The history of Gary Loomis, the man, and G Loomis, the company he built and later sold to Shimano, are interesting. I have spent several hours on the internet reading articles to update my knowledge pertaining to G Loomis rods. I am not associated with Gary or the G. Loomis company in any way.

I will share a few tidbits for anyone interested: The G Loomis Company is located in Woodland, Washington, a small town north of Portland. All of the G Loomis rods are made from start to finish in this location. Gary sold the business to Shimano, including the name and logo, after he discovered he had cancer of the prostate and was told he had only six months to live. I believe that was in the 1980s. He is still alive and is 70 years old. He worked on the staff of G Loomis, for Shimano, for about ten years after he sold the business, but decided it was time to leave. I believe he was not happy with some of the changes they were making.

He later started a new company that makes rod blanks. The name of his company is North Fork Composites, which is also located in Washington. His blanks are sold to various rod makers. For example, Kistler uses his blanks to make its ZBone line of rods. In recent years, he formed a partnership with Batson Enterprises, a company that also makes blanks and rods and distributes blanks to a wide number of rod makers.

Lastly, Gary has started making complete rods again. They are made through Edge, a sub-division of North Fork Composites. These rods are built, designed, and custom specified by Gary.

There is a ton of information about the history of the G Loomis company that Gary started and that still builds quality rods today using the G Loomis name, and a ton of information related to Gary Loomis, the man, and the rods he is now personally building through Edge.

I hope I haven't stated anything incorrectly, but make no promise that I have not. I write this only as of interest to my fellow bass fishers. A couple of the websites where I gathered some of this information are:

http://www.tackletour.com/reviewedgefishing.html

http://tackletour.com/reviewgloomisfactory.html

If interested, for more information, gooble Gary Loomis, the history of Gary Loomis, etc. His hunting trip to Africa and how he was cured of cancer are an amazing story on its own.

Kistlers KLX, Helium and z-bone line all use North Fork blanks made by Gary. Other than that everything seems accurate. Good write up for sure! didnt know about Gary having cancer in the 80s.

Thanks for the reply Jake. I was only using the Kistler ZBone as one example, i.e. didn't intend to provide an all inclusive list of Kistler's rods built with his blanks. But I appreciate your listing the other rods they also make on his blank. Although his is apparently one of the finest blanks made, lotta fishers wanted a rod completely made by Gary, where he not only made the blank but specified the components and made the finished product. He did this through his other company, Edge. He can no longer use his name on his rods since Shimano bought the rights to it, so he came up with the name Edge for his completed rods. Have no idea how he came up with the name Edge. They are sold by Tackle Warehouse and I don't know who else. Pretty pricey at $400 and $550, but obviously built for quality using his new Generation2 graphite which is even lighter and more sensitive. I've never owned one of his rods, but am sure those that do enjoy having the finest.

I thought the new Temple Fork Outfitter rods were all Designed by Gary as well?

I've been to Woodland, WA. Talk about a rod building town. Lamiglas, NFC and GLoomis factories are all in Woodland.

dankeeks, yes, I read an article about Gary and the Temple Fork Outfitters. He did help them design their rods. At their price point, there is no way they can be as high quality as the rods he is making with his blank company and Edge, but they may be about as good in terms of performance and quality as can be bought at the price they sell.

T54, there is a video on line where Gary is explaining how he builds blanks and the science and technology behind it. The video is in his plant, North Fork Composites. It is very interesting and provides a lot of insight on rod building to uninformed people like me.

TFO'S ARE GARY LOOMIS BLANKS

He helped with the actions, but they aren't NFC blanks.

hoghead and T54, thanks for the reply. My guess is that T54 is correct about the blanks, but I don't know.

Pretty sure the last TFO rods I looked at were made in China. Gary Loomis has no affiliation with any Chinese blank manufacturer. His name was largely used for marketing purposes with TFO.

T54, I'm guessing he helped Temple Fork choose the rod specs that they used to contract with one of the better and most consistent rod makers oversees. But this is just speculation on my part. I need to go back and read exactly what Temple Fork says about Gary's involvement concerning their rods.