I'll have to say it definitely is a chevy/ford scenerio. I'll say that the loomis' are nice, I have a couple. But I've caught a helluva lot more on cheaper rods. In fact I have an old Kunnan that has awesome feel for being a "cheap" rod. I feel it's more the fishermen then the rod. I'll admit that loomis' will add to the feel, but if you're a good fishermen you don't need it. My most successful rod is my old 85c fenwick with an old ambassadeur on it. I'm talking OLD feralite with carbide eyes. It's the old driftrod (smaller diameter blank with smaller casting eyes). It's knowing WHAT to feel as opposed to having it crammed down your throat (which doesn't hurt in todays society).

Hey Sparkey, I'm not sure on Loomis' warranties, but I know they have a conditional warranty. What sells a rod is the warranty they supply. Almost all the major rod manufacturers (especially the fly rod makers) have an unconditional to conditional warranty. They'll sell alot more product because of it. The amount of rods sold versus the amount they exchange makes it worthwhile. Plus, there's no way that it costs as much as they say to build a rod. I remember 15-20 years ago you could easily go down to shoffs and buy a quality blank (fenwick, lami's, and some misc.) and buy components and build a rod for about 50% of price of new. Now, I assume there's a pricefix with blank companies to make it non cost efficient to build your own (unless you want a custom rod). I deliver to the guy who set up the original graphite formulas for lami and the machines to manufacture and it sounded like the costs weren't as much as being passed on to us (it also sounded like it was a pain in the initial setup to get the blanks to turn out correctly). To get back to what I was saying, you sell yourself because of this warranty. I've snapped two lamis. Both on fish. Cost me shipping back and no extra. Had a friend snap his Loomis same way and cost him $50. It pissed him off royally. He wasn't even overloading rod (I guess it was a defect in the rod). He had to pay for a loomis defect. For the money you're spending you should get better service. I understand the no questions asked policy, just pay the money. I bet you're paying the replacement price for the section (what it actually costs). Before anyone jumps in about costs, I used to have my friends bring back fuji components when they were stationed in Japan. I could have them sent to me for fraction of price here, including paying tariff in customs (it sure sucked when they got out of the military). I'm sure lami, loomis, or any of the other companies who buy in bulk like they do get them for little to nothing. I like my loomis, but for service I like my lami's. Plus, I've had no problems with them. There are a couple loomis' I'd like to get, but cost is what slows me down. Being a single parent with two kids and getting no child support from the ex puts a strain on the old checkbook.

You know, if you've looked at the new shimanos, they sure look alot like loomis don't they? Hmmmmmm, shimano bought loomis, and now they're rods are looking like them. And they're cheaper too...Hmmmm. I'm tempted to take a look and feel of the new shimano's and see if they're the same. Kind of like the days when you could buy a Cortland fly rod cheaper then a lami fly rod. Yet, they were made in same factory from same blank just different labels put on them (I learned this years ago from same guy who set up their production, he still has some of those old cortlands). May be an outlet.

Well, to put this long winded response short, go with what you put faith in. In the end, you're the one who catches the fish, and you're the one who controls it in. If you don't have faith in the rod, chances are the rod won't catch fish.
Jerry

Ps, I assume the guy who posted that the loomis was a broomhandle, I assume it's the rod he must have bought. Of course there are many models with many actions. You pickup a big king rod opposed to a summerrun steelie rod, you'll have a big difference.

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