At the beginning of my rod making career, I was fascinated mostly by bamboo itself and by the rod making process. However, my interest in taper design grew very quickly. A thousand questions came up which needed to be answered. Where do I add more power fibres, where do I subtract? How can I improve the action of a rod? What does improvement mean? What influence does heat-treating have on the bamboo? Do different glues affect the action of a given taper, etc., etc.?

I am not sure why –respect, fear, stupidity, arrogance- but I never put these questions to any of the bamboo ‘’gurus’’ of the time. In hindsight maybe it was just luck, because I now believe it was to my advantage that I had to learn everything on my own.

Well, not completely on my own…. I must have read ‘’the Garrison book’’ a hundred times over, I finally began improving my bamboo work dramatically. Garry’s book also inspired me to begin experimenting with different tapers. I had a goal: to built harmonic rods of the lowest possible weight with simple, understated but optically perfect aesthetics. By ‘’harmonic’’ rods, I mean rods suited to the materials I used and the fishing conditions for which they were designed. This was somewhat different from more traditional methods of make and design used by most makers at the time, but I knew from the beginning that I wanted to go my own way. Other than my Garrison taper series, I have to this day never copied another maker’s rod. Instead, I have tried to interpret stress curves and bend forms, understand why existing tapers are or are not popular,  and apply my conclusions in my own designs.

Every time I add a new rod to my model line, I make several (if not many) prototypes to get exactly the taper I want. I personally fish these prototype rods, and I let a few trusted friends, whose proclivities I know, give me feedback, too. I design all my rods for specific fishing conditions, and there is no better material than bamboo for this purpose. Most modern fly rod designs seem to turn around casting as far as possible. How often is it necessary to throw 100ft casts against a stiff wind on a trout stream all day? Isn’t it much nicer and more useful to have a rod that is a joy to cast to 50 feet, and still retains a lot of feeling. Moreover, a rod should be sensitive enough to protect light tippets but still tire fish quickly to be able to release them unharmed. I incorporate this same design sensibility in my powerful rods, too.

The lightest rod I have ever built is the “Midge” #2/3 that weighs a mere 55grams (1.9oz) at a length of 6’9” (205cm) inclusive reel seat! Should I load this tiny rod with another 40grams of woodspacer? Certainly not!

Or take the Para 934 for a line size 4. At 9’3” (281cm) it is 112grams (3.95oz) light. 

Bamboo rods in general, and light rods specifically, generate scepticism these days: can I really fish with such a rod?

My usual reply is: what real difference is there between a #2 and a #5? Nothing other than pure line weight. Seriously, how big is the average trout or grayling in your local water on an average day? I would guess between 25 and 40cm (10 and 15 inches), maybe smaller. Bigger fish are usually the exception rather than the rule.

Even so, a big fish must be REALLY big to overstrain a well-designed fly rod in the hands of a competent fly fisher. So fish size alone has little to do with the line size I will fish. Rather, the conditions of wind, fly size, leader length, etc., that dictate what line size I have to use. Thus it is perfectly clear that I won’t use my Midge rod on a very windy day but I think I am perfectly safe using it day in day out on a favourite trout stream under normal conditions.

That said, a well- built #2/3-weight rod is undoubtedly still capable of throwing a long line and fighting big fish. My biggest brown trout taken from a local water on my Ontario #2/3 measured 60cm (24 inches) and weighed in at 2.5kg’s (> 5lbs). No problem whatsoever for fish or rod!

Building split cane fly rods and fly fishing itself was, is and will be, my favourite passion. Still my love for all things fishing and bamboo means that I also wanted to fish with split cane rods when pursuing other fish by other means. Traditional methods practised in England have fascinated me for a long time. To fish for roach (a kind of fish) with a beautiful light split cane rod, a traditional float and a Centre Pin reel is addictive. Recalling a time when the world was still as it should be in many ways. If you have ever seen “A Passion for Angling” by Hugh Miles with Chris Yates and Bob James you will agree. More about traditional fishing and my links to it in Outview.

A most important milestone in rod building was the realisation of the integrated hexagonal bamboo ferrule called FIBH. FIBH stands for Fries Integrated Bamboo Hexaferrule. My friend, Bjarne Fries, whom I consider to be the most complete living rod maker, developed this ferrule, which is made out of bamboo. When Bjarne showed me the principle I was extremely impressed, and convinced that this is a real revolution in split cane rod ferrule design. Thank you very much, Bjarne, for this wonderful innovation!

More about these ferrules on the next pages.

All my rods are completely handmade. For myself, I just cannot experience the fantastic material of bamboo with a saw or a beveller. Of course this means more time spent building a rod. Working with bamboo, though, is no mass production but rather something that makes me happy and enriches my life. To deliver a rod as a result of honest, clean and satisfying handwork is always a valuable experience. Each rod takes about 40 hours of work. Each rod contains a part of me- as we say in Germany, my ‘’Herzblut’’ (heartblood)- and when one is finally packaged and sent off to a customer. I always feel a small loss. Happily, this sense of loss is quickly replaced by starting the next order… or a day on water.

Silk lines

For many years I have been fishing with silk lines. I am not a traditionalist who owns things only because they are old or collectible. Au contraire. Still, I like to own things that are beautiful, perform well, and increase my enjoyment when fishing. Silk lines have a higher weight per diameter than plastic which allows them to cut through headwind and resist side winds better. And, silk lines, once broken in, cannot be beat for delicate presentations. The best silk lines in my opinion are made by Phoenix. They are made mainly by hand and run through a production process lasting eight weeks. Their prices might be off-putting at first sight, but as a rule they last a lifetime and only get better with use and age. A plastic line is normally used up and beaten within a year or two. The rest is simple mathematics…