Andy Dear | Monday, 5 August 2024
After I finished las week's Front Page about nostalgia, I spent a little time out in the man-cave thumbing through the 30 year old magazines I referenced in the essay. It dawned on me that one of the recurring manufacturing themes over the last 30 years is the concept of weight reduction.
Having worked in the rod industry for collectively almost 25 years now, the one common thread among rod manufacturers is weight reduction. I suspect that the weight races really kicked into high gear when G Loomis released the GLX series of rods. The technology used in those rods was such a monumental leap forward in terms of materials and layup that for several years, everyone was playing catch up. And, I must admit...the first time I cast a GLX 8wt, it was almost a religious experience. Gary Loomis once told me that when designing the GLX, he and Steve (Rajeff) were trying to make the rod weigh less than the line!
And as everyone knows, over the last three decades, weight reduction has become one of the primary marketing points for many rod companies...and reel companies as well. It's always been interesting to me because most anglers don't understand how weight is reduced in a rod, and what the tradeoffs are in terms of durability. A technical treatise on the role of materials properties, blank diameter, scrim alternatives, resin, and fiber modulus would take ten Front Pages to cover, and even then, everyone would still be arguing over what the best way to reduce weight is. Personally, I have never been caught up in the weight reduction race.
Many of my favorite tapers were developed on the cusp of the weight races that began back in the 1990s. Often times, depending on the application, a little extra material in a rod can make for a more well rounded tool. I vividly remember fishing with famed Tarpon guide Rob Fordyce over in the Florida Keys back in '03 where he remarked; "When I am battling something that may weigh upwards of 100lbs, I don't want the lightest rod, I want something I can rely on not to break when I really put it to 'em". Dick Kantner, founder of Graphite USA, who introduced the dual helical layup into rod construction use to have an ad where a 4wd JEEP was running over one of his rods. And, although the GUSA brand never made a huge imprint in the fly rod world, that DNA is VERY obvious in many of the brands everyone is fishing with today, including CTS, St. Croix, Sage, CDI, and many others. Dick understood that one way to reduce weight and add durability was through the use of a "helical layup of carbon" rather than the more common and less labor-intensive method of using a woven fiberglass scrim.
A few months ago, my good friend Phil Blackmar was at my house for a visit, and I let him cast an old AllStar Austin 11wt. Upon picking it up, he remarked how heavy it felt. And by today's standards, it certainly was not nearly as light in the hand as modern layups and tapers. But for its time, it was quite light, and VERY powerful.
All this to say that my stroll down memory lane last week reminded me that 30+ years later, weight reduction is still a primary motivator in all things angling.
Hope you all are having a great week,
Andy