About the maker

Whenever I spend time on the water, I’m Grateful for the experience. Those occasions remind me that there is a lot to be Grateful for.

Plotting a taper on paper translates to a vision of how I expect the rod to perform when completed. Selecting and testing bamboo strips gives early clues to the power and delicacy which will be imbued into the rod.  Heat treating the strips, hand planing each to exacting tolerances, and gluing the six triangular strips into the final hexagonal form begin to actualize the envisioned instrument. Delicate silk wraps on top of strategically placed guides direct and contain the power passed to the line from your arm and transmitted through the rod. Like the individual instruments wielded by members of a band, each part of the process comes together in the final, beautiful, form- a Grateful Rod. 

Every Grateful bamboo fly rod was constructed to the recordings of live performances of the Grateful Dead. It’s the perfect background for working on the many steps of taking a raw Tonkin bamboo culm and turning it, over many hours, into a fishing instrument which is equal parts beauty and science.  The Dead have a complexity of sound realized through extended jams and musical exploration, combined with deep, beautiful imagery contained in their lyrics.  Handplaning a rod involves many hundreds of passes of a hand plane, sharpening, and checking strips to ensure they are even and measure perfect 60 degree triangles. The repetition is like the baseline in an extended jam, and I can get lost in the rhythm. It’s like I’m playing in the band.

I hope that you too can enjoy your time on the water. My wish for you is nothing more than to Fish Grateful.