Article from the Idaho Statesman, Oct 24, 2008

Meridian-based fly rod maker aims high

Slate Creek hopes its mostly online business will become 'a factor in the industry' by building high-quality standard and custom models.

By Roger Phillips - rphillips@idahostatesman.com

Edition Date: 10/24/08

Slate Creek isn't known for its trout fishing, but it still spawned a fly rod company.

It's where Meridian High School and Boise State University graduate Todd Ferguson learned to catch trout with a fly rod, and now Ferguson, who lives in Kirkland, Wash., has started a fly rod company and named it after his home waters.

Ferguson started the company to build a better fly rod, or to be exact, the best fly rod ever made.

"It's still a moving target, and we haven't built it yet," he admits, but he hopes to achieve that high water mark some day.

Ferguson has seven family members involved, including his father, David Ferguson, of Eagle.

The company reflects their fly fishing roots on the creek near his family's ranch near Whitebird, and like the ranch and fly fishing, it's a family affair.

The other family members are spread throughout the Northwest and combined have a century of fly fishing experience.

The company is new and mostly Internet based (www.slatecreekflyrod.com), so it's not a common name in the fly fishing industry, or even in Meridian where the company is based.

Ferguson hopes to change that soon.

"We're a small player today, but we're going to be a factor in the industry," he said.

Ferguson hopes to get some fly rods into shops in early 2009, but his business plan differs from other fly rod companies.

Rather than having warehouses full of rods and others sitting in racks in shops, he plans to put demo rods into select fly shops and then have people order one.

The rod would then be shipped within a couple weeks, or sooner when production gets into full swing.

Ferguson said the advantage to his business plan is shops won't have to buy and store a big inventory of rods, and customers will get a rod fresh from the factory.

"We want people to demo them and buy them," he said. "We don't want them sitting in bulk on a shelf."

Ferguson interviewed more than 50 rod builders before selecting the two companies that build Slate Creek rods.

The company has two manufacturing plants, one in Spokane and the other in Chico, Calif.

One shop specializes in the "classic" rods, which are standard models, and the other shop builds rods to the buyers' specifications.

All Slate Creek rods are built with Sage blanks, and Ferguson said each blank is inspected for any defects or flaws.

Ferguson said the company looked at numerous options for rod blanks, but chose Sage.

"My conclusion was Sage was the best bulk manufacturer in the world," he said.

Like Sage, Slate Creek also offers a lifetime guarantee on its rods.

Slate Creek's rods are built in three different actions in sizes ranging from 000 to 10 weight.

So why buy one of his rods rather than straight from Sage?

Ferguson claims Slate Creek rods are a better value because the smaller company has tighter quality control, uses better components, and its rods are more "fishable."

But Ferguson said he doesn't want to compete with Sage.

"We're partners, not a competitor," he said.

Will anglers choose Slate Creek over Sage, which is one of the most respected names in fly fishing?

Ferguson plans to get the rods in as many people's hands as possible to find out, especially "people who live on these things," like guides, lodge operators and others.

He hopes word of mouth will propel the company, and it will grow "organically" without incurring big overhead costs from maintaining warehouses and big inventory.

And if he succeeds, the small Internet-based company could become more of a presence in the Treasure Valley. Ferguson hopes to eventually move the entire operation to Meridian, possibly as early as next year.