Who else is already thinking about winter steelhead?? We sure are! #BeTheLegend #EdgeRods #GaryLoomis #MadeintheUSA #BlackWidowRod #steelhead #wintersteelhead

Brandon Romick putting the brakes on this Mahi Mahi with a 12wt in Baja! #edgerods #northforkcomposites #bethelegend

Natalie with a nice smallmouth on Lake Roosevelt in Washington State! #BeTheLegend #EdgeRods #GaryLoomis #MadeintheUSA #BlackWidowRod #smallmouthbass

As I write this message – it is Memorial Day. It also happens that I am 80 years old today. I am privileged to have made it this far, many of my friends have not. I cherish their memories and miss them dearly. I look back at my 45 years of rod building and realize that I would not have been able to accomplish anything without great mentors like Milton Shedd and Chuck Yeager – there have been many. Today millions of products bearing my name are sold all over the world. Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness – these are the unalienable rights that make me a proud American, those that my countrymen have fought hard to protect and defend are the same reasons why I love our industry. Within it, and reflecting on them, I feel alive, free, and happy. A little over 30 years ago, I sold G.Loomis because I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer and given 18 months to live. Some time after a decision was made to stop selling blanks to rod builders and OEMs. As a rod builder, I was upset, by that time we had manufactured blanks for 32 major rod companies, and tens of thousands of rod builders, but I was told that the founder of a company is someone who “started the company, built the company, sold the company, and had no say in how the company was run.” In 2010 with the encouragement of my friends, I started North Fork Composites (Edge Rods was started a little later) the market had changed, but what didn’t change was that we were going to manufacture blanks and rods in America, and they were going to be the finest that we could make. I am a designer, but you also need to know materials and a little bit of engineering, and I am again thankful that while in the US Navy I was a machinist – that job prepared me for a lifetime of adventure. Caption continued in the comments...

@zfishjohnson making the fish of ten thousand casts look easy! Have you had the chance to cross paths with one of these elusive fish? Let us know in the comments. #BeTheLegend #EdgeRods #GaryLoomis #MadeintheUSA #BlackWidowRod #musky #tigermuskie