For about the first year after I got into fly fishing I was primarily using my late grandfather's rod that we had at the house. I think it was like a 20 year old 5wt or 6wt. To say it wasn't a very nice rod would be kind. It felt like a 9wt in the hand and had the action of a wooden plank, but I didn't have enough experience at the time to notice so I really enjoyed fishing with it for sentimental reasons. I was just getting my legs under me and learning the basics of the sport that, despite having fishing in the name, was unlike any other type of fishing I had done before.
It wasn't until I dumped that rod over the side of my canoe into 40' of water while night fishing poppers for bass that I finally made the financial commitment to fly fishing. (That just makes me laugh, you know you're a newbie when you use the same rod to cast bulky poppers to bass as you did to catch 6" brook trout earlier that day)
I remember buying my first fly rod like it was yesterday, despite it being a whole year ago. I'm kidding, relax. But I do remember it like it was yesterday. I bought an entry level Orvis set up and I was totally stoked. The Orvis brand was the coolest thing in the world to me at the time and having that rod and case with the nice big "O" made me feel like the real deal. And aside from the materialistic pleasures it provided , man was the performance of the rod a ginormous leap. I basically skipped through 20 years of scientific and technological advances and was blown away, and that was an entry level rod! I was pumped about the brand and could really feel a difference in the performance, it was money well spent.
As time went on and my fishing horizons expanded so to did both my rod collection and expectations. I was no longer an easy to please novice and each purchase became a little less exciting than the one prior. Now, I do not fly fish for the joy of buying rods (not solely anyways) and I am sure you do not either; but, as I became a more seasoned angler I found myself having a "need" for the higher quality fly rods. These rods come with a steeper price tag. When I spend a lot on a rod I want it to tick a couple of boxes for me. I want it to meet or exceed my performance standards, I want to be comprised oh high quality components, I want there to be a feeling of rarity, and I want it to be aesthetically pleasing to me in a way that makes sense in the environment in which I am using it. I soon started to feel like my large purchases left much to be desired. I could find a rod that ticked a couple of each of those boxes, but not one that ticked all four.
So that is why we started Meeko Fly Lab. To create high quality, high performing fly rods in limited edition designs that speak to that inner being your feeding when your out on the water. I will do a deeper dive into how we solve this issue in my next post.
Tight Lines
-Meeko