MORE ON LELAND ROD COMPANY

The latest development in the long tradition of fly rod innovation originating in the Bay Area, the Leland Rod Company is the work of a handful of San Francisco anglers and casters who set out to locate and collaborate with the world's premier rod manufacturer.

This search began with the well-weighed belief that today we need a better fly rod. And not just a rod that's just an upgrade or an update on current offerings, but one that presents a wholesale break with the status quo. A paradigm-shifting advancement.

What is unique about the Leland Rod Company approach is the coupling of rod design to casting education.

And this is why Leland Rod Co. fly rods are different. Yes, they perform well in anyone's hands, but they very concretely reward good casting with positive reinforcement.

This is no accident. Rather, it issues directly from our rod design philosophy, which holds that if a rod is to have the most efficient action -- that is, if it is going to put as much of your body's casting energy into the fly line as is physically possible -- then this rod's development can only begin from the most efficient casting stroke.

Because of this, education is central to the Leland Rod Company project. We believe that this focus on technique sets our fly rods apart. Each and every rod is designed with the same action, which is to say that all our rods perform best with an efficient, compact stroke that makes the most of human physique.

With decades of experience in guiding, education and retail, we found ourselves seeking a set of fly rods that was purpose-built and strictly essential.

We wanted a collection totally without redundancy, a gapless set of impeccable fly rods that an angler could use to fish the globe, but also manage to fit in a single suitcase.

In today's industry, we see incoherent offerings from the leading manufacturers: rods that get the fly out there with almost any casting stroke, but which neither deliver peak performance in skilled hands nor reward the progress of students.

Driven by the need to expand sales numbers, these rods are designed through a lowest-common-denominator approach. They enable casters to dump their tip, or come forward too early, and will still push the line out toward the target. Most rods designed today will deliver a certain baseline level of performance to any caster, but as a result of this design strategy, they fall short of the very tangible greatness that experienced casters and anglers seek.

For their part, Leland Rod Co. fly rods handle well, track true, are perfectly balanced and stay stable under load. But they are most remarkable for their common, Adaptive Action. This means that once a caster has developed the technique necessary to get the most from one Leland Rod Co. rod, he or she can use that same exact technique to cast any of our other rods with the same efficiency. From our three weight Spring Creek to our twelve weight Tournament, all of our rods cast a fly line best with the same exact input from the angler: a compact, efficient stroke.

Aesthetically, Leland Rod Co. fly rods are vintage and classic. And technologically, they're the most advanced ever made. But rather than confuse you with technical jargon, or coin names for intangible features, we'd like to focus on concrete and critical virtues that rod makers have forsaken in recent years.



Where many manufacturers are caught up pursuing rods that are lighter and faster, we prioritize stability and balance. We don't know how many ounces each Leland rod weighs. We've never weighed them, and we don't plan to.

More than once in our design process we enhanced wall thickness at certain spots along the rod's length, increasing overall stability under load. At one point, we deliberately made our Premium rods heavier by adding weight to the butt of the rod.

In doing so, we've improved tracking, lowered apparent swing weight, and made a more balanced rod that encourages an efficient casting stroke.