Fly Blog

I received an email yesterday that a custom fly rod I built and shipped to Costa Rica developed a crack at the base of the reel seat. This shouldn’t have happened and was clearly a defect. The customer was not happy and shouldn’t have been. He had paid good money for a beautiful Sage Xi2 saltwater fly fishing rod. I felt terrible as he didn’t want to send it back to get it fixed because he lives too far away even though I would gladly have corrected the rod and paid shipping. I was standing behind the quality of my rod by offering to fix it one might believe.

So is that the definition of quality? I didn’t think so. My definition of quality is the customer is delighted with the product and wants all his or her friends to know about it. Anything short of that is a failure. I couldn’t stand a failure like that. It isn’t in my make-up.

So here is what I am doing. I am building another custom Sage Xi2 saltwater fly rod to the same specifications as the first. I will ship it to Costa Rica to the customer at no charge. In the meantime, I don’t want the customer to be without the fly rod in case he wants to go fishing. I asked him to keep the first one until the second one arrives. At that point, he can return the first one.

Will he be delighted? I don’t know to tell the truth. But I will know I did a good job getting a fantastic fly rod to a great customer.

Product quality isn’t just the physical object that gets delivered. Its everything that goes into making and keeping a customer excited and delighted that they are doing business with you.

Mark Waldin
Flycatcher

I had a conversation with a customer the other day about his rod order. He was buying fly rod kits to build a couple rods for his kids. His son already owns a 4,5, and 6 weight rods and he wanted to build a couple 3 weights. At first he wanted to get a couple 7ft 6in IMX fast action blanks. After discussion with a friend of his son’s who is an avid fly fisher and guide, he felt he needed a slower action rod. The slower action rods, like a Loomis GL3 or a St Croix SCIII were less expensive than the faster action rods and he wasn’t sure that didn’t mean they were not as good. So what is the right answer?

First of all his son’s fishing buddy is an accomplished fisherman, fishes with his son often, knows the waters they like to fish and has a pretty good perspective on things. All things being equal, listening to the fishing buddy is an excellent idea. But what if you don’t have an expert to rely on?

A fast rod is a great thing for casting distance and accuracy in the right hands. With a fast rod you can form a tight loop and shoot the line with less wind resistance and lessen the impact of windy conditions all at the same time. (I say in the right hands because a fast rod takes practice to make work. Timing becomes more critical and a poorly timed back cast to forecast transition results in either snapped flies or a pile of leader at your feet. That’s no excuse to not use a fast rod, however, and perhaps I’ll go into that another time.) But because fast rods shoot the line with a tight loop they are also a bit harder to cast short distances, especially if you want a gentle presentation.

In this case, the fellow already owned a range of rods he could pull out of his arsenal for various fishing conditions. He was buying a rod that was only 7 and 1/2 feet long, so he was intending it for some relatively tight fishing conditions and was limiting the casting range right off the bat. Given that he was gunning for smaller fish with the #3 in addition to the shorter rod he was most likely targeting smaller forested streams. The right decision was undoubtedly to go with a softer rod that could work well in tight conditions and do gentle presentations close in. The fact that it was verified by his fishing partner makes such a decision a sure thing.

But what about the price difference? Is it really a rod that is not as good? I’ll address that another time. The short answer was and is NO.

Mark Waldin Flycatcher