The overwhelming majority of mass marketed products today are parity products. They use the same raw materials, components,and engineering. They differ mainly in advertising, marketing and pricing.
This being said, what do you propose to be in reality, as opposed to hype, the most innovative and distinctive product to become available to rod builders in the past two years or so?

small ring size guides

Mike,
You know I was just thinking about Micros a few days ago.

If you think back about 15 years ago, we really had micros on spinning rods. However, at that time we called them match guides. These were essentially micros on very tall stands. The thinking at that time was to get excellent and correctly directed line flow, but be sure to have the guides high enough so that the line never - under any circumstance - touched the blank.

They actually worked quite well. However, for a few different reasons, they fell into disfavor after only about 3-4 years of popular use.

Sometimes, I think that we may go to the other extreme.

Certainly micros have their place and are a wonderful addtion to the arsenel of rod building products. However, one still has to consider guide height. Is it in the interest of the builder to build a rod with 14 micros to keep the line off the blank (if you want to keep the line off the blank) rather than using 8 conventional - taller guides - which also keep the line off the blank due to their heigher height?

Time and use will tell what survives.

Roger

A rod with 14 microguides will outperform a rod with 8 large guides all day every day since it would still be lighter.

And a rod with 8 microguides will outperform a rod with 14 microguides since it would be even lighter that that!

And a rod with the proper sized guides will outperform either of those.

Back to the question - most of what passes for innovation these days seems to be colors and graphics. "Pretty" drives the sales market even in the world of fishing rods. I'm not sure I've seen anything in the past few years that I recognized as being truly innovative in terms of improving the functional aspects of a rod. And it's been a good since there's been any real advancement in fibers, outside of the bio-fibers being used on a few fly rod models from a Scottish firm.

There are still many areas that could stand improvement. The ergonomics of nearly all commercially produced handles and grips is extremely poor. Guides are still made from materials that became obsolete decades ago. The biggest problem for custom builders is that many of these areas are simply beyond their fabrication abilities.

.............

How about a new color preserver that has UV protection added so there is no fading of the threadwork or even a rod finish that has UV protection? Cason"s Crystal Clear color preserver has UV protection however it has not been fully tested. We are doing 24/7 test under a UV light now and it looks great. We are also developing a rod finish with UV protection. If this works out we will offer it in a rod finish but we will not offer it if it is not at least as good as what is available now as far as the other properties that a good finish needs.
Stop by and see us at the ICRBE, we will have some test wraps for you to view.
Pat

What if the micro guides just happen to be proper in specific cases?

Roger Wilson:

I had the very distinct pleasure of watching Al Jackson, the former rod and reel developer for Lew Childress, demonatrate his casting prowess with a one of a kind, high modulus rod, reportedly the highest modulus fiber ever used to build a blank, equipped with match guides. This was a rod with the guides on the bottom. The guides the guides in no way compare to the micro guides presently in use on bass rods. I would be very interested to find a specific reference to any match rod utilized for a bait casting rods. Applying the conventional wisdom of no line touch to all fishing rods for all circumstances may be a subjective issue for those who build rods for specific uses.

The most innovative thing I know of is some rodbuildeers decide to test the convention of the norms that many seem to apply to all rods. I was just advised that the actual name for the guide rings used in the original match rods was MICRO!



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2010 05:43PM by Bill Stevens.

My epoxy finish says it has UV protection already and my thread is not fading. What is different about the Cason finish?? My CP works good to. Is this a new type. What is different?

Well I think there are a few things out there that are at least some improvement. Apart from the Carrot fiber technology which if nothing else is different, there are a few things I would regard as at least good improvements.
One that comes to mind are the new Fuji K-series guides. With their titanium frames, not new, Alconite inserts, new (at least with titanium) and there angled posture, not new-but the ensemble is new, and I think will show some benefit in performance over any other guide of the same intended applications. There are the "Kigan" guides also. they've been around a few years now and were popular on the British style carp rods for some reason-these guides use the same idea as the Fuji WDBSG and DBSG oval guides but in a light weight three leg style frame for casting-don't know if there is any improvement on performance over the standard style. I can't for the life of me understand why the Brits put them on carp rods using spinning reels though.
Another that comes to mind is again from Fuji, and that is the palm style trigger reel seat used on overhead deep water jigging rods- It does help improve the ergonomics of the grip for this type of set up.
Things I would like to see improve; As Tom says, and I fully agree, ergonomics of grips are sorely needed, and I am surprised that little has been done by manufacturers to improve on this. For fly rods, there was several years ago the "Maniform" grip, but it never took off and you very rarely see one, even though they are still being marketed-but nothing in any field of fishing comes even close to try to improve on handle and grip ergonomics.
As for epoxy-For many years now, UV cured epoxy has been used in commercial production rod companies. It has the advantage of being UV stable and has an eternal pot life (in theory) and cures in seconds when exposed to strong UV. The down side is that you do need a very strong UV light sourse to cure it-but wouldn't it be wonderful if that technology was made safe and available to rod builders in general !
From what I see, Japan seems to be leading the way with improvement and innovation-or at least they are seriously trying to without relying on the Chinese to just manufacture and supply everything to the cheapest price point.

I'm not a rod builder like you guys, just someone who likes to fish and needs to moderniize his outdated gear on a budget.

