User Question: Often I look at what a rod weighs. I know there is a reason that G. Loomis does not show rod weights, but I would like to ask what the explanation is.
Our Answer: We hate to get into the numbers game with folks. Honestly we love to see a customer’s face light up when he holds onto a G. Loomis rod and says, “WOW”. Typically that G. Loomis rod is the lightest rod he has ever felt. There are rods out there that are getting lighter and some may even be a little lighter, but light weight is not 100% of what a rod should be judged on. We factor weight as a very strong percent of the overall performance triangle, but the other 2 sides are sensitivity and strength. You need to have a balance of these 3 entities to make the perfect rod.
Maybe there are rods out there that are the lightest, but are they strong enough? Some say that they are tough but are they heavy and do they transmit sensitivity through the rod? G. Loomis balances this out and makes all three of those attributes a “total strength”. So when someone asks what our G. Loomis rods weights are we say that it is as light as G. Loomis can make it to keep the strength and sensitivity that you need for total performance.
If you rely totally on weight then it is a total number. Nothing more, nothing less. The lighter the rod supposedly the better the rod is, but that just isn’t really the case. G. Loomis does actually have a very light weight to strength ratio but to rank it on weight only would be wrong.
What contributes more weight than anything else is the glue and finish that is added to the product. It is very difficult to control the amount of glue that the cork will take, so the rod’s weight will fluctuate slightly from rod to rod within the same model. If G. Loomis (or any other manufacturers for that matter) quoted specific rod weights to 1 tenth of an ounce then very likely people would say that their rod was off from the printed weight. Their question would be, “Are you sure that I have the right rod”. So G. Loomis took these specific weights out of the catalogs and let the rods speak for themselves.
- American Legacy carries a HUGE selection of G. Loomis rods in stock.
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