Before Superfine Glass, There Was Golden Eagle Glass

The story goes that when Shawn Combs was in the hiring process at Orvis, sometime around 2010, he was asked during an interview what project or idea that he’d like to work on in new product design.  He mentioned that he’d like to bring a fiberglass fly rod series back to the Orvis lineup and that suggestion was met with less than positive reaction.  Nonetheless, Shawn was hired and while poking around the Orvis Rod Factory, came across several vintage light line weight Golden Eagle fiberglass fly rod blanks that he had built up.  Over the next few months he spent quite a bit of time with these fly rods and put them in the hands of a few others who, in time, came around to green lighting the idea of a new generation of Orvis Superfine Glass.  

Without Shawn Combs ending up at Orvis, and finding these Golden Eagle blanks, we might not ever have had several new lineups of Superfine Glass.  The old went a long way to usher in the new.