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RODS

ENGRAVING

FIELD TESTING

MISC

RESTORATION

Rods

NEW	A new custom, engraved rod for Master Casting Instructor Peter Hayes, featuring: - 6'6 #3/2 #4/5 taper - Clear wraps tipped in dark green - Engraved ferrules and reelseat hardware - Dark banded agate stripping guide and TiCH gunsmoke snake guides - Brown Mallee Burl Reelseat - Matching offset Japanese style landing net with hand planed 5/6 ply bamboo hoop and Brown Mallee Burl handle
NEW 1	"The 78 Special" This is a prototype Saltwater Rod, a 7'8" #7/8, featuring - (See 1) - Integrated bamboo ferrule (the female is formed in the butt section to allow different action tips to be easily constructed). The female ferrule is bound in clear silk (double bound at the end), and reinforced with marine epoxy. The female is additionally reinforced at the start of the swell with a guide and guide wrap. The male ferrules (on the tips) are bound in clear silk and reinforced adjacent to the slide with marine epoxy as well. - Double built butt AND tip sections for additional power - Swelled butt - Detachable extended fighting butt, in cane and brown mallee burl to match the reelseat spacer and rod. - Saltwater resistant black anodised reelseat fittings from Bellinger - TiCH guides for hard wearing saltwater use - Impregnated with marine primer used below the water line on wooden marine boats, finished in wax, for lightness, durability and maximum power. (See 2) - The last picture shows a destruction tested bamboo ferrule. A test ferrule was made, and the two sections subjected to exteme pressure until something had to give. The ferrule stayed perfectly intact. While the tip section showed some fatigue and started to splinter, the butt section actually broke before the ferrule join! - I took this rod out to the ACT Casting competition on the weekend, and threw my longest ever measured cast: 35.51 metres (116.5 feet).
NEW	A rod made recently for renowned innovative Melbourne fly tier Rick Keam. The rod is a 6'3" medium/fast #4/5 3/2, featuring: - Flamed Cane - Verigated balck and orange jasper silk (without colour preserver) - Matching "tiger" brown mallee burl reelseat sapcer and striped agate stripper - Rick Keam "Polyhopper" engraved on the reelseat slideband
NEW	This new collectors grade rod, the "Osprey", is a 7'3" Monaro56 3 piece #56 travel rod for a customer in Colorado, USA. The rod features:: - Osprey engraved on Butt Cap - Mayfly lifecycle on the reelseat slideband - Scrollwork engraved on the ferrules - Alternating blonde and flamed strips, with matching light/dark brown mallee burl reelseat, ferrule plugs and agate - Antique gold wraps tipped in blue
NEW	This new collectors grade rod, "Haunted by Waters", is a 8'0" 3/2 #4/5 Monaro Series, for a customer in Alaska, USA. The rod features: - Green agate, with pale green wraps tipped in dark green - Scollwork engraved on the ferrules - Mayfly lifecycle on the reelseat slideband, with Mrs Simpsons around the locking nut - Rich, golden flamed cane, with matching brown mallee burl reelseat and ferrule plugs
NEW	A new ultralight 5'6" 2/2 1 weight, with subdued brown wraps, agate guide, blued hardware, and densely figured Amoyna Burl reelseat. A rod to make a 6 inch fish feel like a thumper!
	Recently I had the opportunity to see some rods I made a few years back from a customer that has become a good friend. It was nice to be able to take some photos of them. Though they have been fished regularly, they still look pretty good I think! They feature some outstanding engraving as well as custom reelseats, with clear guide wraps and coloured tipping.
NEW	A recent Collectors rod, "The Downunder 21", a 7'7" #5/6 3/2, featuring: - Kookaburra engraved on the butt cap, with flies on the slide band, scrollwork on the locking nut, and wattle on the ferrules - Spring green wraps with lemon tipping - Black and white agate - Brown Mallee Burl reelseat spacer with matching belled fighting butt.
	A recently commissioned rod for a local Canberra customer. The rod, a 6'8" #3 3/2, features - Kiwi engraved on the butt cap, with Silver Ferns on the slide band, scrollwork on the locking nut, and phutukawa on the ferrules. - Spring green wraps with lemon tipping - Black and white agate - Rare NZ Kauri reelseat spacer with matching belled fighting butt - Matching Kauri and cork ferrule moisture plugs
