About

My name is George Dan Minculete.
I was born in the summer of 1981 in a small town of Romania. More exactly, I am located in the heart of Transylvania - or the so called "Dracula Land".

I grew up as a trout bum fishing remote creeks in the beautiful and luckily still wild Transylvania.

In the search for the perfect trout rod, I started building fly rods from the early years of my passion (1999). But I got into it for real in 2003.

Seeing other people fishing and enjoying fishing the rods built by my own hands revealed me a new dimension and felt like this could be my contribution to fly fishing. I realized I developped a love for fly rods.

Every time I work on a rod is a different experience, a different mind picture. Imagining the "perfect" fly rod that will eventually look great and perform beautiful has always been a challenge to me. Ultimately, materializing it has been my quest ever since I first started playing with a blank.

Never knowing exactly how it will look or feel in the end, when every piece was put together and done right, the result was always a nice surprise. This gave me the confidence it could take me where I wanted.

In my humble opinion, there is some degree of imagination and 'feel' that's needed when building a fly rod. Two blanks considered identical are not quite exactly the same. Style and quality of the work are then what will distinguish a fly rod or builder from another.

It all starts with selecting the best blank for the job and the components for it. Since every blank is unique, it requires special care in order to become a perfect fishing instrument. There's always an optimum guide size and wire diameter for any given rod blank in order to achieve the best performance. Also, the perfect alignment and positioning of the guides along with preparing them for a neat wrapping combined with countless hours of flat, clean and tiring epoxy finishing work. My thread and epoxy work are among the best you will see. A high quality cork grip for proper balance and good feel of the rod is the real connection between the angler's hand and the blank-rod itself. I pay maximum attention to this aspect. Still, I'm constantly improving what is to be improved.

All of these features together can give functional beauty to a fly rod. That "one-of-a-kind" and "perfectly" crafted fly rod created to withstand the test of time. It will be beautiful to look at, and nevertheless, a finely tuned fly fishing instrument. The aesthetics of a fly rod is the ultimate expression of quality.

I think that my quest for perfection and attention to detail is what makes every finished rod special and unique. And in the end, not quite everything involved in the craft is exact science.

These rods come from my heart and soul. They are created for the love of beauty and perfection. They are THE connection between angler, river or lake and ultimately the fish.

Photography is my second love. Capturing the magic moments of our sport has always been a challenge for me. This is still a work in progress.

 

I guess in our world today we all need some relief. And these are mine. It is actually who I am. Inspired from the nouvella "A river runs through it", wrote by Norman Maclean, I stepped into the beautiful world of flyfishing in 1995. I am continously seeking perfection.

You can see it as a quest of perfecting the sport of fly fishing, a finely executed fly rod or fly, or a perfect cast to a rising trout. Sometimes it's just being out on the water seeking solitude. Can anything else be more perfect than that?

If you're looking to fly fish the wild and remote rivers and streams in the beautiful Transylvania, you probably have stopped in the right place. You could "end up" fishing a fine rod and experience some very unique fishing.

I welcome and encourage you to browse my blog and hope you will have a pleasant experience.

Thank you for stopping by and your interest in my custom rod work.

Sincerely,

George Dan Minculete