WHY WIXID STIX FLY RODS?

I must admit that starting a new fly rod company is not something that I always dreamed about doing. In fact, I only started fly fishing about ten years ago. Fishing had always been a big part of my life, but the idea of fly fishing just seemed difficult and expensive to me. Then after my son introduced me to fly fishing, I had to admit that it wasn't as difficult as I had been imagining. But it was as expensive as I had thought. Sure, you could find less expensive fly rods in big box stores. But the quality of those rods was a big drop off from the top of the line fly rods. As a newbie I didn't really understand how bad the cheap rods were. I just knew that they were still more expensive than a decent spinning rod and I had used those for years chasing trout. As I fly fished more my technique got better and my feel for the rods improved. And as time went on some of my friends would let me try one of their expensive fly rods. Thats when I learned that there was indeed a big gap from the cheap rods that I had been purchasing. And the upper end fly rods that I saw the "experts" using on T.V. and YouTube. But I still couldn't bring myself to spend $500.00 or more for a "nice" fly rod. Sure I could afford it. But the thought of paying that much money and then breaking the rod the first time I went fishing was something that I just couldn't overcome. Even if it had a "free lifetime warrantee". So I kept upgrading to the nicer big box store brands. Even when fishing the famous rivers of Yellowstone National Park.

I knew the expensive rods were better than what I was using. But would they really help me catch more fish? Maybe they would help me make that perfect 70' cast in a lite wind. But almost all of the fishing that I was doing at the time revolved around a roll-cast, water tension cast or maybe a short 20' cast at times. Because at the time all that I was fishing for was trout. Then I decided to try the fly rod for chasing bass. My son took me to small impoundments, farm ponds and rivers chasing largemouths, smallmouths and shoal bass. My eyes were opened to a new type of fun. But it was a type of fun that required chunking a large streamer 70'. Or tossing a not so aerodynamic, topwater popper 50' in the wind. Now my cheap fly rods were showing their limits. So I finally broke down and bought a nicer rod. But I was never able to get past the fact that fly fishing was such a hard sport for young anglers to get into. How could we grow our sport if teenagers and young adults couldn't afford to get serious about it? So I decided that I was going to do something to change that. 

I spent several years researching the industry and how fly rods are made. I read every article that I could find. I listened to every podcast and interview that I could find with people in the industry. And I realized that a lot of the selling price for a fly rod, had nothing to do with the actual cost of building the rod. A large portion of the price that we were all paying was to cover marketing and other items that manufacturers chose to include for their brand. So I knew that if we could minimize those cost, then we could price our rods at a price point that would allow younger anglers from all backgrounds to try out our sport. And that is how and why Wixid Stix was formed and structured.

The only place that you can buy a Wixid Stix fly rod is online. We don't have a brick and mortar store to pay for. We don't have a distribution system that adds layers of mark-up at every step and to every rod. And we use low cost marketing means to save money on marketing. Is it the fastest way to grow a business? Not at all. But it's the best way to keep our rod prices low. So we are willing to play the long game and take the slow approach to growing a business while we grow our sport. We have no animosity for the big players in our industry. In fact we respect them and appreciate everything that they do for conservation and promoting the industry. We are simply trying to make it easier for some people to get started in fly fishing. And sincerely hope that they will fall in love with the sport and eventually graduate up to the top end fly rods. And then pass along their Wixid Stix rod to a younger kid just starting to enjoy the outdoors. Fly fishing has taught me so much in the past few years. And given me so many wonderful memories. And it's my hope that Wixid Stix can help give others the same things that fly fishing has provided to me.