	A recent commissioned 7'3" #4/5 2/2 rod featuring a Bear with a fish on the butt cap, and other engraving, and Chinese Red wraps with rifle green tipping and a matching red agate stripper, with a red mallee burl reelseat.
NEW	A recent collectors rod for an American customer, featuring scroll engraving on the ferrules and engraved reelseat hardware, and a red mallee burl reelseat.
	"The Tea Stick" This rod was made to celebrate Tonkin Cane, or "Tea Stick" Bamboo (as it is known in China) as a rodmaking material. Rather than fitting a cork grip and wooden reelseat, a large butt swell was used to form the grip and reelseat. This required double building the butt sectoin of the cane. The under grip and swell area was then hollow fluted before glueup to retain a light feel of the rod in the hand. The seat was turned down to accomodate slide bands, and flamed/scorched for additional character. The rod was finished with a hexagonal butt plate, and clear wraps to maximise the visibility of the cane beneath. A honey agate stripping guide reflects the flamed colour of the bamboo. The rod was completed with a hexagonal wooden case, of alternating Jarrah and Spotted Gum strips. Built as a 6' 2/2 #3, it casts a very sweet line too...
NEW	Two rods for great friends. Top is a fast action #4 for fishing mate Troy, and bottom is a Monaro56 7'3" for my wife Miri.
NEW	"The Taranaki" This rod, made on a Monaro 56 taper, is for my wife Miri. Miri is from the Taranaki region of the North Island of New Zealand. The rod features: - A semi hollow built butt and mid section to reduce weight - New Zealand colours - fine black signature wraps and a black and white striped agate stripper - Stunning engraving of a rata flower and kea parrot - Black ferrule wraps and dark blued ferrules - Clear guide wraps to highlight the medium flamed cane - The Australian connection is a brown mallee burl reelseat!
	Agates agates agates! We carry a huge range of agates from Snake Brand Guides. As part of your custom rod you can choose your own colour/pattern of agate.
	A recent custom Monaro Series rod (6'6" #3/4/5 2/2) with: - Fiddleback Tamanian Myrtle Burl reelseat spacer - Blued ferrules - Medium brown wraps tipped with black - Agate stripping guide and bronze snakes - Engraved butt cap featuring Southern Cross and wreath
	Peerless Reel and "Monaro 45" rod on the bank of a New Zealand stream.
	Two recent fast action, dry fly 3/2 #5 weights, made for a couple of VFFA members. Made from a single culm, one rod is finished slightly darker, with golden chocolate wraps, with the second rod flamed a little lighter, with bugundy wraps. Both rods feature cork reelseat spacers, and blued hardware.
	A recent 7'7" #5/6 2/2, with - Signature flaming, medium gold with lighter contrasting nodes - Chinese Red wraps, tipped with Black - Agate stripper and Titanium Carbide snakes - Tapered Cigar grip - Unique heartwood/sapwood cherry burl.
	A custom 6'6" 3 piece rod, with 3 different tips and two butts (one fast, one parabolic), which can be configured from a 3 weight to a 6 weight. I made this rod for myself, to demontstrate different tapers and actions to customers. The fast butt configuration is based on my Monaro taper, while the parabolic one is derived from a Paul Young action.
	Closeup of the same rod, showing the swell on the fast action butt section.
	Closeup of the hexagonal check, swelled butt, and signature wraps.
	A Paul Young Para 15 Taper, finished in subdued Granger Green thread, and blued ferrules.
	Closeup of swelled butt, signature wraps, winding check, overbound ferrules, black chrome guides and tiptop bound with dark blue thread, on a 3 piece 3 weight.
	Closeup of swelled butt, signature wraps, winding check, overbound ferrules, black chrome guides and tiptop bound with pale olive thread (tipped with dark olive), on a 3 piece 4/5/6 weight.
	The Australian Tribute Rod This recently completed custom rod includes a number of unique features and an Australian theme: - Alternating blonde and flamed strips - Gold and Blue wraps ( colours of Australia, as featured on the Coat of Arms ) - Wattle engraving on the reelseat slideband - River gum leaves and nuts engraved on the ferrules - Brown mallee burl reelseat spacer
	The twins! Two identical rods made off a single culm for a pair of Trout Bums!
	A 6'3" Fast action #4/5 3 piece which packs down to 26".
	Australian hardwood burl (brown and red mallee) reelseat spacers (downlockers for rods to 7'6").
	More mallee burl seats...
	And more - upockers for rods over 7'6".

