Well, I've met the Grand Poo-Bah and Ladyfisher when I was representing Team Loop and shortly afterward, sponsored by Thomas & Thomas... All I can say is that they are good people, but they are in the industry, you guys know that.

I'm not sponsored (sp?) by anyone now, maybe some support from St.Croix for a spinning rod, yeah, spinning rod. And I am a fly fisher no less. I've got a whole other angle on things as I grow older...

Some of you here know me, you know that I've written about the same topic at my own gig and that thread gets revisited all the time, it's definately a sore spot (that topic) to people like the Sage rep that answered, and especially to the two beforementioned web site wranglers.

Many of us have Sage rods in our quiver, my boracho friend tells me, he says, "hey, any Western angler worth his weight has a Sage in his quiver." and there is a lot of truth in that. I got a couple and hell yes, they are great rods, just too damn expensive. Problem is, the rods costing so damn much has done a few things that are not so good for fly fishing as a whole.

When you pay that much, you are paying for other people to go fishing, research and developement. For G~d sake, the fish can't tell the difference, only you can. I'de rather pay me to go fishing...

It's a slippery subject no doubt. I always look at it this way; hang gliders have been made with graphite tubing, tapered, same manufacture, on mandrels, wrapped blah blah blah, enough material to make goodness knows how much in EACH tube and the cost is less than one entry level rod from any manufacture. Aircraft quality no less.

It's insane...

Now forget all that.

Compare high end spinning rod cost to fly rods...

Now forget all that.

Now compare fly reel cost to a comparable priced bait casting rod.

Now forget all that.

Just forget that FAOL is a business and they contribute to the cost, no, forget all that.

Forget that it's fly fishing equipment because that's the problem.

I like this web site, it's a good read but when they snuffed YOU, the reader, they forgot all that; the reason why FAOL exsist.

It's a good web site still, I enjoy it and you (the public) will be force fed many reasons why the rods cost so much.

The absolute bottom line is that you are willing to pay that much money for them.

In my book, just like in life, you can pay for just about anything, a long sweet cast included.

Please, don't forget who you the reader is in the scheme of it all. You are the reason why this web site exsists and why the fly rods cost so much.

Think about it.