[GBrenowitz]

Spey rods have been getting progressively lighter and tapers have been developed to maximize their fit to different casting styles. In short, they have been evolving. I am curious what the next real revolution in spey rods is going to be.

 

[Speysowa]

They will be shortened to 9' to 91/2' and the taper redesigned to cast strictly in the "overhead" style. The rods will be constructed of a revolutionary new carbon based fiber that's organic, biodegradable, renewable and has great feng shui as well as gravitas.

The material is called bamboo. Amazing stuff! The material practically makes itself! It is extracted from wet dirt! They can just leave this stuff outside and it grows! By itself! In the sun! Hard to believe, I know, but it's all true.

Yeah, I know what you thinking about the name. The marketing department dropped the ball on this one. But there are rumors of a rebranding campaign next year. The material will be called carbographinite 3. Which sounds so much more technical and aggressive!

(My apologies to the OP. Sometimes I just can't help myself.) :chuckle:

 

[borderfly]

There is so much going on in the industrial world it's amazing and scary at the same time.

My guess would be that the manufacturers will start using additive manufacturing. GE will start making fuel nozzles within the next 2 years which will cut time and reduce not only weight but costs as well. I am in the machining business so 3D manufacturing is not one of my favorites but it is here and here it will stay. I could easily see rod makers and reel makers designing and at least testing new products before they come to market with this technology. Once that process is perfected manufacturing will kick in and maybe pricing will start to come down..

There are always new materials to test.

KC

 

[MZilliox]

They will be shortened to 9' to 91/2' and the taper redesigned to cast strictly in the "overhead" style. The rods will be constructed of a revolutionary new carbon based fiber that's organic, biodegradable, renewable and has great feng shui as well as gravitas.

The material is called bamboo. Amazing stuff! The material practically makes itself! It is extracted from wet dirt! They can just leave this stuff outside and it grows! By itself! In the sun! Hard to believe, I know, but it's all true.

Yeah, I know what you thinking about the name. The marketing department dropped the ball on this one. But there are rumors of a rebranding campaign next year. The material will be called carbographinite 3. Which sounds so much more technical and aggressive!

(My apologies to the OP. Sometimes I just can't help myself.) :chuckle:

Oh man i wish the world moved in this direction... hahah

 

[fredaevans]

Oh Yes.

They will be shortened to 9' to 91/2' and the taper redesigned to cast strictly in the "overhead" style. The rods will be constructed of a revolutionary new carbon based fiber that's organic, biodegradable, renewable and has great feng shui as well as gravitas.

The material is called bamboo. Amazing stuff! The material practically makes itself! It is extracted from wet dirt! They can just leave this stuff outside and it grows! By itself! In the sun! Hard to believe, I know, but it's all true.

Yeah, I know what you thinking about the name. The marketing department dropped the ball on this one. But there are rumors of a rebranding campaign next year. The material will be called carbographinite 3. Which sounds so much more technical and aggressive!

(My apologies to the OP. Sometimes I just can't help myself.) :chuckle:

I think we have a strong candidate for: "Post of the Day."

 

[roballen]

most of the " advancement" in rod technology has been the result of marketing not genuine innovation.

be honest now in the last 10 years have spey rods actually gotten better? have they gotten significantly lighter?? I think that most people if they were being honest would say no.

those companies who are making their rods lighter, has it improved their rods performance? probably not.

buy rods because you like them not because a glossy full page add tells you to or because of technical sounding gibberish that is just that gibberish.

 

[inland]

Next revolution? Don't know and honestly don't really care to speculate. When it gets here...the usual will happen. Overblown fanfare vs. skepticism.

Regarding the post about rods over the past ten years being incrementally better...

Well, yeah, they are. Not 'revolutionary' by any stretch. Just steady improvement. The new resins and structural evolution is better. Period. Go cast a rod from 20 years ago. Pick the best of the best of the best. Do the same against a similar model ten years ago. Then stack them up against today's top dog(s).

The rod companies working with the most recent changes (even as slow as this process moves) show remarkable differences. Remember fly rods are rated (talking about personal jubilation or hatred...not line weights) on feel. An intangible variable, differs from person to person. Skill level to skill level combined with personal 'likes' and 'dislikes'.

The best older rods are still relevant today. That is certain. Half of my year so far has been with a 20 and 10 year old rod. They are still great sticks. But compared to the latest offerings...no contest. The best of the new stuff does everything the best older rods do. They just do it more efficiently in a lighter package. Must say the new stuff is pretty impressive...

 

[beulahnw]

Glass Spey!

Not necessarily new...but the glass that Epic is turning out is better and the glass from Seele is kick ass!

The rods are lighter...smaller diameter butts, they recover great...they are nice to look at and fun to fish and cast.

