A top-shelf eight-weight fly rod which weighs 2.75 ounces is retailing for $1050.00 - that's $382 an ounce! The wholesale value of the materials in this rod is unlikely to exceed $150. Perhaps custom rod builders should re-examine their product pricing?

Many rod manufacturers spend tens of thousands of dollars per year creating and maintaining an image. They are selling more than just rods.

Custom rod builders, unless they are very well known, are rarely able to command such prices. They offer good rods, even better than most commercial makes do, but they can't offer the same image or prestige that many consumers want and are willing to pay for.

........

Its the word "image" that scares me.

Lets not forget the R & D that goes on behind the scenes prior to the release of a series. The actual cost of that blank may be down to X once it is all ready to go, but XXX was spent to get to that point.

I have a buddy of mine that just dropped a fair amount of coin on buying his own rolling equipment, mandrels and prepeg. Its a very significant investment, we all know what he needs to do to recover that cost and keep a float. He is rolling my own series of S2 Glass blanks, it took a bit to get to the tapers I wanted, sure, we are both new at this, but it was not an overnight process, good amount of money went into my blanks, and I'm a small time guy, cannot imagine how much say someone like Sage or Winston will spend on getting a new series ready to hit the rod racks.

If spending $1050.00 makes a person happy and satisfies his/her objectives, it's a good transaction! To a conservative spender, it's not understood.

Price point variations exist in most products. The entire cost of a product is not just the material used to make it.

The worth of a product is whatever someone is willing to pay for it, no matter how much it cost to produce it. I think you made a mistake on the weight of the 8wt fly rod unless it has been severely cut down in length. I would probably pay $1000+ for a 9' 8wt that light. 3.75oz is very light for something like that because a light one like a NRX is 4.1 oz. 2.75 oz is extreme.

I knew who posted this before I even saw his name. Saw it coming.

The 2.75 oz rod is made with unobtanium. Pretty expensive stuff. If you can obtain it. Which I doubt.

An on-line advertisement for a 9 foot 8 weight G .Loomis Asquith fly rod lists its weight as 2.75 ounces. You can look it up. Overexposure to unobtanium has been known to produce doubt and sarcasm.

I'd like to see its CCS numbers.

I cannot even find its claimed weight on the Loomis site.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2022 07:11AM by Michael Danek.

Now I can't find the 2.75 oz. advertised weight for the 9 ft. eight weight Asquith rod, but I assure you such a number was recently displayed on line - whether by mistake or by design. Advertisers and their clients continue to assure suckers they can buy competence and/or success in everything from fly casting to social acceptance. I have even seen ads suggesting one fly rod produces superior accuracy!

And as you mentioned a while back, there is the "soulful" ad for a fly rod. I still think fly rod ads and wine labels are authored by the same people. Good thing we have good @#$%& detectors, right?

Phil, maybe it,s a shorter fly rod. Shorter rods are more accurate just by their nature. Longer rods less accurate especially for short cast except flipping. When fishing hair bugs at cover along the shoreline or pad edges, I liked a rod eight feet or less. Also a shorter rod gives you more leverage.You need enough leverage to get a nice fish to run to deep water and not back into the cover. I should mention that I fished from a kickboat so that as soon as hooking a fish I could start kicking and pulling her from cover. All I had to do was hang on and kick.And I love Turtle Fins for kicking power.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2022 10:14AM by ben belote.

Just so, Ben. We give up something to get something. Fair enough. But I'm sick of hucksters telling me I can get something for nothing, whether they be fishing-rod advertisers or politicians. Anglers can get longer casts or more accurate casts - but not both with the same rod.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2022 01:00PM by Phil Ewanicki.

That,s been a problem since the snake got eve to bite the apple. I doubt it will ever change. Each of us will have to learn in our own way..I try to not let them pull my strings. My favorite fly is the moose hair bug on a 71/2 foot rod. Just deadly, Moose hair is great for big bugs, lots of floatation to hold up big hooks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2022 03:30PM by ben belote.

Does the length and the rigidity of moose guard hair cause misses when you try to set the hook?

None that I can see except that the bug may be too large for smaller fish to take well..

It costs me between $450, and $550 to build a custom rod using my preferred components. This does not include the cost of the power winder, threads, epoxies, or the research I put into every rod. I use only 2 brands of blanks, CTS, and Winston. If I'm using Winston. it'll cost more as their blanks are more expensive. I trust that these companies have researched the best materials, tapers, resins, and so on to provide superior product. I don't have to do that part. When you add in my time, and experience, I believe my completed custom fly rods are worth every penny of $800 and up, depending on bling added, such as nickel-silver reel seats, agate stripping guides, etc.

Are there builders who use lesser quality blanks/materials that charge the same prices for their rods? The short answer is yes. It is important for the consumer to ask questions, and do a little research on the builder.

It's just as important for the builder to ask questions, to insure they are building the correct rod for the customer's needs. This is why custom rods cost so much more than big box store rods. We also must choose, in many cases, an adequate reel, set up and ready to fish, as well as a case to transport, and protect the rod.

Tight Lies and frisky fish

RJF