Rock Creek series and the cost of rods

Posted on: Wed, 08/26/2009 - 12:43

Joined: 2009-08-26

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Rock Creek series and the cost of rods

I just got my AS106M (bought on Ebay) and I am really pleased with its looks and feel.

The research I did on the rod brought up a few interesting questions:

Some people mentioned Rock Creek was an excelent rod. Others wanted to make it clear it was not a real Lamiglas rod and the components and graphite quality were inferior to anything coming out of the States.
The rod at $125 was also considered cheap.

There are basically two main problems that can come up with a rod - it can snap or its guides can develop grooves. The first will likely occur within the first year and the second, looking at the nice guides, is not very likely to happen at all. So my first question is, is graphite expected to age?

If not, what would make my cheap $125 any worse than a $350 rod when I am already happy with its weight , design etc?

There are a few things to mention......I know some people may be unhappy with production being outsourced to China and jobs being lost, so they may want to taint the image of any China made product. On the other hand a company may want to be able to sell a rod at $400 if someone can afford it but also sell $125 rods to the rest of us and those 125 rods do not need to be any worse - they take the same amount of material, the same process steps, cheaper labour (which is why they should be cheaper) and after all it is just a fishing rod.
Look at the electronics coming from Asia - more complicated product, hundreds of components and..lower prices.

How much do you think a good quality rod should cost ?????

Posted on: Thu, 08/27/2009 - 16:39 #1

R.Taylor

Joined: 2009-06-22

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Graphite should never break

Graphite should never break down over time. Generally a defective blank would fail almost immediately. However lower end componesnts can fail after extended use. We have a small series of rods built (by our specs) over-seas so we can offer them at a great value to fisherman. As far as what everyone figure to be a "quality" rod probably changes fisherman to fisherman.

We do however have our new line of rods "Excel" series currently in production and they will be an awesome value (less $ than g1000) They are built here at our factory and will be one of the best value american made rods on the market.

Ryan Taylor
Lamiglas Rod Squad Guru

Posted on: Fri, 08/28/2009 - 16:04 #2

BigCougar

Joined: 2009-08-26

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Ryan, thanks for this reply

Ryan, thanks for this reply and also replying to my e-mails a week ago.

I will definitely try to lay my hands on one of the newer US made Lamiglas rods one of these days. My arsenal consists of 3 Loomis spinning rods, 1 Sage fly rod , the mentioned new Lamiglas and a couple of others but I like trying new and better ones.

It is too bad the huge Fishing store we have up here in Kamloops - Wholesale Sports (I think the largest in BC) does not stock any Lamiglas yet.

As to graphite, years ago I had a Fenwick HMX86L that served me well for three years pulling countless steelhead and chinook with it before the top gide developed grooves. Those Fenwick guides do not have any inserts in them. The replacement rod, an IM7 HMX broke within one month as a result of bad design. (The butt section had a thinner spot right before the conection). Both rods were China made, and the strength of the first one was impressive.