Podcast: Gary Loomis

A machinist by trade, Gary Loomis is best known today as the founder of fly rod manufacturer G.Loomis. As a steelhead junkie in the 1960s, he recognized the need for better fly rods and began experimenting with modifications first to fiberglass and then to graphite. From there he went to work for Cascade Rods and then Lamiglas before finally founding his own fly rod company in 1981. Zach Matthews recently conducted a lengthy interview with Loomis and got him to talk about everything from the birth of graphite fly rods to Ted Williams.”
Excerpt: “So I went to the Boeing company and waited outside Gate C. The last guy out was one of the only four composite graphite engineers in the world…and I found him! I took him to dinner, took him to lunch, and I finally convinced him that he had to help me design ‘graphite’ rods.”