Inspiration

Inspiration for my rods comes from many different areas. Some are directly related to fly fishing like a specific fish or geographic area and others seem to be a distant relative. I was talking with a friend about this earlier this past week. He mentioned a boutique bicycle tire company that reminded him of the boutique fiberglass fly rod industry. It’s interesting that there’s overlap there but there is. We can learn from each other.
There was a time when I wanted to be a luthier - a guitar builder - and have my own business of repairing and building small shop boutique guitars. Obviously that did not work out but my love of craftsmanship, detail and design carried through to an even earlier passion, fishing.
I recently came into ownership of a unique Martin acoustic guitar. It is made primarily of incredibly beautiful genuine mahogany and 4 other species of woods that all come together to make music and bring peace. It’s not fancy in any way. Rather, it’s spartan and reflective of Martin’s early 1930’s efforts of making an affordable, durable and good sounding instrument. It is very clean and simple in design and has an aesthetic that does not appeal to everyone but in my eye, it’s just right. Reflective of my philosophy on building fly rods.

I’m a firm believer that we won’t experience perfection in this life and that the pursuit of perfection is a siren song. But this guitar is as close to perfect as my mind can imagine. I hope one day to be able to play it as well as it deserves to be played. That’s another subject for later though. In comparison, I don’t feel like it’s possible to build a perfect fly rod. My rods are hand made and there will be flaws, fingerprints of the maker. Sometimes I find myself getting caught up in the micro details but then I catch myself and ask what’s the point? The point is fishing. Fishing is about hope and beauty and is imperfect, messy and disorganized. So is music. So is life.

I have a stash of high quality mahogany boards that I bought years ago in hopes of using to build guitars. This afternoon after I got one of those emails from a wood dealer advertising a special on some of my favorite woods. I got distracted and looked at what was on sale. Made a good decision to not buy anything. Then I was reminded of the mahogany boards I had stowed away. I went down to the basement to look for it and when I found it I decided to cut a foot off of it and see if I can make some reel seats out of it. One thought lead to another and I decided to re-seat my personal 60 ‘Scout’ rod with a piece of this mahogany. The wood is not too exciting but it is beautiful. It reminds me of good music, craftsmanship and how unexpected things are woven together by choices we make and paths we take.

By the way, my guitar is named Libba after Elizabeth Cotten. She was an amazing woman that helped to pioneer the Piedmont Blues.

Inspiration