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The Fascinating Story of Lamiglas: The Washington Rod Maker Built On Fiberglass Before Graphite

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Lamiglas is one of the longest-running fishing rod companies in the world, and its story runs straight through the biggest shift the sport ever saw: the move from fiberglass to graphite.

This video traces how a small blank shop in Kent, Washington, founded around 1949, built its reputation on one product — an 11-foot fiberglass surf blank — and turned that foundation into an advantage nobody saw coming. We cover the postwar birth of fiberglass rods, the arrival of Dick Posey in 1965 and his rise to owner by 1977, and the technique-specific glass blanks like the legendary GSB that made the brand famous with surfcasters and salmon and steelhead anglers.

Then came graphite. When Fenwick released the first commercial graphite rod in 1973, it was lighter but brittle, snapping under real fish. We follow machinist Gary Loomis, who joined Lamiglas that same year, studied the material at the Seattle library, and tracked down Boeing composite engineer Harry Mathison at the factory gate. Together they helped Lamiglas build some of the first reliable graphite rods — a breakthrough boosted when Ted Williams praised a Lamiglas graphite rod in Chicago in 1974.

From Gary Loomis leaving to found G. Loomis in 1981, to Woodland becoming the "Silicon Valley of fishing rods," to Dick Posey's fifty-year run and the company's life today, this is the full story of how a fiberglass company outbuilt the giants at the graphite game.

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Steelheads

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