Why Our Rods are Better

Design
   McFarland rods are constructed with an innovative process that utilizes a specialized fiber-oriented carbon scrim.  In general terms the "scrim" is what binds the linear graphite fibers of a rod together, giving it crush resistance or hoop strength.  The common material used by the leading rod manufacturers is a mesh of fiberglass.  Fiberglass is both heavier and less powerful than carbon.  More importantly, half of the fibers in the mesh are already running the same direction as the blank's graphite fibers and therefore are providing no strength, only additional weight.  Only the fibers running perpendicular to the blanks linear graphite fibers provide any benefit.  Some manufacturers are using a carbon material similar to fiberglass.  While this carbon material has a slight weight advantage over fiberglass, it is still a mesh style material and only utilizes half of the fibers in the scrim.  The revolutionary carbon scrim design incorporated in McFarland rods uses a varied fiber orientation .  In this process every single fiber of the scrim is perfectly oriented in relation to the graphite fibers in the blank.  This greatly enhances hoop strength and results in a lighter, more powerful rod.

What is the benefit of hoop strength?
   Have you ever been fishing or casting at longer distances, say maybe 60 feet or so, and tried to cast just a few more feet and the line just seems to die and loose all of its energy?  When under a heavy load such as distance casting, a rod has a natural tendency to loose its perfectly round shape and become oval.  To visualize this, imagine flexing a hose.  Your rod was casting fine because it had its original shape and inherent power.  When you tried for that few extra feet, you exceeded the rod's hoop strength and it basically collapsed and went oval.  With the increased hoop strength as a result of our specialized carbon scrim, McFarland rods are able to retain there perfectly round shape even under extreme loads.  What this means in terms of casting is that we can design a rod with a very soft, flexing action that loads well even on very short casts, but has power for longer casts or handling heavier lines and flies.  This is why we can take our 3 weight Vintage, which has a very soft action that loads to the grip with just a few feet of line out, spool it up with a 7 weight, and cast over 100 feet with it.

Taper Design
   As great as our fiber-oriented scrim is, it is the taper design that ultimately defines the characteristics of a fly rod.  Our taper designs have been developed over decades of searching for the perfect casting fly rod.  We have worked with closely with some of countries best fly casters and fly fishers to develop several series of rods that are the absolutely, without question,  the finest available for there intended purpose.  Without revealing too much technology, let us simply say that our philosophy on rod tapers differs greatly from that of other manufacturers.  Our unique taper designs not only results in a rod of unequaled power and smoothness, but also makes our rods more forgiving to casting errors.  McFarland fly rods provide a unique casting experience.

Craftsmanship
   McFarland rods are a work of art.  They are all hand made in our small rod shop in central Pennsylvania with an attention to every detail that has been lost in today's world of mass production.  Details like finely knurled nickel silver reel seats with hand selected burled wood inserts, perfectly shaped cork grips, arrow straight blanks, and a flawless finish.  Even small details like nickel silver winding checks and classic pattern English stripping guides instead of the more awkward imported frame guides used by most of our competitors.  Like the world's finest rod makers have done for centuries, we wrap all of our rods by hand with no powered machinery.  While this method is slower, it results in a much neater wrap and is a testament to the quality of our rods.  Compare our rods side by side with our competition and you will see the difference.