Before Superfine Glass, There Was Golden Eagle Glass

The story goes that when Shawn Combs was in the hiring process at Orvis, sometime around 2010, he was asked during an interview what project or idea that he'd like to work on in new product design.  He mentioned that he'd like to bring a fiberglass fly rod series back to the Orvis lineup and that suggestion was met with less than positive reaction.  Nonetheless, Shawn was hired and while poking around the Orvis Rod Factory, came across several vintage light line weight Golden Eagle fiberglass fly rod blanks that he had built up.  Over the next few months he spent quite a bit of time with these fly rods and put them in the hands of a few others who, in time, came around to green lighting the idea of a new generation of Orvis Superfine Glass.  

Without Shawn Combs ending up at Orvis, and finding these Golden Eagle blanks, we might not ever have had several new lineups of Superfine Glass.  The old went a long way to usher in the new.  

An early indication that Shawn might be leaving Orvis came early last summer when a package arrived on my doorstop unannounced with several prototypes, including one of these Golden Eagle builds.  He brushed it off as just cleaning out his office, but I wondered differently.  Fast forward a few months and it was announced that he was headed to Scott Fly Rod Company.  He gets a lot of credit for what he accomplished at Orvis, and for good reason.  I'm glad that Superfine Glass is part of his legacy there.

You can find some fun and interesting T.F.M. posts in the archives by searching "Superfine Glass" and "Shawn Combs" which highlight these Golden Eagle builds and the prototyping process of the first and second generations of Superfine Glass.  It was a lot of fun to be part of the process and stoked to have this little 5-weight Golden Eagle build in my own collection as a piece of history.