Engraving

For that special rod, I have access to Dick Chapman, a leading shotgun engraver. Below are some examples of his amazing craftsmanship.

NEW	Swimming platypus for an upcoming platypus tribute rod
NEW	Osprey in flight on a butt cap (see "Rods" above)
NEW	Scrollwork on ferrules of two recently completed rods (see "Rods" above)
	Perons tree frog engraved on a butt cap.
	Flies around a reelseat slideband. (see "Rods" above)
	Kookaburra on a butt cap. (see "Rods" above)
	Silver Ferns and Kiwi on reelseat hardware. (see "Rods" above)
	Phutukawa flowers on ferrules. (see "Rods" above)
	Fishing Bear and other reelseat engraving work. (see "Rods" above)
	The New Zealand Kea engraved on the "Taranaki" Rod (see "Rods" above)
	The New Zealand Rata flower on the "Taranaki" Rod (see "Rods" above)
	Engraved hardware for a matching pair of 1 piece 2/3 weight rods.
	Southern Cross and wreath for an Australian Airforce Officer.
	Wattle engraving on the Australian Tribute Rod (see above).
	Gum leaf/flower/nut ferrule engraving on the Australian Tribute Rod (see above).
	Lightly blued scrollwork on ferrules.
	Platypus on a butt cap.
	Mayfly dun, with tiny Mrs Simpson flies around the locking nut.
	Mayfly nymph, with tiny Mrs Simpson flies around the locking nut.
	Water Dragon, on one of my own rods. These little guys frequent some of our local streams.
	Brown Trout on the butt cap.
	Engraved slide band and locking nut with a custom turned brown mallee burl fighting butt.

Field Testing

NEW	New Zealand North Island Taranaki Trip January 2008 Read a bit about the trip on the "What's New" page. My wife Miri is a Kiwi from the Taranaki region, so we combined a trip with family get togethers and some great fishing.
	Miri fishing one of the local streams. Mount Taranaki dominates the landscape. A lone peak of over 2500m, with 40 major and countless other trout streams radiating across the ringplain. Why aren't we living there? watch this space...
	A typical Taranaki brown of about 4lb that we watched cruising and rising from a bridge. Did we catch it? You'll have to ask Miri...
	Miri with a couple of beautuful, but quite differently marked Taranaki browns.
	Yours truly bringing a brown to the net. Note the rod upturned and held back, to avoid high sticking, and to be in a good position to react to any sudden movement of the fish.

Season 2007/2008

This season is looking the best in years with much needed rainfall throughout the region. For those wanting to learn the best way to fish the area, do yourself a favour and check out Paul Bourne at Snowy Monaro Fly Fishing

Troy Macnab, Miri Robinson and I recently spent a day on a typical small Snowy Mountains stream. This sort of tight, tumbling pocketwater is ideal for close range fishing and bamboo rods. Keeping low down and using available cover, the fish can be polaroided and seen taking the fly right under your nose. Though the fish aren't large in general, they make up for it with beautiful colouration.

Typical early season 2007/2008 brown, taken with Paul Bourne from Snowy Monaro Flyfishing.

	New Zealand South Island Trip March 2007 Read a bit about the trip on the "What's New" page. We had great fishing, saw wonderful places, met some great people and experienced four seasons (five maybe?) in two and a half weeks.
	Playing a fish on a typical freestone Southland river. Note the rod turned over, and the low rod angle, using the powerful butt of the rod to play the fish, rather than the tip. Apologies for the hat.
	Bleak weather on an Otago river. Be prepared to tough it out in NZ, or drive a lot to chase the elusive better weather.
	Bow and arrow casting to a tight willow feeder. Bow and arrow casting is fine with bamboo, if performed properly. Separate the hands widely BEFORE loading the rod.
	A real fish and a real hat to go with it.

	Season 06/07 and earlier in Australia
	Haydn Jenkins "fishin the sticks"...
	Miri Robinson with a lovely spring creek brown.
	Peter Morse of Wildfish fame has just come back from a trip to Brumbies Creek with Peter Hayes, where he got some lovely shots of Peter throwing tight loops with a 6'3" 1 piece #5/6/7 weight. I've even put a #7 on this rod and thrown deerhair poppers and dahlbergs around snags and overhanging trees for Australian Bass. It's a definite pocket rocket!
	Little rod, big fish! Peter Hayes with a 7 pound brown on the little 6'3" 1 piece #5/6/7.
	Beautiful, wild, small stream rainbow...
	Paul Bourne of Snowy Monaro Flyfishing plays a rainbow.
	Paul with the rainbow, and a Peerless Salmon reel.
	Troy Macnab fishes the shaded undercut on a high plains creek.
	Miri Robinson playing an early 06/07 season rainbow in the mountains.
	Proof of the pudding!
	Me with an Oct 06 mountains rainbow.
	Peter Hayes, master casting instructor and top Tasmanian guide with a lovely Tassie river brown on a prototype 6'3" 1 piece #5/6 weight.
	Me in the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, USA. Beautiful Brook Trout water.
	A lovely brown trout from a small Snowy Mountains stream, on a Taransky Bamboo and a Peerless 1A reel.
	Troy Macnab on a Snowy Mountains Stream in NSW, Australia.
	Troy Macnab on a Snowy Mountains Stream in NSW, Australia.
	Paul Bourne on a Southern Monaro stream.
	Haydn Jenkins with a lovely small stream brown on a Taransky Bamboo.
	A beautifully red spotted brown.
	Me with nice brown from a Snowy Mountains stream on a bamboo rod and silk line.
	Me with a nice Western Lakes brown from Tassie.
	Me landing a rainbow from a Snowy Mountains Lake. Note the rod turned over and held back, to reduce stress on the rod tip.

