Matthew Dickerson, Addison Independent, August 21, 1997
As we all know, you can never have enough fishing equipment. Especially rods; no matter how many you own there is always one more you must have. With this in mind, we take a break from local fishing and explore fishing rods.
Ever wonder what goes into a building a rod? Last week I spent the day in Stowe visiting the Diamondback Company factory. Diamondback is a small Vermont company (19 employees) but they handcraft some of the world's finest fly rods, shipping 7,000 a year including some to Japan. They are known for their quality fly rods, but also build custom downrigger rods for charter captains on Champlain. Their manufacturing process begins with sheets of combed graphite fibers impregnated with heat curable resin, very similar to material used in golf clubs and aerospace. The sheets are cut to size, rolled around a tapered stainless steel rod, wrapped in celophane to compact the fiber, and baked overnight. The "action" of the rod--at the basic level whether it is fast and powerful, or slow, delicate and forgiving--depends on several factors: the type of the graphite, the thickness of the wall, and the taper. After baking, the steel rod slides out leaving the hollow graphite tube, or "blank". What happens next depends on the rod model. The introductory "All-American" models (starting at $129) are almost ready to ship, needing only line guides, a reel seat, and grip. For the higher quality models such as the "Golden Shadow" custom-designed rods (costing up to $700) the labor- intensive process is just beginning. For one thing, the graphite is put together with a special time-consuming custom process that makes them especially strong and leaves a signature Diamondback imprint. Next the rods must be scraped, sanded, and given three coats of paint (with a sanding in between each). Finally they are mounted with the finest quality hardware
To see how good these rods were, I crossed the street to the Fly Rod Shop. This shop alone is worth a drive to Stowe. Dan Noyes and Sumner Stowe who run it are friendly and knowledgable, and the shop is a paradise of fly-fishing equipment. It is also a place where people are also "dropping in" to talk about fishing. Dan took me out to their casting pond and let me try several rods from some of the top makers in the world: Winston, G.Loomis, Scot, and Diamondback. For comparison I tried several 4 weight rods ranging from 7' to 7'9". The Loomis GLX 7'6" ($515) was my favorite fast action rod. Suprisingly, the Diamondback Carbonite 7' which costs only $170 performed well against its more expensive cousins. I then jumped up to the Diamondback "Classic Trout" (retailing at $340, still less than its competitors) and was hooked (so to speak). It is a soft rod with a kinder, gentler taper and a slower action more forgiving of my mistakes. It is not made for distance, but had a nice feel on the medium range casts need for Vermont streams. It is worth noting that all Diamondback rods are manufactured in Vermont using 100% graphite, and come with an unconditional lifetime warranty. Dan also discussed assembling one's own rod.
Worried about Vermont cabin fever? The Fly Rod Shop (802-253-7346) offers a course in rod-building every other Saturday in the winter. It runs all day, and is free! Of course the material costs something. Blanks run from $25 factory 2nd up to $200. The guides, reel seat, grip, etc. run another $100. Since mass-produced rods are fairly cheap, you don't save money building a low-end rod. Where you can save is building a high-end rod. The main goal, of course, is the satisfaction of using a rod you have built yourself. Dan claims that "with a little practice" anybody can build a rod in about 4 hours. The most time-consuming part is wrapping the guides. Since changing a light-bulb is about my level of challenge, I was skeptical. But Dan led me through the process, and in a few minutes I had successfully wrapped my first guide. Seventeen more times I would be nearly done. Whether you plan to build a rod or not, it is certainly worth a trip to Stowe to visit the shop. Another motivation: if you go on Wednesday or Saturday afternoon at 4pm, you can have a free introdoctory clinic on fly-fishing.