Special rods. London Fly Fishing Fair.

Here are some pics of the rods I built for the London Fly Fishing Fair. A Morgan glass 8'#3, a vintage J.K. Fisher Phenolic Glass (or the so called Light Line Glass) in 7'6" #3 (70's blank), the legendary Sage LL 8'9" #3 (NOS graphite III blank) and a vintage Steffen graphite in 8'6" #4 in three pieces and a rare blue color. There were a couple more glass rods I built for Alternative Tackle so a pretty comprehensive line of rods to say so with both modern and vintage designs .

I had the privilege to meet highly named builders like Kazutomo Ijuin, Chris Barclay, Christian Horgren, Nico Vreugdenhill, Luke Bannister and Callum Gladstone (Luke and Callum make some incredible bamboo rods) and other fantastic individuals. The show was an absolute blast. The level of the craftsmanship was as high as can be expected, the number of rods  that each builder brought was impressive and surely this was a  great time to show that glass is actually alive and kicking.

Huge thanks to Mark and Zack at Alternative Tackle for making this event possible. It was a great privilege to be a part of it!

The "thought" rod.

Yes, you've guessed well. This is another Tom Morgan 803 build and my last one unfortunately. My intention was to fish this rod in the gin clear streams of Romania this season. It could be a keeper or it could not. For me, even if a rod is highly collectable, if it doesn't cast and fish like it was intended, most likely will find a new owner. But this rod has a feel that no other rod has. It has the distinctive Winston "feel" but then it has even more due to the fiberglass material and magic touch of the great man and rod designer, Tom Morgan.

I took a bit more time to cast this beauty and..indeed this rod has an amazing touch and feel. Until the fishing season there are still a couple of months. Meanwhile this rod (and myself) will be present at the London Fly Fishing Fair thanks to Alternative Tackle 's  kind invitation to be part of this event along with other highly respected, very talented rod makers around. I feel very honored to participate and I hope to see some of you folks that follow and like the stuff that I do in London on the 23-24'th of march at the Alternative Tackle booth. Come and try a rod out at the casting pool and talk fly rod stuff. Thanks for looking!