For me the big change and driving force is not the rods nor the reels. It is the line. Braid has changed what is possible for a given reel size. It has allowed about a 3 to 4 fold reduction in the size of a reel. So now I can have a 30-40# reel that is near the same size and weight as a 10# reel once was. It only stands to reason I want a new lighter rod to match up with it. IMHO that is what is driving rod and reel development.

In the heavier rods I see 5 to 6 ounce blanks that can lift 60 pounds. It would be nice to see sub one ounce blanks that could lift ten pounds.

Hi Phil,

Interesting question and comments. I am always curious to see what people view as innovative and distinctive. Personally I wonder myself what constitutes true ”innovation”? While considering possible answers I always fall back to our company’s personal experience. With creative partners, we have many ideas that are quite unique and seemingly revolutionary. In the end we have to go where the funding is, manufacturing. Unfortunately this means that many ideas are never fully realized if we can't sell a major brand or afford to market the "hype". Rod brands tend to be quite conservative not wanting to alienate consumers, thus offering what you pointed out as “parity products”. It's their volume that funds our creativity and even with that volume it can take many years to pay for tooling let alone any marketing and operation costs. Factor in that rod components are the sole source of income for ¾ of the family ownership of American Tackle and an obvious direction of “market acceptance” must be taken. Innovation can be defined in many ways and as one of my partners pointed out, “,,,,,, fishing with inferred radio waves would be really innovative but as long as a rod and reel are used, we need to focus on advancing existing ideas and products”. I agree.

This said, we have brought many new products to the rod building consumer that are often right on the edge with different characteristics but still sellable. Some examples are:

- Our blanks showcase a complete product line integration of woven materials including carbon and Texalium.
- Our handles options incorporated ergonomic designs like the AERO16’s as well as the Vetre complete handles system.
- For the guides we were the first company to upgrade standard stainless frames with Atlas designs and focus on preventing ring-loss with the Ring Locks frames, or even to offer an array of color/finishes with Holographic & True Blu frames.
- My personal favorite is offering the first complete line of affordable solid titanium frame guides. The improved Ring Lock frames are incredible but offering a Titan Virtus saltwater guide is unbelievable and has never before been attempted.

While economics would appear to drive our offerings, it’s really consumer oriented. Generally custom rod builders are willing try something new while we pitch ideas to manufacturers daily to find them less willing to take a chance. Once in a while we get a Seeker Fishing Rods who will go all titanium frame guides on complete rod series or a Boyd Duckett to embrace our Micro Guides system. This allows further funding to expand on our ideas. One thing I can clearly see after working in the fishing industry for 3 decades is that rod components have advanced considerably over the last several years. I guess my idea of an innovation is the progression of products that include new or old and certainly better ideas. How about you?

Best Regards,

Darrin Heim
American Tackle Company

Very informative and puts things into perspective! Thanks, Darrin

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Darrin:
Thank you for a considered and informative post. If you wouldn't mind, how does texalium compare to S-glass as an additive to carbon fiber in a rod blank, and how does titanium compare to nickel-titanium alloy as a material for guide frames?

Hi Phil,

Not taking time to consult with material experts or blank engineers and with no technical spec comparisons to offer, I’ll give a quick from-the-hip response.

I would point out that S-Glass is an entirely different weave then our Tex material. Texalium uses a 3K twill pattern woven glass that is aluminum powder coated. Both can seem to have somewhat more responsive recovery characteristics similar to graphite. (Although, different resin systems in S-Glass can change that feel quite a bit) To me Texalium feels a bit heavier or slightly stiffer then traditional S-Glass but I suppose quantity of material and how or where it’s used can compensate for anything. It’s a good substitution material that adds a unique appearance. We use it primarily in the lower section of the blank where we want power/stiffness without added weight. Note that we do taper it back prior to any shut-off point allowing the other materials to transition more smoothly for durability as well as performance. I am a long rod fan and I feel that our 9’ AV108 series cast far better then any of their graphite or composite counter parts by far. This is not a scientific material comparison since it might just be the design accommodations made for arriving at the same actions/powers but I still love them anyway.

As for nickel titanium alloy, I assume you mean the wire used in another guide style. It’s flexible yet will return to the same shape (until it breaks of course). We use a stamped frame design similar to all stainless stamped frames commonly available. The titanium alloy we use comes in different grades making it stiffer or more flexible. The combination of material and the material use requirements make it quite complicated to use. Only after our considerable investment of time and money did we realize why another company never expanded their titanium line and why other factories are scared to try. For us the use of a ceramic insert was critical since most rod companies use them almost exclusively. This means we had to find a way to mount it in a metal (titanium) frame better. Titanium nickel wire won’t work for this application so it isn’t an option. Traditional stainless frames are a bit more elastic and can squeeze the ring enough to hold it in place better. Titanium stretches and holds it’s shape although the tricky part is the natural memory makes it hard to mould. Fortunately, our Ring Lock frame system has proven the perfect design to accomplish everything we need to offer the best possible stamped frame guide in SS or Ti. So although both nickel-alloy and our Ti-alloy materials offer lighter weight with corrosion protection, they have different expectations for guide frames construction.

Best Regards,

Darrin Heim
American Tackle Company

Darrin:

Wow! If your customer service is as impressive as your potential-customer service you are going to move a lot of product. Thanks for a complete and concise answer.

- Phil Ewanicki