I had owed Jim Downes a visit since last June when I wrangled his little 7 ½-foot Garrison 206 away from him at PA Fly Fishing Heritage Day. That rod has a beautiful, smooth, full-flexing action very ...

FREMONT -- Wes Cooper won't be fishing today, the opening day of trout fishing season. He is more likely to be in his basement shop making bamboo fly rods. Cooper, 81, has built 245 such rods since he ...

FREMONT, MI – In the quiet of his basement workshop, Wes Cooper has been keeping a 90-year-old Michigan tradition alive - that of hand-building bamboo fly rods in an era dominated by mass-produced ...

Making a bamboo drift boat is just like making a bamboo fly rod – times 10. “Instead of 700 hours, this is about 70 hours,” Ron Knowles said of the handmade fishing gear he makes at his home in ...