Hexagenia Mayfly Hatch

The World Goes Fly Fishing
This week we sold an American made rod and reel to one of our regular German customers who is currently planning his Alaskan fly fishing trip while on a business trip to Beijing, China.  While this situation is somewhat unique, there are many similar sales being handled at our store every week.  Let's face it, the human race has tied the world together with fast communication and fast transportation. You can now communicate across the world instantly by phone, Fax and email.  You can board your plane in Portland, Oregon and five hours later you are in a thatched cabana on the beach at Loreto, Mexico. Tomorrow, at dawn you will motor out over a calm tropical sea in search of golden dorado.  In the same afternoon you will keep in touch with home base through the internet. Your associates relay pertinent information and you render advice. You are on vacation, but you are in control. Or maybe you don't want to be. It's your call...and your vacation. The point is, that you can be in touch as much as you like. We can now live, work and play more efficiently because of our new quick time travel coupled with our ability to stay in touch with each other.  You can be in many parts of the world and be in touch with home base on a daily basis.  Certainly, if you travel to fish our unique waters here in the United States, you have at your disposal the finest transportation and communication systems in the world.  You could be in Korea one day and on the Sandy River fishing for wild steelhead the next day. The same is true if you live in Japan, England, France, Germany and nearly anywhere else in the world. We are no more than two days away from most of the planet. We now live in a global world where national borders are blurred by the masses of humanity crossing them on a daily basis. Also we live in a world where technology is being shared globally on a daily basis. If a new Spey cast is developed on Washington's Skagit River, through the power of the internet, anglers around the world are experimenting with the same casting techniques within a week.

Since World War II, U.S. fly rod manufactures have dominated and set the standard for the rest of the world.  They started with European designs and added innovative engineering and materials technology.  There has been a steady string of innovations that have made our fly rods lighter, stronger and faster each and every year.   There is little doubt American made rods are the most copied fly rods worldwide. They are also some of the most expensive fly rods in the world.  But, you get what you pay for. Once again, when it comes to craftsmanship and warrantee, the American big-5 fly rod makers have set the standard. 

It is evident that manufacturing plants in Korea are able to produce rods with similar casting and handling characteristics of the American rods.  It is also becoming apparent that craftsmanship and quality control in these Korean factories is very good.  What is now emerging is that Korean engineers have a few tricks of their own up their sleeves, such as nano-technology where coating graphite blanks takes on more meanings than just cosmetics.  Certain series of Korean rods really cast.  Several American owned owned companies are finding it easier to do rod manufacturing in Korea, but keep their corporate headquarters and shipping centers in the United States.  In many cases, the best of these rods are designed by a team that incorporates designers and engineers from both sides of the Pacific. Its a two heads are better than one approach. That is the way it seems to be at Temple Fork Outfitters (TFO).  The rods are conceptually designed by expert anglers such as, Lefty Kreh, Jim Teeny, Mike Kinney and Bob Meiser.  The materials engineering and actual construction is done in Korea.  Tim Rajeff at Echo Rods and the staff at Beulah Rods take a similar approach. All three companies produce very fine rods at agreeable prices and are gathering market shares. 

There isn't anything that builds skills and technologies quicker than competition....especially in the search for fly line speed!