideration would be to look into building and marketing fiberglass rods for a growing number of fly fishermen who are preferring them. Outside of Lamiglass and the McFarland and Steppen Bro's who are making custom glass rods there is not really any company filling the need for a nice mass produced glass rod. I think some research into this would surprise you.

Dano

[Greg]

I think the previous suggestion about building some inexpensive custom fly rods and selling them at a reasonable cost is a good one. That would really get your name out there. Offering them on this board would probably work if Phil was OK with that. I would probably be interested.

Batson makes really nice reasonably priced blanks. For around here a 5 wt is kind of the all-around standard (for trout). But certainly 3, 4, and 6 weights have their place too.

Dano's suggestion about glass rods has a lot of merit. I think glass is a growing market but there are very, very few glass fly rods on the market. The only ones available are fairly pricey. A moderately priced quality glass rod would probably be a hit.

I really like custom built rods. I've got several. I really have a lot of respect for the builders too. I've built a few rods. They turned out OK but not anything like what a good custom builder turns out.

I hope it goes well for you.

Greg

[Project Healing Waters]

Making fly rods in the US? Get used to eating Ramen noodles and sitting in the dark. LOL

[WebFreeman]

I think Clay's already building his on blanks for spinning and casting rods, just wanting some advice on what people like in their fly rods.

I don't know enough to be of much help. My rod is 9ft 6 weight. Medium action, probably. It was fairly entry level when I bought 15yrs ago for about $90.

I would think there would be a market, esp. if you were able to customize it as much as you do on your other rods. I like your site, but the way. Nice graphics and the build-your-rod tool is well put together.

[Apache Trout]

Both of the above comments are right on Clay. Another consideration would be to look into building and marketing fiberglass rods for a growing number of fly fishermen who are preferring them. Outside of Lamiglass and the McFarland and Steppen Bro's who are making custom glass rods there is not really any company filling the need for a nice mass produced glass rod. I think some research into this would surprise you.

Dano

[Apache Trout]

Dano,

Your suggestion to Clay concerning focusing on glass is absolutely perfect. The glass following is currently growing by leaps and bounds and as you point out there is a limited number of current manufactures to choose from. The graphite composite manufacturing market is already oversaturated and an attempt to complete with the top guns probably isn't the best of ideas. The rumor is that T&T may drop the Heritage model next year - probably due to the outrageous price. However, this summer there will be an announcement that will blow everyone away concerning the introduction of a glass blank that will unquestionably be the best that has ever been produced - even better than the great old Fisher blanks! I can't expound on the announcement at this time but will put up a posting when the time is appropriate. Accordingly, I think that Clay really needs to understand that to produce an exceptional rod blank and consequently exceptional rod is not an easy task and isn't something that can be learned via the internet. The development of mandrels and experimentation with tapers redevelopment of mandrel dimensions and testing is a very costly and time consuming process that requires a complete understanding of the cause and effect of rod geometry, composition and methodology. Then there is always the question of S glass or E glass! Clay may be best suited to buying his blanks and producing a high quality glass rod then he only needs to worry about going head to head with the current glass rod builders.

Both of the above comments are right on Clay. Another consideration would be to look into building and marketing fiberglass rods for a growing number of fly fishermen who are preferring them. Outside of Lamiglass and the McFarland and Steppen Bro's who are making custom glass rods there is not really any company filling the need for a nice mass produced glass rod. I think some research into this would surprise you.

Dano

[Clay Goforth]

Great Information guys. Dano, I will look into the glass market. We are currently building our own blanks for our other products which include basically all your powers and actions of a freshwater rod. We are just looking to move into the CUSTOM fly rod market and add a builder to our website that will be a fly rod builder. I am open to any and all suggestions on what people prefer as their power action length combinations on their rods. We are currently in the process of revamping our builder to function more effectively and would like to be able to add a fly rod builder. Our blank craftsman has over 30 years of experience in building blanks for fly rods, spinning rods, and casting rods so I know the blanks will come out solid. I just need to know more of what the preferred weights and lengths are so when we come with our initial release, we are at least filling the needs of the basics. Hope this kind of clears the muddy water a little.

Thanks for all the information up to this point as well.