Apparently, there is a bit of confusion out there about the Approved Rod Builder program. A few people may be thinking that only North Fork ARB builders will be able to get North Fork blanks. Not at all true! We’re always pleased when anyone chooses to build on a North Fork blank—amateur, pro, hobbiest, ARB [...]

The first member of our ARB Panel reviewed submitted rods yesterday. Some got very high marks. Keep them coming in! Below is a photo of the first panelist. You probably don’t know her, but the phrase “behind every successful man” certainly applies to Gary’s wife Susan. Besides being married to Gary, she is considered one [...]

Pro Angler Scott Martin talks about a rod built on our blank by one of our OEMs. http://tackletour.com/reviewbassathon2009rodspg3.html

I’ll admit that when it was 38 degrees and raining sideways, it was tough to get out of the tent and on the water. We’re pretty glad we did. I’ll try and post a more detailed rod testing report later, but I think it’s safe to say that we are happy with our ST 961. [...]

Now that North Fork blanks have been on the market long enough to have had some builds and some fishing, we are starting to get feedback from end-users. North Fork likes feedback, whether it’s good, bad, or indifferent. We like it because it helps our blanks get better faster—much faster. We’ve already gotten some useful [...]

For you steelhead anglers, yesterday was a pretty cool benchmark for us here at NFC. Gary and renowned salmon and steelhead guide Herb Good got together to test some steelhead and salmon rods. By the end of next week, we should have three new steelhead blanks in the hands of our distributors, the St 960, [...]

Scott Gimbert of Mudhole went fishing the other day with one of our blanks.  In the interest of full disclosure, Scott is one of our distributors, but here is what he had to say: Well it’s been about 7 weeks since receiving our first shipment of blanks from North Fork Composite (NFC). I had the [...]

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 [...]

The 905 (and likely 906) Next IM, two-piece fly blank(s) are getting really close to “go time.” After a couple of late nights of CCS-ing, deflecting, re-building, tip-swapping, and just plain old-fashioned wiggling, things are looking good. The catalog blanks will be picked from several excellent candidates after a final build-out and test-cast round. Published [...]

Just finished adding some more new designs for you bass anglers. Crankbait – one-piece in Next IM CB 661 CB 701 CB 704 Spin Bass – one piece in Next IM SB602 SB 604 Spin Jig – one-piece in Next IM SJ 543 SJ 545 SJ 603 SJ 604 SJ 605 SJ 607 If you’re [...]

No new post yesterday, but we have a good reason. We were too busy with our next releases!  We finished our testing and are ready to produce some new models.  All are one-piece in Next IM material. Freshwater – one piece in Next IM: FW 461 FW 501 FW 561 FW 601 FW 702 If [...]

It’s common knowledge that most blank manufacturers provide blanks not just to custom rod makers, but to other rod companies. G.Loomis for years built blanks for a number of customers who built up those rods under their own label. Few outside the industry ever knew or cared. With the movement of having blanks and/or finished [...]

Blank weight. Everybody wants to know: Why didn’t the 66X and 705/9 Mag Bass have listed weights when we shipped? Well, last week NFC customers were “asking” for blanks (as in “Where are our blanks?!”), so we had a wild day of packaging, made FedEx by literally two minutes, and then sat down and said, [...]

Every one-piece IM catalog blank (other than what’s already been OK’d for production) went into the oven today for a mega-bake. We’ll sift though it all this coming week, put into production that which meets spec, and re-pattern that which doesn’t. We are going to be busy! And then a stack of our modified two-piece mandrels [...]