Client is interested in either a 3wt or 4wt rod that is similar to the Loomis Xperience in taper and power. Loomis doesn't offer the Xperience as a blank, does anyone know if they have plans to do so in the near future? Absent that, what recommendations would folks make for a similar blank? Thanks.

Brian Proffitt

Wind Knot Fly Works, LLC
Denver, Colorado

Loomis’s plans for the future are to stop selling to the custom builder all together

2008 is reputed to be the last year they will be in the custom builder blank business.

The Xperience is almost certainly built on one of their regular blank series models, painted a different color.

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Watch Loomis go the way of the DODO.
Sad to say.

Regards
Dave

Fishing is Life the rest is just Details

As far as I am concerned Loomis should have thrown in the towell with their blanks a few years back....Gary , before Shimano, had the very best around then came Shimano and complete disaster....my final words are "SEE YA"

Tight Lines
Tight Wraps
Fishin'Stix by Fred

Loomis' finished rod sales are very strong. They're not going away, just cutting loose those endeavors which they do not feel justify being kept in the line considering the overall percentage of sales they generate. They won't be the first rod/blank company to dump rod blanks. I've been around this industry long enough to see several do it. Most notably, Fenwick in the early 1990s.

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Shakespeare not too long ago as well....late 90s early 2000s

From the discription, and price it sounds like maybe a GL3 blanked rod.

If you look back at my post you will see that I said "BLANKS" not finished rods....Sorry to say that ever since Shimano came into the picture rod builders were "OUT"....I fully understand that Loomis {Shimano} will still be around just like Fenwick is still around and that I will not have to explain to my Loomis customers why the blanks they receive {I will not order them} are garbage. I forsee no real problems of "the over the counter Loomis rods" hurting the excellent rod builders of today with more than comparable blanks from the likes of Rouge and the Batson people, and at half the price I might add.....Like I said "SEE YA !!!!!".....Sorry Tom, I know what you think about us slamming some mfgs. but Loomis is not a sponser so maybe I will escape the "black ball" this go round and truthfully I could care less about this product and I know for a fact there are many builders out there that feel as I do.

Tight Lines
Tight Wraps
Fishin'Stix by Fred

Just because somebody isn't a sponsor doesn't mean you can "slam" them. The rules hold for all, sponsor or not.


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There are also a lot of builders who think Loomis still makes some fine blanks! I have many repeat Loomis customers that fish for Trout, Salmon and Steelhead here in the west with my Loomis rods.

Phishin Phool

Thanks for the heads up on Loomis getting out of the rod blank business. I am a fly fisherman and build a few rods for my own use and for friends. I really like some of the Loomis blanks, and now plan to buy a few before they are no longer available. BTW, does any one know if the GLX blank sold through dealers equivalent to the GLX Streamdance HLS?

The surprising thing to me is I would think that selling blanks would be a cash cow for a rod manufacturer, since the labor costs are a large part of the cost of building a finished rod. Selling blanks to a dealer or rod maker eliminates the labor cost and is nearly pure profit for the rod blank manufacturer. What am I missing?

None of the rod/blank makers put any money into advertising and marketing blanks. Most don't even bother printing a blank catalog any longer.

I have had this argument with those who say something like "blanks only account for about 2% of our business so we can't justify putting money into advertising them." Of course, this is backwards - you aren't going to sell much of anything that you aren't willing to advertise. You don't advertise because something is selling - you advertise in order to sell something.

I have pointed out that if these companies put even 10% of their finished rod advertising dollars into advertising their blanks, they might just see their blank sales make up a much, much more significant portion of their overall sales.

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