About   

I've always loved the escape part of fishing, my Dad and I would go fishing often and in high school my friends and I were always known to be guilty as charged, "Gone Fishing". My passion for the wilderness has led my fly fishing high into the mountains, I've been a trip guide for the Sierra Club for many years, which has taken me all over the Sierra Nevada range in California as well as the high plateau of Montana and northern boundaries of Yellowstone National Park. When I can't get away from my work I often day-trip to a few local rivers, the Yuba near Smartsville and the Middle Fork of the Stanislaus River east of Sonora. My quest to make fly rods came from a disappointment in graphite rods.  Every year graphite rods just seemed to become more fast in action and basically have no distinct character, besides the fact they're really not that exciting to look at from an aesthetic point of view. I first started out by restoring old cane rods found on eBay for super cheap price, and would fish them. I immediately liked them and there zen feel compared to my graphite rods. Soon I acquired all the tools to make my first rods from a fellow who was going to stop making cane rods. Since then the craft of making split cane rods have dove-tailed with my love of craft and making Art. The deeper I played with these cane rods, I soon found a dazzling conundrum of beta on the subject of how rods were designed. After reading Charles Ritzs' book "A Fly Fishers Life" I found many parallels to my progression in discovering cane rods, and soon I began to make from scratch my first hand planed rods. Many had problems, luckily down the street a very well known rod builder had his work shop, he was very kind to give me spot advice on issues I was experiencing and how to fix them on the next rod. After Mario moved his shop to France I had no one to bug. I then formally studied with a master rod builder in Northern California, and I was then launched. Over the past years Chris has been a really great teacher and friend, freely sharing his cumulative knowledge of being a rod maker and giving me full access to him and his advice whenever I've asked.  I now make rods as a professional rod maker with tapers I call my own and I do make custom rods straight from historical archives for clients. If you wish to have a rod made that you don't see for sale, give me a call maybe we can make a rod that would work for you.