Nestled in a sunken valley surrounded by behemoths, our thoughts turned into actions…
Our Colorado based company started turning ideas into reality in 2017. Centered in the small Town of Blue River at an elevation of 10,000 feet, we are surrounded by five peaks soaring over 14,000 feet. While the mountain ranges trailing off these sentinels are at a more manageable 11,000 feet, they offer sanctuaries for anglers adventurous enough to hike to these high alpine lakes and streams. The nature of these waters are smaller, trickier, and often hold smaller fish, but when you do find a gem hidden in a sea of scenery, these fish are often large for the streams they inhabit and even more often a sight not unlike their surroundings.
This is the kind of environment that drove the development and need for our rods to not only withstand the inevitable abuse of such terrain but to also perform at an unprecedented level. Before the release of our first rod series, we spent 2 years designing, testing and perfecting our blanks to optimize performance, limit casting fatigue and reduce the overall weight and maintenance. With the ability to hike to high alpine lakes and streams just outside our door or drive 30 minutes to reach some floatable water has made us take a few steps back on many occasions to think about how we really want our rods to perform.
Our goal has been to build a platform that when built up will do just as well when casting dry flies attached to extremely long leaders as it can when trolling the depths with a streamer trying to coax out the large trout known to inhabit those pools. Sometimes it’s the situation at hand that depicts which rod to use. Sure, you might have a moderate action dry fly rod that presents flies so delicately you almost feel obligated to whisper around such an ethereal beast. On the other hand, you’ll have your fast to very-fast action big game rod that likely means you’ll be casting for hours before getting just one strike, but chances are it’s a fish truly worth writing home about.
Having rods such as these is natural and comes with the sense that “well one more rod wouldn’t hurt”, and often enough the only thing that suffers from such a mentality is the moral obligation to fish each one equally. What we have tried to do is eliminate some of the guess work of which rod to use by creating a rod blank that can perform in any condition it is presented with. Our story may be a short one but within it is a drive to explore and fish what is out there and to grow from every encounter. As a monk once said, “the journey is the destination”. We hope you enjoy fishing with our fly rods as much as we have enjoyed crafting them.