How Fly Rods Are Developed, with Shawn Combs

The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast

James Hathaway

Bass, Fishing, Bonefish, Wilderness, Flyfishing, Trout, How To, Steelhead, Bluegill, Fly, Orvis, Sports, Salmon, Panfish, Education, Rosenbauer

4.8 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2024

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, my guest is Orvis rod designer and my fishing buddy Shawn Combs [14:05], who uses the new Helios rods as an example of how a new rod series is developed. What kind of input goes into a new rod design? Why do we keep making new rod series? How are they tested? How many prototypes of a new rod are built before we decide on the final model?

The Fly Box is short this week because I've caught up with questions and am doing this before I leave for a couple weeks. But they're good ones, including:

Do I need to set the hook in a different manner with a glass fly rod?
Is there something about the new Helios rods that is not covered on the web site and catalog copy?
Is there a place where I can still pick up a Helios 3 rod?
I am going to Cozumel and will be wade fishing from the beach. What should I know in advance?
A listener gives some great tips on fly fishing for trout in Missouri

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi and welcome to the Orvis Fly Fishing Podcast this is your host Tom
0:14.2	Rosenbauer and my guest this week is my friend and fishing buddy and
0:19.6	Orvis Rod and Real designer Sean Combs and I get a lot of questions about how are
0:24.6	fly rods developed how do you develop a new taper how is it made how are they
0:29.3	tested and we're gonna use the example of the new fourth generation of Helios rods as an example of how a new flyrod series is developed and then how individual models are developed.
0:44.4	So I hope this answers a lot of your questions about this mysterious world of
0:49.2	flyrod design.
0:50.8	Sean's always a fun interview and I think you'll enjoy it.
0:55.0	But first we're going to do the flybox.
1:00.0	And this is a short flybox this week. Another short one, because I'm doing this three weeks ahead of time because I'm going to be traveling a bit and not going to be able to record podcast.
1:11.0	But I wanted to make sure that you had a new fresh podcast while I'm gone
1:16.0	instead of doing repeat or backcast episode as we call it. So short flybox, if you have a question for the flybox and by the time you hear this I'll be back in town so I'll be able to read your
1:29.3	question. You can send it to me at podcast at Orvis.com.
1:34.8	Either just type your question into your email
1:37.5	or you can attach a voice file and perhaps I'll read it on the air.
1:42.2	I read them all. I don't answer them all.
1:45.0	The first one is an email from Jim.
1:50.0	First off, let me tell you the wonders a waiting staff could do for you.
1:54.5	Ha ha, just kidding. Yeah, I'm, I've, I've gotten the message guys on the waiting staff thing.
2:00.1	So my question is about the action of fiberglass fly rods specifically at the hook set.
2:07.0	I have noticed that I seem to have fewer hookups when using a glass rod.
2:11.4	I don't feel like I set the hook entirely different from other rods and in most cases
	...

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