About
My History
I started building Bamboo rods at a time when there was damned little information available on the subject.
So, I fumbled around in the dark and made mistakes, but also found new ways of doing things. These would now be considered unconventional, but I did them just because I didn’t know any better.
They worked.
Eventually I sorted myself out and started making friends in the bamboo community. Unlike the competitive days of production rodbuilding, we shared information and techniques, and it got so I could build a pretty nice rod.
Still, I knew early on the difference between building a nice rod and building a great fishing rod was the taper - the soul of the bamboo fly rod.
Once I started messing around with the tapers I’d built and collected, I figured out how to craft rods that felt good to me – rods that fished better than my prior tapers.
My tapers evolved from rods I had cast and fished and enjoyed, and over time, I found I most enjoyed rods by Granger, Young and Payne.
I also learned another painful lesson: applying “labels” to rod actions is worse than useless.
Terms like dry fly action, semi-parabolic and progressive have no meaning.
People attach meanings to those words, often telling me that they weren’t interested in my Trout Bum series because they never were comfortable with semi-parabolics.
Get one in their hands without tipping them off more often than not lead to a comment like “hey, this is great.” Sparse Gray Hackle said it best when asked, “What is the best fly rod?” Sparse answered “The one that feels good to you.”
My Construction Methods
Sweet Water Rods are predominately made with flamed bamboo, though brown-tone and blonde rods are available on special order. Aged Tonkin culms are individually selected for the specific requirements of each rod.
I was one of the first rod makers to travel to China and see the wonderful bamboo we used to build our rods firsthand. It was an educational experience, and I learned a lot about the vibrancy and treatment of bamboo.
I put what I learned to good use; my tempering and heat treating methods improved tremendously, and gained a great deal of insight into how cane reacts to the forces acting on it.
All my rods feature a swelled butt and bookmatched tips. Ferrules and slide band hardware are blued, with complimenting gunsmoke titanium carbide snake guides wrapped with 000 silk. Extra fancy wood reel seat and brass capped rod tube complete the package.
Rods are made to be esthetically as well as sensually pleasing. “If they don’t work they’re not worth making pretty.”
As my friend Ed Engle says, half of “making it” is sticking it out.
-George E. Maurer
Creator of Sweet Water Rods