NFC discovered Epic fly rods as a result of Executive Director Bob Mallard’s fly fishing writing. Their modern best-in-class S2 fiberglass rods immediately became a favorite of NFCers. Since then Epic has sponsored a native fish conservation guest column in MidCurrent featuring the writing of NFC Executive Director Bob Mallard. This relationship has also provided NFC with access to Epic fly rods to use for special memberships to raise money for wild native fish conservation initiatives.

Taking out a lifetime membership with fly rod helps NFC raise money while giving you a state of the art fly rod. Lifetime memberships with an Epic Fly Rod come with a modern best-in-class S2 fiberglass fly rod. In this case it is a limited edition “Blackout Series.” The rods come with a cloth sock, fiberglass tube with metal cap, logoed cleaning cloth, and alingnment dots. Your membership also comes with your choice of one of two Lifetime Member hats, NFC Lifetime Member decal, and digital newsletter. We have one of each of the two advertised rods in stock so they will ship immediately until they are gone.

The 370 FastGlass is the perfect tool for small streams. It is an NFC favorite owned by several board members. The 7-foot, 3-weight, 4-piece configuration is perfect for most streams and small rivers. The 370 FastGlass excels at distances of up to 30 feet or more and with all sorts of flies including small streamers, foam bugs, and most dries. And in the right hands, you can push it even further… The 370 comes with an uplocking black reel seat, cork spacer, and small wells grip.

The 580 FastGlass is the perfect tool for larger trout, redeye bass, and other warmwater species. The 8-foot, 5-weight, 4-piece configuration is perfect for large streams and medium sized rivers. The 580 FastGlass excels at distances of up to 50 feet and with all sorts of flies including moderate size streamers, light nymph rigs, foam bugs, and small poppers. And in the right hands, you can push it even further… It is also a great rod for delicate dry fly presentations and protecting light tippets. The 580 comes with an uplocking black reel seat with red accent ring, black logoed spacer, and small wells grip.. According to the Epic website, the Blackout option for the 580 FastGlass is no longer available for purchase. And as far as we know, there are no plans to bring it back as it was intentionally marketed as a limited edition.

An $800 value after international shipping and tariffs when they were still available, NFC is offering the only Blackout series Epic FastGlass rods we have as part of a limited edition lifetime membership for $1,250 to help raise money for wild native fish conservation initiatives. In many cases, the amount above the actual value is tax deductible.

NFC uses memberships as a way for you to show your support for what we do while helping to fund wild native fish conservation initiatives. If you want to be involved in day-to-day operations or decision making, please contact us about a possible Board or Advisory Council position in your respective state. Thank you for the support.

Special thanks to Epic for working with us to make this happen. Please support them as they have supported wild native fish and NFC.