Steffen Brothers Rods

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Steffen Brothers Rods

This marketing description was taken from the Steffen Brothers Fly Rods website courtesy of Mark Steffen. Contact information, phone 928-522-0617, or email steffenflyrod@gmail.com


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"The vast majority of fly rod companies are producing graphite rods only. Since 1996 Steffen Brothers has offered a continuously expanding selection of rods made with a new generation of 12 million modules S-glass. This provides you with a strong, light, and durable fly rod option. For a nice medium-slow action in a shorter rod with a light line, try our S-Glass fly rods. Glass rods are great for close fishing, roll casting, and tippet protection."

Rod Specifications

  • Unsanded, unpainted, chestnut brown S-glass blanks
  • Spigot ferrule are made from brown S-glass
  • Hard chrome plated double foot snake guides
  • Ceramic stripping guides
  • Reversed half wells grips 5 weight and under
  • Full wells grips 6 weight and up
  • Rosewood spacer black anodized aluminum reelseat
  • Nickel silver Struble reel seat upgrades are available
  • All rods have a white ink handwritten label with line weight, length, material, and serial number


Rod Pricing

No. of PiecesComplete RodRod Blank
2 Piece$330$135
3 Piece$370$170
4 Piece$425$200

Steffen Brothers Fly Rod Models

Rod LengthLine Weight2 Piece3 Piece4 Piece
5'6"1 - 2X  
6'1 - 2X  
6'2 - 3XX 
6'6"2 - 3XX 
7'2 - 3XX 
7'3"2 - 3XX 
7'6"2 - 3XXX
7'3 - 4XX 
7'6"3 - 4XXX
7'9"3 - 4XXX
8'3 - 4XXX
8'4 - 5XXX
7'5XX 
8'5 - 6XXX
8'3"5 - 6XXX
8'6"5 - 6XXX
8'6"6 - 7XXX
8'6"7 - 8XXX
8'8 - 9XXX
8'6"8 - 9XXX
8'10 - 11XXX
8'6"10 - 11XXX
(*) The rods are designed for two line weights, depending on the owner's preference


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Three piece Steffen with reversed half wells grip and upgraded reelseat
Photo courtesy of Mark Steffen

Mark Steffen started out fly fishing with a fiberglass, Eagle Claw rod. He fished the guides off it and wrapped on a new set. Then he built a few rods from factory blanks. However, in his search for the perfect blank Mark took the road less traveled and decided to manufacture his own! Mark Steffen has designed and built his own blanks since 1980. He initially designed all of his rods in graphite, but in 1993 he started working with fiberglass. Slowly the shop output has shifted to mostly fiberglass as Mark's reputation and skills have grown.

Mark rolls his rod blanks from unidirectional S-glass. Unidirectional glass has the majority of fibers running along the axis of the rod blank. The elastic modulus of S-glass is about 20% higher than E-glass, resulting in a lighter rod blank. The pre-preg material Mark uses is very thin which allows considerable customization while rolling a blank. All rods have spigot ferrules made from the same S-glass material on the same mandrels. While graphite rods are still listed on the website, Mark feels his glass offerings are better overall.


For much of the last decade, Mark was the Federation of Fly Fishers' volunteer representative to the Glen Canyon Dam Technical Working Group. This duty took up a significant portion of his time. Fortunately for us glass fanatics, Mark's Working Group commitment ended about a year ago. Since then Mark is back to full time rod making - and loving it. He recently stocked up on S-glass and purchased some new mandrels. In addition, he has developed new tapers on those mandrels and modified others. Mark now offers full series of line weights up to 10/11 and lengths to 9 feet. Mark offers the fiberglass rods listed in the table above. Note: some models are not yet listed on the Steffen Brothers website. In addition, Mark can make many of these rods to in-between lengths (such as 6'9", 7'3", 7'9", 8'3"). Simply call and ask what is possible.

A typical Steffen Brothers fly rod is slightly quicker than medium action and very pleasant to cast. These rods are exceptionally well regarded by their owners. A "Steffen" search on the Fiberglass Flyrodders discussion forum retrieves over 1000 posts. One recent poll asked members to vote for their favorite Steffen fly rod. At the time, the winner was his 8 foot, 3/4 weight, closely followed by the 8'6", 5/6 weight. However, with the new mandrel tapers and rod designs, Mark is very happy with his recently made 8 foot, 4/5 weight rods and the 8'6" 6/7 and 7/8 weights. Steffen Brothers Fly Rods is a major reason it is an exciting time to be a fiberglass fanatic.

Trivia

  1. When Dennis Franke of Glastech fly rods was building glass he contracted Mark to roll the blanks for him.
  2. Why is the company named Steffen Brothers when we only hear about Mark? Brother Tim, is Mark's quiet partner. Tim helps when he's not working his day job as a firefighter/paramedic.