For those builders living “down under,” North Fork blanks are heading your way thanks to our distribution partner, Gary Howard, at Australian Rod Manufacturers. ARM will be carrying a variety of North Fork blanks, and will be working with us to create models specific to Australian species/conditions. You can contact ARM here: Phone: (07) 3881 [...]

Every rod should break. Sound surprising coming from a blank manufacturer? Don’t be surprised, it’s just the reality of designing for high-performance. For example, if you “high-stick” (no, not the fly-fishing technique) a high-performance rod, you may be encouraging a break. The design features that make high-performance what it is are often at odds with the [...]

There is definitely a “special language” of the fishing-rod world, especially among manufacturers and builders. While manufacturing has its some of its own lingo, there is a fairly broad spread of terms that apply across the board. At North Fork, we like to be able to communicate effectively with our customers and others in the [...]

“I could build you a rod that would never break, but you wouldn’t want to fish with it!” That may be one of Gary’s most-famous blank-designing quotes, and it reflects both the realities of high-performance design, as well as Gary’s own philosophy. While a small book could be written about how Gary approaches design, there [...]