Just in time for your summer fly fishing, I've reduced the price on all of the hand stitched leather accessories!! These are all made in my shop, by hand, one at a time & now you can get them at a much lower price.

All of these items are unique & only one of each is available. Made from the finest of natural leathers, they are the finest angling accessories you can have & will be able to pass on to future generations of anglers.

Along with a few leather fishing bags in different colors & types of leather, there is currently available one unique leather fly book. Larger than my standard leather fly wallets, this book will allow you to hold larger flies & more of them.

There is also available this very distinctive & unique round reel case, too:

For more information & more photos of these custom fly fishing accessories, please visit the Hand Stitched Leather Accessories page of this website. If you have any questions about anything you see there, or are interested in having a custom leather piece made to your specifications, please contact me & I'll be happy to help you.

Here's your chance to have some truly one of a kind, hand made leather accessories at a great price!!  (Note: check back here often as in the coming days I will be adding more of these leather items).

I hope you're all having a fantastic summer so far!!

A while back, Mike Buriak of Mountain Brook Fly Rods got in touch with me & told me about an idea he had. Mike was working on designing a new line of fiberglass fly rods & thought that the rod tubes & rod bags Dad & I make would make nice homes for his new rods. He also had an idea to pair the first few rods with the fishing bags we make, too. Both the tubes & fishing bags are customized with Mikes vintage-styled Mountain Brook Fly Rods patches. Mike's a heck of a nice guy so I jumped at the chance to work with him & pair his rods with my accessories.

Well, recently Mike introduced this new line of fly rod, & folks, they look darn good to me!!

The fiberglass blanks for these rods are made by Mike McFarland, of The McFarland Rod Company to Mike Buriak's design. Mr McFarland makes some of the finest glass rods & blanks on the market today & Mike Buriak has built some gorgeous rods on these awesome blanks!!

As all three of us (Mike Buriak, Mike McFarland, & myself) are Pennsylvanian rod makers, this package is truly a PA fly rod outfit!!!!

Mike is offering these in two sizes, both 2 piece rods (I looove 2 pc glass rods, myself). Here's Mike's description of these rods:

Appalachian 632…. This little 6ft, 3wt model was designed to target the Brookies of the great Appalachian Mountain Range where my family traditions in fly-fishing originated. This classic two piece, tip over butt model is great for roll casting buggers and still has the finesse of throwing little stimulators and caddis. It has a great classic glass feel with a progressive tip for hook sets on the little gems of the Appalachians. “This is just my preference and opinion when I state the following”, sometimes fishing slower and other glass I noticed I missed a few strikes in tight quarters, so this is just something a little more progressive in action.  This little gem can handle a lot of diverse conditions, and I tend to under “gun” at times because I like to push rods to the limit and enjoy feeling the fight.  I have fished bigger water as well with this one, and it’s a performer. Personally, I tend to fish a 3 wt most of the time

Salmo Trutta 852….  This 8 ft. 5wt, 2 piece was designed with my home waters in mind of the Pine Creek Valley (Big Pine Creek), Penns Creek, and Spring Creek here in Central Pennsylvania. The browns in these waters always make me smile, and relieves the stress of everyday life.) The older I get the more I cherish these precious moments on the stream. This model has the backbone to do it all from nymphing, or a dry with a dropper, and reaching out there at a pretty good distance when needed.  The goal was to offer a solid all-around rod. Just like the Appalachian, this model has a progressive recovery to shoot some line, and yet have that full flex feel for a great “digging” and “head shaking” brown.

I am so very pleased to be a part of this wonderful line of fly rods & to be working with Mike Buriak. He's an upstanding, honest guy who is a true pleasure to work with. If you're looking for an affordable, high quality, well made glass fly rod, then why not consider one of these fantastic rods from Mountain Brook Fly Rods?

To see more photos of these rods, tubes, & bags - including Mike's contact info -please see this post Mike put up at the Fiberglass Flyrodders Forum by clicking HERE.

One of the most popular bamboo fly rods that I make among short-rod anglers is my one piece "banty" bamboo. Well, I've just listed one over on the Available Rods page of this website!!

​ Many anglers have used these Banty rods on all kinds of water from small brush-covered streams, to wide open lakes, catching everything from 4" wild brook trout to heavy largemouth bass & all types of fish in between. All this from a rod that weighs 1 1/2 ounces!!

The medium / fast action of this rod will allow you to fish wets, dries, nymphs, & smaller streamers all well. Unlike a lot of shorter rods, were the action is limited because of the reduced length of the rod, the taper on this rod makes it very sensitive - you can feel every bump & tick of your fly hook as your line moves through the water. Although it is labeled & made for a 4 weight fly line, some anglers have told me they absolutely love the rod with a 3 weight line on it, too.

This rod is brand new & has never been fished. It features:
​- All cork grip & reel seat with two aluminum knurled slide rings to hold the reel, for reduced weight.
- Nickle Silver winding check above the grip
- Chromed, stainless steel stripping guide, line guides, & tip top
- Brown silk thread wraps throughout 
- Medium flamed bamboo
- Over all rod weight of 1.5 ounces
- Comes in a custom made brown cotton flannel rod bag & a custom fit brown canvas covered PVC rod tube with padded ends, zippered closure, & leather name tag describing the rod inside.

For more photos & information about this neat little fly rod, please visit the Available Rods page of this website. If you have any questions about this rod, or anything on this website, please feel free to contact me.

Here's your chance to have a very versatile, short fly rod. Find out why so many fly anglers have enjoyed these one piece Banty rods!!

Well, here in Pennsylvania it has been a very wet & cold start to the trout season, but with some really nice days thrown in there, too, luckily. At the very beginning of the season the streams were all very high & blown out. Then the month of May began with almost biblical rain!! What's an angler to do?!!?

Fortunately, things seemed to level off, weather - wise, & conditions have been fairly decent for the last week or so. As you would expect, it put all the hatches off schedule &, because the streams were not fishable for some time, we even missed some of the hatches coming off. That said, nature always does a balancing act, & the cool nights have helped to delay a lot of hatches, buying us anglers some time for the streams to come down to good levels.

In fact, the other day I happened to see a small Light Cahill hatch in a place where the Cahills should have been done for the year about two weeks ago. On that part of the stream you can tell when the Cahills are just about done with their run for the year, as the hatches get a lot smaller. They can last for three weeks or so on that stretch of the stream, but when they start to go, there's a lot less of them coming off the water every evening.......& here they were still hatching two weeks or so late. It has been a strange year. I'd say it's been a "fish 'em when you can" type of trout season here. 

How has it been where you are? Have any great fishing photos or stories you'd like to share? Please feel free to share them with me & if you want, share them with everyone on the Beyond The Rod Shop page of this website.

I always love seeing your fishing photos & hearing your tales of adventure, so please feel free to contact me & let me know all about what you folks have been up to on the water.

I hope you're all having a fantastic fishing season so far!!!

I've just put together a fresh, new video showing you just a few of the things that go into making a bamboo fly rod by hand. This isn't intended to be a "how-to" video, but just a quick peek behind the curtain into the rod shop.

​Take a short moment to look over my shoulder while I work on some custom, hand-made bamboo fly rods!!