Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Graywolf Rods on Steffen Brothers Fly Rods

When I first was introduced to "contemporary" fiberglass fly rods, which is going on twelve years ago, Mark Steffen of Steffen Brothers Fly Rods was one of just a couple small shop builders who was also rolling his own blanks.  Mark's solid reputation as a fly rod designer is only matched by his determination for quality in every blank that builds on or sells to other small shop builders or hobbyists.  If you don't own one (or several) Steffen Brothers Fly Rod blank builds, you should.

Shane Gray of Graywolf Rods asked if he could share a few thoughts on Mark Steffen along with a few recent builds on Steffen Brothers fly rod blanks.  I think that opinions like this from other rod builders are important and further confirm what many of us already know, Mark Steffen is a taper master.     


In Shane's words...  "Steffen Brothers fiberglass...  To me the blanks are the top of the line when looking for an outstanding fiberglass fly rod.  One sentence I hear or read quite often from my customers is "You take a hum drum blank and make it beautiful” or something along those lines.  For me the color of the blank is perfect.  The un-sanded finish is just right and the action along with the lightness of these rods are hard to compete with.

For all the years I have been building fiberglass rods, often other rods are compared to a "Steffen Fly Rod" or a "Steffen Action".  Why? I feel it’s because they are “IT” in many cases.  You just can’t go wrong picking a Steffen rod or a rod built on a Steffen blank.

Mark has been making these rods since the 1990’s and still to this day they are the go to for most that either fish fiberglass or customers looking for their first fiberglass fly rod.

Always "American Made", no hype, no fancy colors, no special name for the version of fiberglass Mark has always used.  Just DAMN great fly rods.

I have built on Steffen rod blanks from the time I started building rods.  Mark makes a wonderful, high end quality fiberglass blank at a value price that is almost unseen in the rod building industry.  I have in the past few years, ordered un-ferruled blanks from Mark for no other reasons than to receive the blanks faster and to add a bit of a custom touch."









Visit the Steffen Brothers Fly Rods website for more information.  Interested in a custom build on a Steffen Brothers glass blank?  Be sure to consider Graywolf Rods.

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