Above photo: “In the strings,” final calls, a butt section ready to be heat-treated.
When I send a message to my customers that says “In the strings,” it's a signal that it's the last call for any changes to all hardware and cosmetics, including wraps and agate strippers. The cork is on the mandrel, and everything is ready to be put together. I don't think I have had many customers who haven't made edits to their rods. It's a pretty standard back-and-forth for months on end. Custom rods come with lots of phone calls.
Above photo: It just threads, “make it yours bro,”
my coined phrase that people tease me about.
Because I come from an academic design background and have a father who was an MIT engineer, we are seasoned veterans of last-minute changes, edits, post-mortems, and often strange requests. It's safe to say it's all part of being a custom rod maker. After 30 years, you become very patient with people in general, and I enjoy talking with them most of all. It's the stories you hear that really make me smile; it's all about the customer narrative when it's all said and done. Sure, you get the crazies, but when I think back on them, they make me laugh, and they become stories in my journals as well. Above photo: Always a dopamine hit for me when
customers send me photos of my rods with a big brown trout.
Storytelling is a beautiful thing.
If you're cranking out rods for faceless customers without an open mind and relationship, you would dread the craft. It would become a production task rather than a craft. I would probably stop making rods if it wasn't an enriching “people experience.” The individual design of what we create is what makes it interesting for the long haul; that needs to be embraced and always reinvented. People are fascinating. I always emphasize to customers not to think of bamboo as so delicate that it needs to be handled with white gloves. Cane is an extremely tough material. These tools are extremely durable and can take a beating decade after decade. Enjoy them and fish them hard! Bank a lot of “enjoyment hours” with them. I'm not sure where it's written that cane is delicate, but it could not be further from the truth. I have been fishing one of my rods hard since 1997, no sets, simply cosmetic scratches and normal wear and tear.
Above photo: All hardware is milled and turned by myself; a lot of human touching
goes on within the course of making a rod; making is the key word.
It's the narratives behind the rods that keep me inspired by the craft and joyful. Being mindful of the human condition as a craftsman is most important because, without people's stories and interactions, there is only an hourglass. The evolution and sequence of a cane rod tells a story; the human touch is all over it from beginning to end. The mindful “finishing” and visual cadence of the fly rod is like the end of a journal entry for me; it's about the beginning, the middle, and the end. Then and only then can a whole new chapter begin with the same rod.
“In the strings” literally means I'm ready to set something free!
Thanks for letting me share!
~Clint Bova
We are approaching 200k readers this month, and I enjoy the messages.
I will be doing a product review soon for 2026, and unlike last year's review, this one will be fly-tying related.
