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Jim Burchette restored an old glass rod - stripped and rebuilt it - and it came out as good as new

A couple months ago my wife said she had found the perfect gift for me. She had arranged for me to take a bamboo fly rod making class.

Are you looking for a perfect single-hand gear set-up for salmon fishing? Here’s Nils Folmer Jorgensen’s preferred tools, how he ended there and his honest opinion on why.

Some years back I had to fish with the oldest and worst fly rod I ever owned... and you know what? It wasn't bad at all.

I didn’t know that I was interested in collecting fly fishing paraphernalia – until I read Steve Woit’s book

You can buy ready-made rod holders for your car, but you can also go the DIY way and get some excellent holders for a very fair price.

Today was the day of the annual and traditional get-together arranged by the Copenhagen Fly Casting Club. Enjoyable as always.

Recent historical research into the first writings on fly fishing has revealed the origins of the double haul, by researches called the Ur-haul or the half haul

The Copenhagen Fly Casting Club has been arranging a small summer get together the the last few years, inviting members and non-members to meet and try rods, chat and have a beer and a sausage from the barbecue.

First of all, I want to make it clear that the below is based on my experience and opinion. But I would however like to know where other anglers and not the manufactures stand in today's switch rod design.
So, the switch rod is the one filling the gap between the single and double hand.
The single hand rod has its limits when it comes to spey casting on bigger rivers as well as with line control.

A fly rod is a fishing rod constructed for fly-fishing. It is in broad principle made like any other fishing rod, but there are some major differences, and an ordinary fishing rod can't be used for fly-fishing.
The rod is typically very lightweight and thin compared to most fishing rods. It's still a thin, tapered tube made from carbon fiber. It has rings to control the line (AKA guides) and a handle as well as a reel seat where you mount the reel, but that's also about where the similarity ends.

This article tries to explain in simple terms what it is to fish with a fly - fly-fish or flyfish.

The idea behind the rod holder is simple: it's a special made device, which allows you to strap the rods on the outside of the car, and drive while the rods are mounted in this way.
The rods are strapped down fully rigged and assembled with reels, lines and even flies in place.

This article will try to point you in the right direction when choosing equipment for coastal fishing for sea trout in Denmark and the Baltic. This kind of fishing usually involves a lot of casting. A lot! So the gear has to be easy to cast with - time and time again.

Martin maintains an archive of fly-fishing images together with a bunch of fishing friends. Nowadays it contains almost 12,000 images, and of those about 1,253 or more than 10% are tagged "gear". They take a lot of gear pictures.

We had some fun tonight with a bunch of CTS-rods built by Danish Ussing & Bech

This might be considered a strange and kind of exotic photography subject to write a whole article about, but looking at the images that my fishing friends and I shoot, I can see that it's a very popular thing to shoot. As soon as a fish is hooked, we rush to the scene, and get quite a few bent rod pictures. That has made me think about how to get the best pictures of bent rods.

I basically see a few categories of bent-rod-pictures, meaning that most of our pictures fall in one of four certain categories.

This is a beautifully shot and produced DVD, which will be candy to anyone interested in the history of fly fishing and of Hardy in particular. It's slow paced in a very good way, and takes its time to listen to the interview subjects and dwell on footage and images from way back.

Yellowstone Angler is a shop - but they test rods. And they do it well!

I bought a complete brand new fly rod kit at 50 US$ in my local supermarket - and it's a nice rod

We're now at the final stage of our rod buidling process, and ready to coat the wrappings. this requires a clean room and a lot of care. Jan-Ole Willers shows us in great detail how to do the best job and where to do it.

The handle is both an important part of any rod and a whole project in itself when building a rod. Jan-Ole Willers helps you choose a shape, select the cork and plan added features such as a fighting butt.

The rod is done and you need to determine what line is best for it. Don't always trust the fine print on the blank, but join Jan-Ole Willers on the water for a test of the newly built rod to find out whether it was worth the effort.

This time we look at guide selection and preparation as well as the critical process of wrapping the guides. Learn some neat tricks from German Jan-Ole Willers in this third part of his extensive rod building series.

The first part of the Global Flyfisher article series on building your own graphite fly rod, which takes you by the hand from the very beginning of the process: identifying and selecting the parts and materials you need.

