Local tackle makers see market for women's rod

By GWEN ALBERS Western News Reporter

Libby fly fishing instructor Lisa Bardole and her fly rod-manufacturing husband, Jon, have come up with a rod they say is the first of its kind.

It's a fly fishing rod designed for women.

"It's nice and light, very elegant and powerful," Lisa Bardole said.

"These are the only rods on the market designed for women from the ground up," Jon Bardole added.

The owners of Bardole USA within six months hope to move their home-manufacturing fishing rod business to Kootenai Business Park in Libby, where they will make the pink, green, blue and purple camouflage graphite rods and color-coordinated accessories.

The Bardoles initially will need five to six workers. Jobs will pay $8 to $10 an hour.

"We need to expand our manufacturing," Lisa Bardole said. "We have so many orders and we can't keep up."

The Bardoles within three years hope to add a graphite plant and employ up to 20.

Paul Rumelhart, executive director with Kootenai River Development Council, is working with the Bardoles. KRDC is a non-profit agency in Libby that oversees economic development in Lincoln County including Kootenai Business Park, which is the former 411-acre Stimson mill site.

"We help package deals and find funding sources for businesses to meet their personal goals and expand," Rumelhart said.

Jon Bardole in 1983 founded Bardole USA in Salt Lake City. He makes fly rods, cases and fishing accessories.

When the Bardoles moved to Libby in 1992, the rod manufacturing business came with them. Their goods are made by hand in their home-operated business 12 miles south of Libby.

"We were manufacturing the stuff, but didn't know how to fly fish," Lisa Bardole said. "We thought we better learn."

Jon Bardole had done some fly fishing as a kid and gave his wife a lesson.

"She was a natural," he said.

Lisa Bardole since then has been teaching fly fishing. The owner of A Lady's Angle, she was the first licensed woman fly fishing guide on the Kootenai River. Lisa Bardole also is a fly fishing instructor at the Lincoln County Campus of Flathead Valley Community College in Libby and for the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks "Becoming An Outdoor Woman" program.

Lisa Bardole also wanted to come up with a fly rod for women.

"We've been designing and engineering fly rods for 18 years now and with the market trend . . ." Jon Bardole said.

The 3.5 million women who fly fish spend $1 billion annually on equipment. The number of women who fly fish grows by 200,000 annually.

It took the Bardoles five years to design and engineer their women's rods.

"We did something unheard of," Jon Bardole said. "It's light and stronger and that leads to more powerful and gentler action. This was her brainchild, and I designed it."

"It's the closet action you can get to bamboo from graphite," Lisa Bardole added. "The power and grace is built right in."

Bamboo makes the ultimate pole.

The Bardoles had several professional fly fishers try the new rods.

"They said they were the truest casting rods they had ever cast," Jon Bardole said.

The rods features a thinner cork grip for the smaller hand, gold guides with gold plated reel seat. The Bardoles plan to make matching cases, waders, boot bags and vests, and have fun with colors.

"We can do any color anybody wants. The sky's the limit," Lisa Bardole said. "Fish do not see in the color spectrum that humans do. These fly rods are more invisible to the fish than the dark black ones."

She believes the women's rods will sell.

"It's the older women (getting into fly fishing)," said Lisa Bardole. "Their kids are in college, they want to do something and they have the viable means to spend $700 on a rod."