Inside The Orvis Rod Shop

Photo: Mike Mozart/Flickr

It’s not every day that fly fishing shows up in Yahoo News, but it did on July 31. Kurt Spurlock wrote a great behind-the-scenes article for Yahoo highlighting the Orvis fly rod shop in Manchester, Vermont.

Manchester is a tiny town with only two stoplights, but it’s also home to some of the most cutting-edge technology in all of fly fishing. As Spurlock writes, “Mass production, efficiency, and economy are rarely words we associate with quality or craftsmanship. A walk through Orvis’ fine-tuned production line, however, may change your tune on that subject.”

I haven’t made it to Manchester myself, but I have toured other factories from some of the world’s top rodmakers, and my recollections were fairly similar. These shops are a unique blend of mass production and quality control that most anglers, I think, either don’t consider, or disregard entirely. There’s more of a human element in every rod than you’d likely expect.

To see what I mean, you should read through the rest of Spurlock’s story, which you can find here.