Decoration

  Ever since the first custom rod was built, people have been finding ways to decorate fishing rods. What started out with simple crosswraps consisting of diamonds and chevrons, has over the years blossomed into a full-blown subculture of folks that have pioneered and perfected the art of color change weaves, fades, olive branch wraps, feather inlays and a whole host of other decorative techniques. I'd be lying if I said that when I first started building rods, I didn't partake in a decorative wrap or two myself. After all, they are gorgeous to look at, and with the current influx of thread offered in a dizzying array of colors, the possibilities are limitless.

  It wasn't long however that many of us began to explore ways in which a rod could not just be decorated, but improved as well. The most well-known and accessible of these decorations would be inlays of various types of wood, cork, and/or acrylic to help improve balance in a fishing rod. Over the years, however, I have developed what I consider to be more and more of a reductionist point of view when it comes to fishing rod decoration. I suppose I could blame it on age...or maybe just sheer laziness, but probably about 15 years ago I began to question the need for heavy decoration on my personal fishing rods. It was around that time that I adopted more of a bamboo aesthetic for just about everything I built. A subtle splash of classic color in blue, green, maroon, or brown tipped off with an elegant single inlaid wind or trim band in a contrasting thread color was about as fancy as it got.

  It wasn't long ago however that my view of what a fishing rod is changed. Not necessarily for the better or for the worse, but to more of a functional point of view. These days I look at a fishing rod as strictly a tool. I suppose it can be a palette for artistic expression, but for me, the act of angling IS the artistic expression, and the rod is merely a tool used to construct the sculpture. What I found was that the ONLY time I ever paid attention to any sort of decoration on a rod, was when I was engaged in the act of applying the decoration TO the rod. Once I got out on the water, the focus was where it should be....on the fishing.

  And to be honest, I find it fun to go against the grain of building of heavily decorated rods, by putting as little as possible on a rod, to pacify my minimalist point of view. I suppose it's the punk rock ethic in me that wants to get right down to what's important, and that's the fishing. There are many important performance advantages to a reductionist philosophy though, the most important of which would be more efficient performance through the reduction of weight. As Gary Loomis once told me; "A rod is in its most efficient form when it is a bare blank. Anything you do to it beyond that is a reduction in efficiency and performance". I wholeheartedly agree, and for the last decade and a half, I have built just about every rod in my quiver with the simple stealth aesthetics of the original Loomis GLX. A single-color wrap with no tipping, and the lightest accouterments available. Hell, most of my rods don't even have a label or inscription of any sort.

  Many of these preferences came from my days of building guitars. I was always so amused at the folks who would spend thousands on a Paul Reed Smith and a boutique amp, only to sit on the edge of their bed to play Smoke On The Water. Then there were the likes of prodigies like Nuno Bettencourt who built his axe from spare parts, and just left it bare wood...never even bothered to paint or finish it. And ironically enough, 35 years later it's still the guitar he plays on stage. I remember reading somewhere that there were even blood stains on it from an onstage accident he had at an early gig in his career...BRILLIANT!

  All this to say, that in spite of the myriad of decorative techniques available to the custom rod builder, it's still up to the angler to be able to get the job done. And, no amount of multicolored thread, fancy feather inlays, and marbled acrylic will assist in that. You have to be like Nuno....you have to be willing to willing to work, work, work and BLEED for it. And if a bit of that blood stains the cork grip, so much the better. Consider it a bit of permanent, personalized decoration

Hope you all are having a great week,

Andy