Paul Arden | Monday, 2 March 2026
Since we announced that Andy Dear is building Sexyloops rods in Texas, there has been significant interest in purchasing rod blanks. Thank you! However, unfortunately we are not set up to sell blanks in the US. We have sold a couple in the past to long-term Sexyloops’ readers, who enjoy building their own rods at home. Not many; a small handful. But more than this doesn’t work for a few reasons…
Perhaps the most prominent reason is that Sexyloops doesn’t profit from repairs. Repairing a broken rod, one, ten or twenty years from now is one thing. But replacing blank sections is a potential future headache of mammoth proportions! It’s not just the work involved, but taking blank sections out of stock also affects how well we can support our rod customers.
The second reason is quality control. When Andy builds a rod then I know that the quality is going to be absolute top shelf. If someone else builds a rod then we have no control over the quality of the fittings or the finished rod. That matters.
And finally, selling blanks is a lot of work for little reward. Our direction is manufacturing the finished rods; that’s what we do and want to do it well. I can’t do such a good job if I’m being pulled in multiple directions. Consequently, retailing blanks, while potentially having some short-term upsides, has negative long-term consequences… which will see me both poorer and fishing less!!
Sometimes when you make decisions not everyone is happy. But one of the lessons I’ve learned in life, is not to try to do everything, but instead to focus on a few things only, and to do those as well as you can.
There is a long-term plan for Sexyloops and it’s a good one! I want Sexyloops to further its involvement in fly fishing conservation projects.
Every business needs a purpose. Mine is to create, fund and support, catch-and-release flyfishing projects, which simultaneously enhance the lives of local communities. To help fund this we manufacture the very best fly fishing tackle possible.
That and the fast cars of course.
Cheers, Paul