Misc

NEW	Recenty I had the chance to catch up with my rodbag maker, Chris Revell (my mum), who was visiting from Adelaide. All my rodbags are made to custom length for each rod, compleat with a hanging loop and hidden French seams.
NEW	Recently I've used some leftover bamboo strips, and spare reelseat burls to make some landing nets in different shapes and sizes...
	Our friend Maria made these awesome dolls of me and Miri, complete with waders, vests, bamboo rods, and fish (yes, Miri's fish is a little larger than mine)!
NEW	"The Snowy River" Reel, by Terry Hayden, for Taransky Bamboo Fly Rods This Australian made reel is a classic, simple, smooth fly reel that will compliment any fly rod! Check out the "Other Products"page for more informatio!
	Haydn Jenkins (see his tattoo, below), one of my fishing mates, is a talented artist, whose landscape paintings capture the colours and moods of our high country streams. Haydn is available for commisioned fly fishing and other artworks. Contact number is 0415 195 394. Check out some of his other paintings HERE.
	Last Autumn I collected a bunch of leaves and made a collage on the computer of the trout in the region...
	Great tatt Haydn! Haydn Jenkin's brown trout tribute!
	Small dragon from the mountains
	2" miniature Brook Trout carving from an offcut piece of Brown Mallee Burl
	One of my rods with a passenger - Australasica Dun from South Australia (Chris Bassano photo)
	VFFA Cane Day, 2005 (cane day or hat day)?
	VFFA Cane Day, 2005. Rick Keam selects a rod from the forest!
	VFFA Cane Day, 2005. Malcom Elms and Sam Thomas share a bamboo moment.

Restoration

Though my focus is on new rods, occasionally I do some restoration work. Here are some examples.

NEW!	Repair/restoration of a Kosmic rod section This rod, circa 1891-2, has a connection with bamboo rodmaking history, being a product of the F.E. Thomas, E. Edwards, Loman Hawes and Ed Payne venture. This rod was acquired in need of repair by the current owner. The mid section was 4" short at the top, and had been hand whittled to refit the female ferrule. The mid-tip ferrules had been damadged, so the owner had sourced appropriate replica ferrules from the USA. Instead of using an oblique scarf to add the 4" back to the mid section section, I utilised the existing hand tapered end, and built a new, internally hollow piece to fit around it. This maintained as much as possible of the existing rod. The scarf join was reinforced and concealed beneath one of the intermediate bindings.
	The original section, with the whittled region (after some tidying up)on the right, and the new, hollowed section, layed open to show the internal hollow taper, on the left.
	The new section rolled partly closed to show the hollowing.
	Closeup of the new section, rolled closed to show the thin surface cross section at the end of the scarf.
	The new section fitted over the original, after glueing.
	The finished repair. the scarf ends at the first intermediate above the top guide.
	Closeup of the scarf join (hidden under the intermediate wrap). The oringinal rod was made from Calcutta Cane, so some faux burn marks were added to the new section on the left to blend in with the overall character of the rod.

	Restoration of a Bill Southam "Talbingo Rod" This rod, made by the famous Sydney rodmaker, was in basically sound shape, but some bindings were cracked, or had been rebound with wire, tape, and twine.
	A hook keeper had been installed over the original wraps, the signature writing had partly worn off, and the narrow signature wraps had partly come off. The hook keeper was removed, the writing touched up, the signature wraps re done, and the area re varnished.
	A number of guides had been rebound with a mixture of tape, wire twine and nailpolish. The guides were rebound with silk, colour preserved, and varnished.
	The ferrule wraps were cracked and were coming free, and the finish on the ferrules hard worn off. The ferrules were rebound in silk, colour preserved and varnished, and the ferrules were re blued.
	The grip was sound but dirty, so it was given a light sand and clean.

	Restoration of a Bamboo Spinning Rod This rod, which was originally belonged to the owner's father, was basically sound, but with some delamination of strips just above the grip. The varnish was alligatored, the wraps were loose, some guides had been crushed, the reelseat and grip were soiled, and the rubber butt cap was perished. The rod was basically spruced up for the owner, and the delamination of the butt strips repaired.
	Before: Grip section. Cork and reelseat soiled, butt cap perished.
	After: Grip section. Cork and reelseat cleaned. butt cap lighly rubbed back to clean rubber.
	Before: Signature section. Varnish alliatored. Strips delaminated.
	After: Signature section. Delamination glued. Stripped and revarnished (decal preserved). Wraps re bound.
	Before: Guides. Guide crushed, thread worn, faded and loose. Varnish Alligatored.
	After: Guides. Guide reshaped, cleaned and rebound. Rod revarnished.