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.

WHY A HENRY IS A WORTH CONSIDERING

• The Henry's, originally designed to create a casting tool that avoided overhand casting to lessen or eliminate upper body stress - joint pain caused by false casting and hauling. Redington and the author realized there would be occasions where overhand casts would be desirable. So Redington developed a unique insert that allowed removal of the butt extension and rod cast conventionally.   

• The Henry's are not fly rods you grow out of - you grow into them and usually outperform whatever you thought was your previous best conventionally cast fly rod.

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• Casting Henry's requires much less upper body twisting, upper limb input, or wrist rotation versus any conventional eight or nine-foot fly rod cast with similar long distance intentions

• The Henry's, by design, are made to cast underhanded in the Scandinavian way - thus achieving one of the pinnacle advantages of fly fishing, fast releasing to the fish, no lost time false casting, and no lost time double hauling before casting.

• The Henry's, by design, can cast further than most of their single-handed relatives. Even the rich ones.

• The Henry's, by design, are made to cast big, bushy flies, and with 
the proper rigging tiny drys.

• The Henry's, by design, will do better in the wind than most rods.

• The Henry's are shorter and weigh less than two-handed rods in comparable weights.

If you like the Henry Fly Rod Features - Try a $499 Henry Rod five or eight weight on us.

If you don't like it, send it back unscathed, and we'll refund your money. 

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If you like it, we'll send you a GURU S to match your rod, RIO or OPST fly line we offer, and RIO backing, and we'll add a few FREE goodies as well. 

Offer time-limited.

SKU                  LTH            PCS     LINE      PWR/ACT            CLR

HFR-864-4     8’6”//8’10”      4        4WT      MED FAST         Charcoal

HFR-905-4     9’0”//9’4”        4        5WT      MED FAST         Charcoal

HFR-906-4     9’0”//9’4”        4        7WT      MED FAST         Charcoal

HFR-908-4     9’0”//9’4”        4        8WT      MED FAST         Charcoal

HFR-809-4     9’0”//9’4”        4        9WT      MED FAST         Charcoal

PICK A HENRY FLY ROD 

CHOOSE RIO OUTBOUND SHORT  FLY LINE WITH YOUR HENRY

There are 6 different density lines to cover every fishing situation:

• Floater - WF5 to WF10F

• F/S1 - WF6 to WF8 F/S1 (with 30ft "hover" sinking head)

• F/I - WF5 to WF10F/I (with 15ft intermediate tip)

• Intermediate - WF6 to WF10I

• I/S3 - WF6 to WF10I/S3 (with 30ft sink 3 head and intermediate running line)

• I/S6 - WF6 to WF10I/S6 (with 30ft sink 6 head and intermediate running line)

CHOOSE RIO BACKING WITH YOUR HENRY

RIO Products premium backing will give you peace of mind with fast running fish. "A high quality, super smooth braid that is 100% reliable."

Ready to up your game
with the Henry Fly Rod?