Much like the post above(bamboo)...sometimes old materials circle around with new design ideas and a resin or what-have-you and are terrific.

To say spey rods have not come around as better performing sticks ain't right. I took an old 1509-4 out the other day. It appears in the past few years that somebody stuffed an anvil in the tip, stiffened the butt and made the recovery slow enough to rattle the fillings in my teeth loose. Sometimes the memories of old sticks that were great are just that...memories.

BB~

 

[bender]

those companies who are making their rods lighter, has it improved their rods performance? probably not.

You are right because rods does not have much effect to performance when they have similar stiffness but fly line weight has huge effect. So when lighter rod allows you to cast heavier line you achieve higher performance and casting does not become more tiring.

When rod performance evolve it mostly comes because of stiffness/blank weight ratio increase. Then more casting energy goes to fly line acceleration and less to rod acceleration. Also when rod bends less because of its own mass the line speed becomes higher.

Esa

 

[roballen]

You are right because rods does not have much effect to performance when they have similar stiffness but fly line weight has huge effect. So when lighter rod allows you to cast heavier line you achieve higher performance and casting does not become more tiring.

When rod performance evolve it mostly comes because of stiffness/blank weight ratio increase. Then more casting energy goes to fly line acceleration and less to rod acceleration. Also when rod bends less because of its own mass the line speed becomes higher.

Esa

hmmm i completely disagree. when a rod flexes more because of it's own mass, particularly the mass of the tip line speed becomes higher.. the top must absolutely MUST be able to force the rest of the rod to take more load, the best way to do that is to increase the amount of material in the tip.
seen it time and time and time and time again during our RnD sessions.
in general the more material we put into the tip the better the rod performs.

 

[Robert Meiser]

I believe it is the development and understanding of lines that have had the greatest influence on improving the performance of two handed rods.

Rod blank designs and materials for them have seen a few mini generational improvements over the past 15 years.

Our lines for them (on the other hand) have gone through quantum leap improvements in both performance and diversity in that same time frame.

I recently spent several days with my old 9140 Brownie minus the Windcutter that she originally came with, and married her to a nicely designed, grain matched Scandi ...

She cast well with the old Windcutter, and always did <> But she became absolutely brilliant with a well designed shooting head ... And what an amazing rod she is !!!

I think that most definitely rods will continue to improve by small degrees in the future ...

... Really don't see anything as revolutionary as the transition of bamboo to glass, then glass to graphite looming on the horizon ... But I think that line development will continue to improve at an aggressive pace.

Meiz

 

[borano20]

Hello.. Sure Mr. Meiser. Look at the new trout lines from Snowbee. Rated 5-8. No,not the rods,the LINES.. Yours borano20

 

[BJay]

I now look more at grain weight and taper when I buy a single hand line. I will not be buying a Snowbee if that's how they are rated.
BJ

 

[bender]

hmmm i completely disagree. when a rod flexes more because of it's own mass, particularly the mass of the tip line speed becomes higher.. the top must absolutely MUST be able to force the rest of the rod to take more load, the best way to do that is to increase the amount of material in the tip.
seen it time and time and time and time again during our RnD sessions.
in general the more material we put into the tip the better the rod performs.

Perhaps in that case when material is added to tip the rod becomes stiffer and performs better. Rod bend is beneficial to achieve straighter line path. Rod also stores some energy in the beginning of the casting stroke and release some of it back towards the end but it is not much. Rod as a lever has the most effect to line speed and when lever bends less line speed becomes higher. If weight in rod tip is good why don't anyone put some there?

Esa

 

[bender]

I look forward to when Carbon Nano Tubes are used when building fly rod blanks. I think first they appear to golf clubs and perhaps bicycles but fly fishing shouldn't come far behind. Currently Orvis Helios has best stiffness/weight ratio and Sage Connetic Technology builds light blanks too. Blanks where 3M Nano Resin is used are not light but they are strong.

Esa

 

[roballen]

I look forward to when Carbon Nano Tubes are used when building fly rod blanks. I think first they appear to golf clubs and perhaps bicycles but fly fishing shouldn't come far behind. Currently Orvis Helios has best stiffness/weight ratio and Sage Connetic Technology builds light blanks too. Blanks where 3M Nano Resin is used are not light but they are strong.

Esa

Neither sage or or is has access to. The 3m resin.
3m has an exclusive arrangement with some huge fishing conglomerate and will not sell to anyone else.

Expect to see it in bass rods not high end fly rods.

We had some for a while. It did not allow us to use less material and therefore make lighter rods. It did make current rods more durable it did not make them lighter. Using less material made our rods suck

I cast a helios. The butt is too fast and the tip too light