082713

I had the chance to attend an "enhanced" version of the Orvis rod shop tour today here in Vermont and what an "eye opening" experience it was. They have a huge factory with 80 some odd employees working on rods at every stage from cutting graphite to packaging. If you don't think that there is much to building a rod, you should go on a rod factory tour at some stage. Lots of equipment and lots of humans makes one realize that it must be pretty hard to crank out some good ol' USA manufacturing for a $200. We witnessed the whole production from cutting the flags, rolling them on the mandrels, painting, wrapping finishing, and the various quality control steps along the way. Many of the people we met have been working there for 20+ years, some over 40 years. The pride they take in their jobs was truly inspiring. Also got to take a look at one particularly very cool prototype of a local's dream when it comes to everything we want in a fly rod.