Collection: Fly Fishing Rods

Fly fishing rods trace back to ancient Macedonia (c. 200 AD), where Claudius Aelian described Macedonian anglers using 6-foot horsehair-bound poles with artificial flies. Medieval European monks refined 12–18 foot solid wood “rods” for salmon and trout. By the 1600s, English treatises like Walton’s Compleat Angler (1653) standardized 12–16 foot tonkin cane or greenheart rods with horsehair lines.

The 1800s brought split-bamboo (glued hexagonal strips of Tonkin cane), perfected in America by makers like Hiram Leonard in the 1870s. These “classic” bamboo rods ruled until the 1950s when E. C. Powell and others introduced hollow-built glass fiber (fiberglass), lighter and cheaper.

In 1974, Fenwick launched the first graphite (carbon-fiber) rods—stiffer, lighter, and more powerful—revolutionizing casting distance and accuracy. Modern rods now use high-modulus carbon with resin systems (IM6 to IM12+), boron, silica nano-particles (Hardy Sintrix), and helical carbon weaves (Scott Radian, Orvis Helios). Today’s flagship rods weigh under 2 ounces for a 9-foot 5-weight yet withstand brutal saltwater and Euro-nymphing abuse, blending space-age materials with timeless angling art.