Sent a Ludington Michigan charter captain one of my latest wire line rod prototypes for some R&D and feedback. Apparently he was happy with the rod-check this link fish-[ludingtonsalmonfishing.com] . Sometimes those freebie rods actually pay off!! Emails came flowing in today. Yes, I am patting myself on the back, but also trying to illustrate that once in a while giving a rod away is some of the best marketing one can do.

Way to go Tony !
I gave one away at an annual Festival on the 4th of July and got great responses from it.
That is a good way to get the information out there.

Good going Tony, looks like the R and D on wire lines is paying off for you. Keep up the good work and innovation.
Steve

It's been a long summer. Many trips to Ludington/Manistee, which is not a bad thing, but many times to find out that I only had a good rod, not a great rod. My goal is always to put serious distance between myself and the retail stuff. I don't offer a task specific rod until it is hands down better than whats available.Charter captains are the best source of testing. They are generally very hard on equipment physically and harder on equipment in their evaluations-their livelyhood depends on good equipment. I am not where I want to be on wire, but I now have a rod that I can put my name on. There is still lots of room for improvement. Any roller tip manufacturers out there want to own the wire rod fishery on the great lakes? I have some ideas for you. Right now the "Twilly tip" is king, and that is a sad day for us as rod makers. There are some great roller tips available, but they all fall short for the specific requirements of our fishery and demands on the Great Lakes. I know that we can do better than a door stop spring for tips on wire rods!