“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 [...]

I’ve always known that Gary believes that custom rod makers are responsible for most of the new developments in rod making. One day I asked him what developments he was talking about.  He paused, and then said: “Probably everything! Split-grips, rod balancing, how to spine, enclosed handles, reel seats, the graphite trigger, Robert’s wrap…” Just [...]