I choose the finest, most durable quality hardware and components to craft a J.M. Reid Bamboo fly rod, many of which are hand made by craftsmen from across North America. I am proud to be able to offer the following:
Nickel-silver cap and ring reelseats made by Ray Lee of Idaho, USA. These beautiful downlocking reelseats feature outstanding, understated details and are my choice on most trout rods.
My house offering reelseats for spey and two-handed rods is a dark nickel-plated aluminum, threaded barrel, downlocking proprietary design that will accept both modern standard reel feet as well as the longer and wider feet very common to vintage salmon reels. These reelseats are made to my specifications by the talented Mr. Joel Lemke of Lemke Designs based in Oregon, USA.
Dark, tastefully figured walnut is my standard choice for most reelseats, however I do stock a reasonable inventory of select woods and offer many custom options.
Also available are beautiful and unique natural agate stripping guides. Set in nickel-silver bezels and hand made by Joe Arguello of the J.E. Arguello rod company, Colorado, USA.
In addition to the handcrafted items above I also use only flor grade Portuguese cork rings for your rod handles and grips and do not use filler of any kind. Each grip is glued ring by ring directly on the rod blank and is shaped by hand, one at a time for each client. Two handed rods or rods that feature a fighting butt will be crafted with either a rubberized or burl cork in the lower-most part of the grip as this is a high wear area.
I also offer both Mildrum style and solid ring aluminum stripping guides with bright chrome or darkened nickel plating, as well as either bright or dark hard chrome snake guides and tiptops.
I offer my clients a vast color palette from which I will work with you to choose suitable and complimentary wrap colors. I have an extensive inventory of thread colors and sizes ranging from Gossamer silk to Size A. Through finishing techniques and color choice almost any color, hue or degree of translucency is attainable……almost.
Model and Serial No. info
E.g., No. 1307 – this is the 7th rod made in 2013, the first 2 digits represent the year the rod was made and the last 2 digits represent the number in series for that year.
E.g., 12083 Winter Run – the first 2 or 3 numbers refer to the length of a rod (12’0”); the second number is the line weight of the rod (8 wt); the final digit indicates the number of sections a rod has (in this case 3); and of course the “winter run” refers to the rod’s taper.