The introduction to the cover-it-all series on building your own grpahite fly rod, which will run through the whole process of building a complete fly rod, covering selection of components, handle, guides, coating and testing.

One of the hallmarks of rod builder Dave Lewis' work is the handwritten details on each rod. The writing is done by Dave's wife Mary Lu and in this article Dave briefly explains how to obtain the best results when writing on rods.

Jari Wiklund participated in the Danish Fly Casting Championships and finished second. Read his report from the event and his reflections about casting for the sake of casting and (almost) not a word about fishing. He quotes Lefty Kreh who said:

This past season, I had the pleasure of fishing rods built from two blanks from Lamiglas, the XMG50 and the "Blue Ridge". These two blanks are Ying and Yang, fast and slow, high modulus graphite and fiberglass. As different as can be.

Danish Scierra are introducing some great looking rods

This is a fantastic journey! And in more than one sense. It's both a journey from east to west - from China to the US - and at the same time a journey in materials and workmanship from a perennial grass to some of the longest lasting fishing rods we have seen - split cane rods. And it's narrator and writer David James Duncan's mental and physical journey through something, which he evidently carries very deep in his heart.

There is nothing easier than breaking a flyrod. Former fishing guide Roland Henrion describes 10 easy ways to do it for those who want to try. The advice can of course be translated into 10 ways of avoiding rod breakage if you don't.

The first part of a three part harmony about maintaining your precious fly fishing equipment - Rod, Reel And Line - by tropical fishing guide Roland Henrion. Learn how to prolong the lifespan of your fly rods.

"Your fly fishing life really first starts when you get a magnetic rod holder". Those are the words of GFF partner Martin Joergensen, who has used a set of Tightline Enterprises rod holders during this season, and has been very pleased.

How many rods does one guy need?

Some upcoming reviews

The Magnetic Rod Guard from Tight Line Enterprises will solve more than the problem of keeping your rod out of harms way while you finish up by your car.
A neat and simple product to solve a very common problem.

The Sirrus COMATRIX 9 wt. is in many ways the perfect pike fishing tool - able to lift and cast large and heavy flies, and with one serious butt section. Dutch Henk Verhaar test fished it in his favorite pike waters and was very pleased.

Andy Dear hits a home run with his custom reel seat spacers and complete reel seats. It's a rare thing for a product to get a "Global Class" GFF rating, but Andy's woodworking skills earn him that high honor easily.

The grand prize for the Flymeister 2001 contest was a custom built fly rod made by Neal Hall, owner of Classic Destiny rods and president of the Custom Rod Builder's Guild.

Not only do all the major rod companies sell their blanks, there are several companies that produce and sell only blanks. Where to begin? Rainshadow might be one choice. Great, afordable blanks.

A rod with a titanium section built in! Strange maybe, but the reviewer's verdict is clear: "All I know is that it's better than most other rods I have fished with." Read the review here.

You have one extra rod with no sock and rod tube. You've been putting off buying a tube...why don't you just make your own?! With $4.00 and about a 1/2 hour's time, you'll have a DIY rod tube. These won't win beauty contests, but they work just as well as any retail version. Read here how to DIY.

"While the mention of modulus does continue to pop up from time to time in advertising, most anglers, and indeed most rod and blank manufacturers, have gotten over their numbers fetish.". Read Bob Petti's review of the excellent and interesting Sirrus Co-Matrix 9' 2pc 6wt.

In the world of fly fishing in the 21st Century, Lamiglas is making some of the best blanks available to anyone, anywhere, for any price. In this review by GFF Partner Bob Petti we look at the Perigee blank, which is only available to custom rod builders. He concludes: "People like rods made from Perigee blanks simply because they make excellent fishing rods." Read Bob's Review.

GFF's own bamboo rod expert and maker of these beautiful rods. Best known for his extremely popular series on making your own bamboo rods.

St. Croix has long been known for superior spin-fishing rods... until know. Read the review here.

"In many ways, it was a rod builder's dream finish." Bob Petti writes about Trondak U-40 Duragloss LS Supreme and hands out one of the rare Global Class scores of 6 in his review. He also looks at Trondak's U-40 Rod Bond, which 'only' scores a 5.

An In-Depth Look at the Design of the Modern Fly Rod, its History, and its Role in Fly Fishing