Our Story
Back in 1981, an outdoorsy bloke from Manawatu, New Zealand, Marty Johanson, and his wife Sue, founded Composite Developments. Marty and Sue had traveled the world and stumbled across a legendary aeronautics engineer who introduced Marty to the secrets of carbon fiber (he had just helped develop a little aircraft out of it, the SR-71 Blackbird).
Armed with newfound knowledge, the Johansons returned to New Zealand and set up a factory that supplied some of the first carbon fiber fishing rods to the world. It started off as just blanks and then progressed into the legendary CD rods which are still sold around the globe today. Along this journey of making and innovating fishing gear, they also made a couple of boys. Following an international engineering career, their youngest, Tom, bought into the business. Like his father, Tom Johanson had an itch to take fishing rod design to the next level. A keen “fisho” and adventurer himself, Tom worked closely with Marty, family, and friends (even a rocket scientist thrown into the mix) to develop the ALLROD case and rod systems. This development stemmed from the simple frustration of the time it took to access and travel with his fishing gear. In 2017, a new venture, called “TRYCD” was born, and the 3-year journey of testing and developing the ALLROD systems began. This truly unique group of products has had thousands of hours of testing around the globe.
Like it did in the 1980s, in 2019, fate intervened again, when a meeting between Tom Johanson and a Montana fishing guide/adventure angler occurred on a boat destined for California’s Catalina Island. Though the two missed the yellowtail bite that morning, a partnership was formed, and a distribution plan for the ALLROD products was executed. Despite the global challenges over the next few years, the versatility and performance of ALLROD persevered. As the brand gained steam, the decision was made to move the company to the United States, Missoula, Montana, to be exact, and rebrand as “ALLROD”.
ALLROD remains a tightly knit partnership between an American distribution and marketing firm and a New Zealand design and engineering team. Together, we will continue to push the envelope on multi-platform rod design. If you travel to fish, whether across the hemisphere or the gravel road, ALLROD is the go-anywhere fish- anything fishing brand that exists solely to help you access the adventure.
