Hardy rods and reels used to be the thing for old-timers with feathered hats — if you had Hardy gear back in the 90’s, you were immediately pigeonholed… What you really wanted were American carbon rods; if you had English kit, either you’d inherited it from your dad, or you were some kind of guy stuck in another era, wearing a Barbour jacket and smoking a pipe while pretending to be something you weren’t.
Then came a turning point — the rods got modern, the reels got lighter, and the whole lineup stopped being reserved for those fishing chalk streams or salmon rivers, and became gear for serious, demanding anglers instead. Today, if you’ve got an Hardy in hand, first you turn a few heads, then you earn some respect, and by the end people are looking at you with a mix of envy and admiration!
And there you have it — 150 years and counting, and with the new generations coming through, it doesn’t look like it’s stopping anytime soon!
Watch this on a BIG screen!