When Craig Lausmann and friends went looking for what they needed in the perfect salmon and steelhead-fishing rod for the Rogue River, they chose instead to make it themselves.

It needed a soft tip to reveal the most subtle of nibbles from feeding chinook, yet a strong enough spine to battle 50 pounds of angry salmon. Plus, it had to be cheaper than what industry icon G. Loomis Inc. charged for similar rods widely considered the best on the market.

Little did Lausmann know that what he wanted in a good steelhead rod three years ago would become the newest rage among America’s serious anglers.

The graphite Rogue Rods that Lausmann’s group makes in a small White City warehouse are considered so strong and sensitive that they are drawing mass conversions from once-loyal Loomis anglers living on both coasts and in huge chunks of real estate in between.

Rogue Rods — whose price tags of $129 to $229 are as much as $100 less than similar Loomis rods — are hot sellers now among Florida’s snook and tarpon anglers, New England surf-casters and the bass and walleye stalkers in the Midwest.

"Their rods are excellent and there are none stronger," says Dick French, a veteran Allentown, Pa., dealer in high-end rods and unfinished graphite rod blanks. "Guides all over the Midwest already have converted from Loomis because of the strength and quality.

"If they keep doing what they’re doing, they’ll be No. 1 in the U.S.," French says. "That’s no B.S."

But it is quite a turnaround for a company that teetered on the brink of failure its first two years.

When Lausmann took sole ownership of Rogue Rods less than a year ago, the company built on a $1 million investment had generated just $34,000 in sales during 2000.

Rogue Rods now beats that sales level every two weeks and is expecting to eclipse the $1 million mark this year, says General Manager Bill Adams.

Sales have grown by 20 percent each month this year, with the company now producing and shipping 1,000 rods monthly, Adams says. Ironically, Floridians and Pennsylvanians are buying more of the rods that were initially crafted with Oregonians in mind.

"Most people out here are oblivious to what you people do in Oregon," says Jack Montague, Rogue Rods’ Florida sales representative. "But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that we’re putting a high-end rod in people’s hands for about $100 less than what they’re used to paying."

But Montague is part of perhaps an even more important trick Rogue Rods has pulled off in the past year.

Montague is one of several longtime Loomis sales reps who have jumped ship and are now peddling Rogue Rods to sporting goods stores that once bought Loomis rods en masse.

"I was tight with these dealers for 20 years," says Montague, who was once Loomis’ top sales rep but fled when the company was sold to Japan- based Shimano in 1997. "So it’s very easy for me to go in with this new product and get accepted."

Adams also has hired Bob Loomis, who learned rod design from his famous uncle, Gary Loomis. Bob Loomis has helped design 140 different all-tackle rods and is working on a new line of fly rods due out this fall.

Now Rogue Rods are in 120 stores in 40 states, thanks largely to muscles once flexed for Loomis.

"That’s been part of the key to this whole thing — (dealers) buying Rogue Rods from reps who used to sell them Loomis," Adams, 57, says with a smile. "Bobby Loomis’ name alone has a huge impact. Everybody knows us now."

Anglers know a good rod when they feel one. It has balance, sensitivity and strength. But few know how a rod gets that way.

Rods start as long sheets of composite graphite that are placed on finely tooled machines that roll them into a tapered rod. These unfinished graphite sticks, called "blanks," are then fitted with handles, reel seats and line guides before the rod is coated in epoxy glue.

"Anybody can build a finished rod," says French, who is an expert in rod blanks. "But what you use as the stick is what really counts."

While Loomis owns a patent on its high-end graphite, Lausmann says his graphite is close to it. The difference, however, is that Rogue Rods’ machines have the capability of rolling graphite into a finer and more sensitive tip while keeping a strong butt section.

"I think their operation is fantastic," says French, who toured the facility in February. "They have more technology than anybody in the industry."

Bob Loomis has taken that technology and crafted a line of rods that match the needs of a variety of anglers that Lausmann never thought would be interested in his product.

The technology Rogue Rods uses to make a strong and light steelhead rod for the Rogue also makes an excellent Florida snook rod, and rods perfect for hauling in sturgeon and Pacific halibut also work great for tarpon and grouper in the Gulf of Mexico.

Outdoor Life field-tested Rogue Rods for a May feature and rated many of them higher than Loomis rods. Bassmasters magazine also has taken notice and visited the White City factory recently for a feature article later this summer, Adams says.

A company started under the premise that it can build a better mousetrap for Rogue anglers now has the angling world beating a path to its door.

Since April, the company is getting orders faster than it can build rods. With demand growing, Lausmann’s nerves are starting to ease.

"We’ve been at it a while, but that’s when I started feeling good about it," says Lausmann, 44. "Now I’ve been thinking, man, this is going to explode."

Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail mfreeman@mailtribune.com