Friends
It astonishes me when I reflect on it, but I’ve been building fly rods for half a century: first as a university student who built from blanks because I couldn’t afford to buy a finished rod. Next, when I joined Harry Wilson as a stock holder and acolyte at the newly formed Scott PowR-ply Company in 1974, a relationship that was to last for 22 years. And finally, as a small-production fiberglass rod maker under my own name.
I started that last venture - L Kenney Fly Rods - in the early 2000s but didn’t get it really rolling until 2007. My goal, one shared at that time by just a handful of other glass builders, was to resurrect fiberglass, which had largely been forgotten as graphite rods came on the market, as an exceptional fly rod building material. I wanted to produce fiberglass fly rods whose performance was as good or better than comparable rods of any material, and were built to the same level of craftsmanship that contemporary split cane artisans were bringing to bamboo.
Since every material has its limitations, I chose to build glass fly rods only in the light and medium line weights and modest lengths for which the material was ideally suited. They would be would be 3 -pc. or 5-pc for ease of transport and balanced action, have semi-hollow spigot ferrules for smoothness of action, utilize the best components, and be relatively conservative in appearance. Production would be limited to 35 rods a year so I had time to fish and write.
Just as I was lucky to have worked with Harry Wilson and later Jim Bartschi at what is now the Scott Fly Rod Company, I was equally lucky to become a part of a cadre of hardcore angler/casters at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club. Few angling communities have as rich a tradition, as talented a membership, or as broad a collection of fine fly rods against which to test and compare new designs.
What I called my fiberglass rod “project” was surprisingly successful, and hundreds of L Kenney fly rods are in play on waters all over the world. I was often backordered as much as eighteen months but knowledgeable anglers seemed willing to wait for a rod. Delays like that frustrated me but I could see no way to maintain, much less expand production, and still have time for other things.
At 78 years of age, and with fifty years in rod building behind me, it’s time to once make some changes. Enter my friends Tomonori Higashi and Katsumi Harada: the former a widely-traveled angler/writer and casting instructor based in Yokohama, and the latter a talented and innovative artisan of both bamboo and fiberglass fly rods based in Osaka. Both are well grounded in the history and traditions of fine fly rods and their construction, and are excellent casters and evaluators of fly rod action. The result of that connection is a rewarding personal and professional relationship with two angler/craftsmen who can take on and expand the L Kenney fiberglass fly rod project. After March of 2025 L Kenney rods will be built in Japan by Katsumi Harada, while Bill Higashi handles marketing and sales. I’ll stay on as an active consultant, working with them on rod design.
We’ve been fine-tuning this transition for months, have already come up with two new, semi-parabolic models that handle a bit differently than my progressive action designs, and are working on two more models. Finally, our new company website will launch in early April at L Kenney Fly Rods.
So.....change and continuity. I couldn’t be more pleased.
Larry Kenney
San Rafael, California
Congratulations on this new chapter of L Kenney Fly Rods. I'm looking forward to following along.
It astonishes me when I reflect on it, but I’ve been building fly rods for half a century: first as a university student who built from blanks because I couldn’t afford to buy a finished rod. Next, when I joined Harry Wilson as a stock holder and acolyte at the newly formed Scott PowR-ply Company in 1974, a relationship that was to last for 22 years. And finally, as a small-production fiberglass rod maker under my own name.
I started that last venture - L Kenney Fly Rods - in the early 2000s but didn’t get it really rolling until 2007. My goal, one shared at that time by just a handful of other glass builders, was to resurrect fiberglass, which had largely been forgotten as graphite rods came on the market, as an exceptional fly rod building material. I wanted to produce fiberglass fly rods whose performance was as good or better than comparable rods of any material, and were built to the same level of craftsmanship that contemporary split cane artisans were bringing to bamboo.
Since every material has its limitations, I chose to build glass fly rods only in the light and medium line weights and modest lengths for which the material was ideally suited. They would be would be 3 -pc. or 5-pc for ease of transport and balanced action, have semi-hollow spigot ferrules for smoothness of action, utilize the best components, and be relatively conservative in appearance. Production would be limited to 35 rods a year so I had time to fish and write.
Just as I was lucky to have worked with Harry Wilson and later Jim Bartschi at what is now the Scott Fly Rod Company, I was equally lucky to become a part of a cadre of hardcore angler/casters at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club. Few angling communities have as rich a tradition, as talented a membership, or as broad a collection of fine fly rods against which to test and compare new designs.
What I called my fiberglass rod “project” was surprisingly successful, and hundreds of L Kenney fly rods are in play on waters all over the world. I was often backordered as much as eighteen months but knowledgeable anglers seemed willing to wait for a rod. Delays like that frustrated me but I could see no way to maintain, much less expand production, and still have time for other things.
At 78 years of age, and with fifty years in rod building behind me, it’s time to once make some changes. Enter my friends Tomonori Higashi and Katsumi Harada: the former a widely-traveled angler/writer and casting instructor based in Yokohama, and the latter a talented and innovative artisan of both bamboo and fiberglass fly rods based in Osaka. Both are well grounded in the history and traditions of fine fly rods and their construction, and are excellent casters and evaluators of fly rod action. The result of that connection is a rewarding personal and professional relationship with two angler/craftsmen who can take on and expand the L Kenney fiberglass fly rod project. After March of 2025 L Kenney rods will be built in Japan by Katsumi Harada, while Bill Higashi handles marketing and sales. I’ll stay on as an active consultant, working with them on rod design.
We’ve been fine-tuning this transition for months, have already come up with two new, semi-parabolic models that handle a bit differently than my progressive action designs, and are working on two more models. Finally, our new company website will launch in early April at L Kenney Fly Rods.
So.....change and continuity. I couldn’t be more pleased.
Larry Kenney
San Rafael, California
Congratulations on this new chapter of L Kenney Fly Rods. I'm looking forward to following along.
