Edge Rods by Gary Loomis

[mixermarkb]

Howdy Guys-

I wanted to post a quick review on some rods. As some of you may remember, I had my whole collection of gear from G.Loomis/Falcon/St.Croix/Virtus/Lew’s/Shimano disappear from my house when I left at the start of my divorce in 2023. 

Through some Black Friday sales and some other promotions over the last two years, I’ve managed to replace all my gear with the Edge rods, by Gary Loomis. Edge is the finished rod division of Gary’s blank company called North Fork Composites, which he started after recovering from the cancer that caused him to sell G.Loomis to Shimano. All their rods are made in the USA, in Woodland, Washington, with a second production facility coming online soon in Houston, Texas. 

I’ve now managed to put some hours on a large variety of their offerings, and overall am a happy customer.

First the ugly:

Their delivery times on rods that are backordered are absolutely ridiculous. In stock rods (like 6 out of two dozen or so) got to me in a week, everything else was between 60 and 90 days, with one rod taking about four months for delivery. 

The gentleman at the factory explained to me that they are running at max capacity on blank production, and they build blanks on a rotation, not as rods are ordered. Between all the OEM blanks they build for other rod makers, plus all the various models from fly to steelhead to inshore to pelegic to bass rods- it may take a good bit of time for the build schedule to get back around to whatever blank you want, so I would not recommend them to anyone who needs a rod immediately.

Now the good: 

The rods are really freaking good.

Like, the only thing I’ve held that can go head to head with a G.Loomis NRX is the Edge Silver Widow. They all have carbon handles, which after getting used to, I do like, and I believe do make the rods more sensitive. Every rod I have balances extremely well, which makes them feel even lighter in hand than their actual weight on the scale. They are priced under G.Loomis by roughly $100 per comparable series, and they fairly often have sales ranging from 30 to 50 percent off of their normal factory direct pricing. 

So- for those who can exercise patience, and are looking for the best value in high performance rods, I recommend taking a look at Edge.

I now own everything from an ultralight BFS rod to 8’ extra heavy swimbait sticks, in the Delta, EFX, First Strike, Black Widow and Silver Widow lines. In rough comparison to G.Loomis, that translates as Delta=GCX, EFX/First Strike=IMX, Black Widow=GLX, and Silver Widow=NRX.

My favorite is probably the Silver Widow finesse spinning rod, but honestly I’m impressed with every rod I have. There were a few that were a little different than I was expecting power wise, and some of their powers and actions listed on the website are a little difficult to translate. 

If anyone wants to check out the rods in person, I’m in West St. Louis county, travel regularly to SEMO, and this spring/summer I’ll be traveling back and forth to Bull Shoals/Springfield area and occasionally LOZ to fish. I will make every effort to meet up with anyone who wants to hold one in their hands, as they don’t have a dealer network and are online sales only.

I’m not affiliated in any way with the company, I’m not on any sort of prostaff deal- so if you order one and it takes you half a year to get it, don’t be mad at me. I’m just happy because I was able to replace a whole bunch of gear for about a third of what it would have cost to go buy G.Loomis at Bass Pro, and I don’t feel like I’m losing anything as far as quality goes, and in some cases I’m definitely gaining something over competitive rods. 

 

 

 

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

Wow, that is alot of valuable information.   Glad to see you are still around.   

[mixermarkb]

29 minutes ago, Daryk Campbell Sr said:

Wow, that is alot of valuable information.   Glad to see you are still around.   

Definitely glad to still be around. It’s been a rough couple of years. Being around has been more of a struggle than I could have ever imagined 😂