INTRODUCING 

THE HENRY FLY ROD

Looking like a pickup truck but casting like a Bentley

 

In 2018, one of the disorders of age crept deep into my sporting life, arthritis. It began reducing my fly fishing participation to a few hours in a day and days apart. Rod choice limited to only lower rod weights. Employing all casting techniques known did not change outcomes of too much pain and poor results. The latter, especially so when right nowcasting and distance came into play. 

 

In April of 2019, my thought was that the best solution was buying a switch rod made by Bob Meiser Fly Rods. It is a 2/4 weight.

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My complaint nothing to do with the rod's performance; it is superior. The rod, a 9' 9" [CX 909] for 250-400 grain weight fly lines, and four pieces - made off-catalog spec for me with weight unknown. However, it has not easy to manage hiking through the thick of summer forest growth, friendly on a skiff, and I'd have to put out at least $2,400 to cover my bases [$800 per rod].

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David Redington

 

Not trained to give up, I turned to a guy I had known since the 1990s and done a story about in Fly Life Magazine.com in 2012, David Redington, Southfork Rods, Stuart, Florida.

 

David has been making fishing rods since he was in elementary school in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Then, commercially by 8th grade. By high school, he was sort after by wealthy offshore anglers and tackle shops.

 

By the time he moved to Stuart, Florida, he had become that unique kind of craftsperson who knew math, materials logistics, scrim technology, even modifying tools to improve builds of fly rods. He was on the leading edge of graphite and had a country-wide reputation as a master of glass fly rods and bamboo fly rods.

 

In the 90s, buying blanks from Thomas & Thomas' VP of sales Jim Murphy, a plan was hatched to join ranks and become an independent fly rod manufacturer. Their venture would change fly fishing shops and manufacturers' behavior forever. 

 

And with the help of the movie A River Runs through It, David's rod design capability, and Murphy's marketing skill, they impacted industry customer relations behavior that lasts into today. 

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The company was called Redington Rods

 

The name Redington Rods was sold to Orvis and survived to become a Far Bank property along with  Sage and RIO Products..

 

David, and his wife, Margaret, are still building fishing rods in Stuart, Florida. Their customers want perfect rods: big game offshore, surf, or fly fishing rods constructed out of bamboo, glass, or graphite. Their customers are nationwide and international as well.

 

In the spring of 2020, I called David and said I know how to improve the fishing lives of anglers with disabilities, like mine, and add to the fly fishing ranks those who struggle with casting and give up. David and Margaret agreed to put my idea into a working fly rod. 

 

David and I decided we would put all the energy and sophistication into each Henry's castability for people with disabilities and or casting challenged. He wanted the rods to be light and uncharacteristically short for spey casting - using water tension on short-head shooting fly lines to load the rods and cast Scandinavian style. The latter reduces to almost nil the strain on upper limb joints and lower back. 

 

The Henry Fly Rods' David Redington Series do not mimic today's lightning-fast tip flex fly rods. Instead, David Redington made all Henry fly rods caster friendly by allowing full flexing with quick recovery.