Paul Arden | Monday, 21 October 2019
It’s taken over five years - my how time flies! The first prototype 7’6 I had for the Scottish Meet in Spain, just over five years ago. I think this story might tell you quite a lot about me and why we currently only have 4 finished Sexyloops blanks in general production!!! (We have a few undercover ones, like the Rampage).
Yes I’m a perfectionist but not to the point where I let it control my life. I think it’s a good quality - I mean if I didn’t care we would have 20 or 30 rods out there and people would be saying such and such a model is good but such and such a model is crap. I think if you’re going to do something - in this case manufacture fly fishing rods - then you should strive to make each one the absolute best that you can. “One life! Make it the best!” Or mottos to that effect.
Anyway going from 9’ to 7’6” is an interesting departure and I want to get it right first time.
The irony is, that we actually got it right very early on, but having just come off the back of an 8WT that took 8 prototypes I was cautious. Sure, I exploded the first prototype after six months of “research” while aerielising 90ft of DT5 and that set us back at least a year. (It's a 3/4WT, ie both suitable for 3 and 4WT lines - I know, it's still possible!)
I ended up sitting on the next rod prototype for almost four years. I’d pull it out like a magician at flycasting getherings around the world - everyone loved it of course... “How can it be better?” “It can’t” “Thanks very much”. But I didn’t listen to them - what did they know?
In fact there are fly casters out there who preferred this rod to all our others - damn them! As a result dozens of people - maybe hundreds (it’s been a long five years!) - are interested, from TLT guys to Australian SW anglers fishing for whiting on the East Coast to small stream guys in Eastern Europe to Viking Lars.
But still, I needed to try something... And so after years of thinking about what I should try exactly, I had the two lowest sections modestly stiffened...
The result was that I now had two awesome rods and ran both rods back to back through countless anglers’ hands. I thought I should pass my dilemma on! Give them the problem. But unfortunately they gave it straight back to me. Tim preferred the new one. Irhamy preferred the new one until he cast the old one and pronounced “This is it!! The rod I’ve been dreaming of!!” FFS. And so on.
After all of this time, testing, fishing, casting, fishing (it’s not just an excuse!), I’ve decided on the prototype rod that most people cast and loved for about 4 years as our production model. It's better all round.
I realise that this is not how most companies do things since many rods in fact have only a four year life span!! We are a bit different at Sexyloops and I hope that in 20 years from now this will still be the best rod in its class.
That’s my goal anyway.
I’m guiding/teaching/hosting the next two weeks. Indeed I’m writing this while driving down the lake. A prime example of multi-tasking. I’ll set up camp and drive to the airport later today. Guiding is actually the next best thing to fly fishing and I love it.
Cheers, Paul