Jim Eldred knows sticks. He owns and operates Oregon-based Setyr rods, and is the man most responsible for Setyr's rod design. Sure, he gets input from pro-staffers like Dave Lefebre and Sean Hoernke, but when it comes time to execute the design principles, he's the one who makes it happen.
So who is this guy? To help introduce Eldred to BassFans, here's a brief Q&A with the Setyr graphite guru.
BassFan: Your slogan is "Setyr Rods: The American Way." What do you mean by that?
Eldred: Our rods are made in the U.S. Outside of the components – the grips and guides are made in Taiwan, and the cork is made in Portugal – everything's made here. And we do go through a U.S. company for the components.
We roll our own blanks here, so we control our own destiny. We're not at the mercy of anybody else. Some overseas rod companies, at the end of the day, have to pick up all their mandrels and bring them back the next day so no one copies them. There's no loyalty overseas. But with us, it's all done in-house – the blanks, wraps, epoxy, glue-up. And we even spline our rods in-house.
Splining is something most companies don't do, right?
Right, and that's because of time. But I think there's two steps in that. One is the ideology that I carry – that we build a tool, whereas a lot of the other companies build merchandise.
When you're building for the mass market, time is of the essence. But we build a professional rod. We're not targeting 100% of the fishing market. We're targeting probably 25% to maybe 30% of the market. We'd like it to be bigger, but that's just the nature of it. So we truly try to build a fishing tool – a professional fishing rod that we then make available for the general public.
Back to splining. Can you explain that for BassFans who've never heard about it?
We hold the tip of each rod, then we'll hold a finger about 2 feet down the rod – sometimes a foot – and the rod will naturally want to stand on its spline. That's just the natural parabolic curve that applies its own pressure.
We then put the guides along the natural spline. Casting guides go with the spline, and spinning rods go away from the spline. That takes out rod twist during the fight, and can help keep your rod from breaking. (He means that casting guides sit atop the spline, because the reel is on top and the rod bends down. Spinning guides sit below the spline, because the reel is below the spline and again, the rod bends down.–Ed/).
You started Setyr in 2005, after the company you previously worked for went out of business. Why start another rod company in an already crowded market?
I was encouraged by other people in the industry to do this. So the noise we heard was important, and the things we wanted to do were important. We wanted to carry on the tradition of graphite-rod building – hand-building – right here in the U.S., and stay on the cutting edge.
> A selection of Setyr rods are available at the BassFan store. To view the selection, click here. For more information about Setyr, or to order a catalog, call: (541) 956-2086.
