At The Bassmaster Classic Expo

[jeb]

They are very nice rods, but they're not custom as in "built by Gary." They were designed by him in his new shop and at his new company (North Fork Composites is the company, although the rods may go by another name). They have tubular graphite handles, very nice real seats, micro guides and seem to be incredibly sensitive. They are extremely light; I've known Gary for nearly 30 years, and his rod design is all about shaving as much weight as he can without sacrificing strength or quality.

Having said that, there are a lot of really nice rods at the show. I think his are the most sophisticated.

Gary's new rod company is called Edge Rods.

[Quillback]

I was fondling their drop shot rods in both baitcaster and spinning versions while Jeb was talking to Gary L (I was listening with one ear). Felt like very sweet rods, dragging a bait across the carpet, I could count the individual fibers in the carpet as the bait ticked off them (OK that's a bit of an exaggeration), but they were very sensitive. It's tough for me to lay out 400 clams for a DS rod, but maybe one of these days I'll do it.

[kjackson]

Gary's new rod company is called Edge Rods.

Jeb-- Now you've got me wondering if I have the blank company wrong. There was a split of the original G.Loomis group with some staying with the company, Gary founding his own and another Gary (Schaefer) starting yet another company. I know that GL also is designing rods for Temple Fork Outfitters, and they include both fly and conventional rods. It might be worth checking out the TFO offerings. But as far as the Edge rods go, they are about as sensitive as Quillback says. But even if I were to get a brother-in-law price, I'm not sure I'd buy very many. I'd rather put a four-stroke on my boat.

[jeb]

I understand the confusion. He does have a few irons in the fire. But I think his premier blanks are the NFC (North Fork Tackle) ones. He said the NFC blanks he supplies to Kistler are a different makeup, and he implied somewhat inferior, to the ones he is using in his rods. I had a Kistler custom rod made late last year on the NFC blank. It's very good, pretty much on par with my NRX's for sensitivity. I'll never do business with Kistler again, though. They screwed the rod up 3 times and refused to fix their own mistakes the 3rd time. Said "take it or leave it, even though we know it's our error". Disgusting. I kept it only because I wanted to fish the new Loomis blank. I sure wish I knew Edge was going to start selling customs when I made that decision!

[Gavin]

Edge Rods is appears to be a subsidiary of North Fork Composites.

http://www.northforkcomposites.com/

http://www.edgerods.com/

Planning to wrap one or two of them in the next month or so.

[Al Agnew]

Interesting on the Kistler problem that Jeb mentioned...I sure didn't get the impression that the owner would have done that. Got to wonder if it was somebody else in the company that decided to treat jeb wrong. The owner seems like a nice, upstanding young man.

I was using a TFO Gary Loomis signature rod, 6.5 ft. medium power, for throwing the light jigs. I traded the framed print to the owner of the company for the top of the line Kistler 6.5 ft. medium power. Out of curiosity, I weighed them both today. The TFO weighed 4.1 ounces. The Kistler weighed 3.3 ounces. I took them both out to cast the same light jig in my pond to see how they compared. The Kistler loaded better. I'm happy.

Mitch, I also tried out the 6 ft. Razr I picked up for you...it loaded a little better than the Kistler, so I think you'll be happy with the castability of it. It was not quite as fast as I would have liked, so hook setting might not be as good as it could be, although I don't think it should be a problem with the light wire hooks on those jigs. If it doesn't work as well as you need it to for the jigs, I think it might make an excellent topwater rod for a short guy like me in the jetboat.

It is Edge Rods that is producing the custom Gary Loomis rods. The whole story of Gary and Loomis Rods and his other, more recent ventures is a long saga, and although I think I know the story, I probably shouldn't air it.

[Mitch f]

Thanks Al for all your help! I can't wait to try it! You know it's funny how picky im getting with my fishing equipment and tackle. Ten years ago, I would have adjusted my casting with the stiffer rod and just lived with it. I guess my fishing time is more precious to me now and can't stand to have to put up with something I'm not quite pleased with.

I have a rod for a 5/16 to 3/8 oz jig, and one for flipping and pitching bigger jigs. I agree it is hard to find shorter rods these days. But I was caught up in the longer rod craze myself and learned the hard way.

[jeb]

Interesting on the Kistler problem that Jeb mentioned...I sure didn't get the impression that the owner would have done that. Got to wonder if it was somebody else in the company that decided to treat jeb wrong. The owner seems like a nice, upstanding young man.

Yeah, he comes across that way. My experience, and his rep on some of the internet forums, belies that impression, though. Most of the problems were directly caused or made worse by Trey himself, IMO. He was very involved in the whole deal.

[jeb]

Here's a TackleTour article about NFC/Edge. Follow the link in the first paragraph for a great story about Gary's history in the industry.

http://tackletour.com/reviewedgefishing.html