. I was there to pick up a custom fly rod they’d made for me and to go fishing with owner and founder Jeff Davis. I expected to find a warehouse with heavy machinery and assembly lines, but instead I ...

The first step in building a custom rod is finding the spine. That is after one has selected a rod blank from all the options available. My nephew, Tegan Winters, is a game warden in Montana. For a ...

Two is the magic number for one local rod manufacturer. "We really want something that has that high end feel (and) that high end performance. (A fly rod) that’s not going to break your bank," said DJ ...

When it comes to making custom fishing rods, Barry Weaver employs many skills. Weaver alternates among being a woodworker, an engineer, a lathe operator, a technician and an assembler. And when it ...

Glancing back over his shoulder at 15 gleaming fly rods, Capital High senior Kreston Stevens told the crowd assembled in the machining shop Tuesday evening that he and the five other rod builders had ...

Many who fish with split-cane bamboo fly rods say they allow a depth of feeling when casting or reeling in a fish that just isn’t possible with today’s more common graphite rods. When Selah’s Kevin ...

The man on the other end of the phone was noticeably hesitant, perhaps even a little embarrassed. He had spent 34 years in the quiet, comfortable background of the sport-fishing industry, most ...

CLYDE PARK — At the age of 17, Sam Cornthwaite says he’s dedicated his life to building fly rods. “I enjoy it so much that it’s not work,” he says. The young entrepreneur has taken over most of the ...

CLYDE PARK - At the age of 17, Sam Cornthwaite says he's dedicated his life to building fly rods. "I enjoy it so much that it's not work," he says. The young entrepreneur has taken over most of the ...

“One thing about Montana,” says Matt Barber, an owner of Tom Morgan Rodsmiths, a custom fly rod shop in Bozeman, “is if there’s a moving body of water, there is probably a trout in it.” On the Madison ...

CHISHOLM — If there’s ever a tornado warning for this Iron Range town, Mike Lesch will likely be safe. That’s because he already spends a lot of time in his basement shop, where he turns drab sticks ...