Fly Rods and Reels – TFO factory on Korea. Need a 1,000 rods next week, no problem. If you took the top rod companies who have South Korean built fly rods, you’d have to include almost everyone. The only real difference between each company is the design (taper and final action) of the rod itself. The graphite producers and the factory that builds these rods are the same two or three companies. Those 3/4 SK companies use exactly the same equipment, processes, materials. It’s almost down to color, warps, and the branding that is the difference.
Fly rods and shotguns, rifles and reels because they are masterpieces
They can make it better and cheaper
By Skip Clement
It is ridiculous to carry on about cheap and expensive fly rods – trying to make them fit into square or round pegs. It should be more like what Lefty Kreh told his Ft Lauderdale, Florida, [Steve Kantner Presents] audience decades ago, ‘It’s almost impossible to find a bad casting fly rod these days.’
Why do we continue to hear and read feckless and so-called revelations about inexpensive $200 fly rods being able to be cast as well as, or better than, an $1,150 fly rod? It’s an annoying waste of time. Of course, some can, and it has long been the reality, and it’s not a big deal.
Some claim Asian-produced fly rods are inferior. They watch too much Aussie man TV
Beautiful, I wish you were there; photo courtesy of R.B. Meiser Fly Rods, Central Point, Oregon. Meiser is the father of the ‘Switch Rod’ and maestro of two-handed fly fishing. No one is better at two-handed fly rod builds than Bob Meiser. Photo credit RB Meiser Fly Rods.
It’s not the only point
You can buy a brand new side-by-side or over-and-under shotgun for a few hundred bucks or one for thousands of dollars, and they both go bang when you pull the trigger—the same with a rifle.
Like the difference in shotguns, fly rods have their differences and thus appeal. For some, it’s just price; others are drawn to several factors like longevity taking note of high-quality components, more pleasing aesthetics or fit and finish as it is so called, or simply having innate better cast-ability, even brand preference, or brand because it’s accepted in one’s social circle, and of course, the guarantee or warranty.
Made in Asia, fly rods and reels
If cast-ability is a marker, then Asian fly rods are formidable. Asian-made fly rods and series models are found throughout the fly rod offerings of almost every high-end brand – ORVIS, Sage, Winston, Hardy, and TFO are not alone.
These US and British brands provide their fly rod design and materials specifications to Korean suppliers. Over the decades, these Koreans know how to design good casting sticks and access or create all modern materials that blend to make a superior fly rod. Manufacturing equipment is modern. The workers are skilled, and pride in work and honesty prevail in Korea, which is not always accurate in Mainland China.
One thing that stands out with cheap versus expensive shotguns is durability and holding value. With a fly rod, durability is significant with buyers, but the market value for a used fly rod is far distant. Fly reels, like shotguns, rifles, can hold great value.
A break in the fishing for a scholastic discussion on Orvis nymphing rods. Tom Rosenbauer from Orvis [L] and George Daniel.
I need to like looking at it, feeling it
As a longtime fly fisher, I’m influenced by the naked aesthetic appeal of a fly rod, only to be superseded by my ability to cast with it. My shotguns reflect that same measure of curb appeal and ability to down clays and pheasant. All those things have to be within my pocketbook, but I can wait – save up for a year to buy something I want in a fly rod, shotgun, rifle, or reel. I don’t want a fly rod with gaudy wraps, a rifle with black paint on the furniture, a reel that pulses on runs, or a shotgun that’s ‘loose.’
Speaking for myself only
Skip Clement, New Zealand.
This overview of mine may not be yours, but to continue to see the discussion of cheap foreign and expensive fly rods as some revelation is getting very tiresome. A Buick will never look like a Ferrari – everybody knows that. It’s not a revelation, even if said so on a Murdock media outlet.
I love my Made in Korea 4-weight fly rod [$167], Reilly Rod Crafters Chuck Kraft [$450], RB Meiser 909 ($700), Bill Oyster bamboo rod [$2,250], and my Orvis Helios 3D [$998]. And my made by Daniel Tenkara USA Amago. They all serve separate fishing objectives perfectly, but they should; I have been at it for over 70 years.
