Approximately 80 people spent the greater part of three days learning and sharing knowledge about custom rod building, including practical crafting skills and excellent business knowledge on marketing and taxes. 10 other individuals spent the greater part of the weekend attending the rod building school where they custom built their own rod under the watchful eyes of some very skilled and knowledgeable instructors. It was quite obvious that these students thoroughly enjoyed the lessons and the pride in their new rods was evident.

Although not strictly geared towards fly rods, the conclave provided all of the attendees with a great deal of good information to absorb and take home with them. With experienced rod builders such as Tom Kirkman of Rod Maker magazine; Ralph O'Quinn, developer of U-40 products, who shared his repair and finishing knowledge; John Britt, an obvious expert on saltwater rod construction; and Don Morton, a former math teacher who applies his mathematical knowledge in developing unique tools such as his weaving loom, how could you not come away with new skills and information to be put to use right away?

As well as the various demonstrations that were held, several companies including Lamiglas and Renzetti also took part. Todd Vivian brought along several of the new Perigee blanks that Lamiglas is introducing this year, as well as the new Titanium blanks, which incorporate a piece of titanium in the butt section of the blank. Although not yet available for fly rods, these titanium blanks are incredibly light! The Perigees also received a high approval rating by the fly rod builders in attendance.

Andy Renzetti brought along a complete rod lathe and displayed some of their excellent tying vices as well. I mentioned in an article some time ago that one their vices are on my Christmas list, and it was great to meet the president of this company that, in my opinion, make great fly tying tools.

There were also a number of vendors at the conclave, including Custom Tackle Supply, Washington State's Angler's Workshop, and Mudhole Custom Tackle, located in Florida. I understand that they offered some great deals to those who were in attendance. REC also was represented by Stan Smartt, a South Tennessee split cane rod builder. It was nice to see REC's lineup of beautiful components including their exquisite wood reel seat inserts.

It is really difficult for me to pick out my favorite parts of the weekend, but there were certainly a few highlights that I enjoyed tremendously. Stan Smartt gave a very interesting, informative and humorous talk on split cane rod building which seemed to be a hit with everyone. Stan, a former airforce pilot trainer and now a cane rod building instructor drew upon his teaching skills, combined it with some 'down home southern' humour and friendliness and mixed it with his obvious love for his craft and convinced more than a few people to learn more about bamboo rod building. Mr. Harold Demarest and his wife, of the Charles H. Demarest, Inc were also on hand, displaying various bamboo culms as well as information on Tonkin Cane harvesting.

Tom Greek, founder of the Guild deserves a great deal of credit in putting together an awesome event. Another highlight of the weekend was the banquet on Saturday night, where the attendees not only were able to enjoy some great food in copious amounts, a wonderful opportunity to make new friends and enjoy fellowship, but also had the chance of winning raffle prizes which were of extremely high value, some in the hundreds of dollars.

For myself, the best part of the trip was the fact that my 9 year old son, James, who lives about 4 hours from me, joined me on the trip. James was a great travel companion as we made the 14 hour journey in our old Blazer from Ontario to Nashville. I think he made himself quite a few new friends, especially on Saturday night as James was the one who pulled all the winning raffle tickets! It says a lot about the quality of the people who attended and put together the conclave when they all accepted the attendance of a 9 year old young man so readily and made him feel so welcome.

Hopefully, in the coming weeks, I will have the opportunity to write in more detail about some of the demonstrations and topics that were presented.

If you were not there this year, contact the Guild and make sure you ask them to keep you on their notification list for next year's event. I am sure looking forward to it already!

Mid-Winter Blues Part II
15 cm of snow just fell in my backyard. Fishing in Africa looks very tempting right now.

Mid-Winter Blues
Some suggestions for curing the 'itch' for Northern Hemisphere anglers.

Previous Features

From The Bench: The Muncher is a favorite of Ian James for carp, smallies, more.    Tie This!

The Doc's Rx: Thoughts of a Chicken Rancher. Doc tells it like it is.    The Doc's Rx