Whirlwind New Zealand

Had a quick few day in the South Island just recently for a wedding and managed to sneak in a few hours fishing. No where near enough time but just enough to get me hooked on this place!

Slipped in to see the guys at Swift Fly Fishing to put some faces to names and wow those guys are running a tight business, the standard of quality they produce and control is out standing. Well worth the quick visit.

Will be back in due time and next time with more time and better prepared, can’t wait!

Spring Creek Double Hill

Pig of a brown lurking

Rakaia river

Rakaia River

Swift Fly Fishing HQ

Lake Pukaki

Lindis River

Clay Cliffs

Clay Cliffs

Fly Box

Having a surplus amounts of oddly sized timber scattered through out the workshop I decided it was time to do something about it. Boxes.
To keep with the natural theme cork is used rather than foam for the internals with brass hardwear and magnets for the latch super simple and elegant. Sizing are 5 1/2″ length 2 3/4″ width and 1 3/8″ high, these 2 pictured are Tea Tree and Aust Red Cedar with many more varieties available.
Price is $75.00 AUD + postage which roughly exchanges to $54 USD.Paypal is available upon request.

Lucky 7 Oberon Reels The Fiberglass Manifesto

For some time now Cam from The Fiberglass Manifesto and I have had a plan to build a few reels and document the steps on his blog. This mostly came about to the Pabst Blue Ribbon reel I build sometime ago landed in his lap. Cam though it would be brilliant to make a limited number of these reels on his favourite beer Bell’s Brewery Oberon Ale. He snuck a few over in the post and a few months later we the wheels are tuning on these reels, so far the bodies and spools are completed of the seven with all but two of them being accounted for, I’m pretty happy with the initial response of these reels!  Few photo’s of the work in progress and a photo of the original PBR reel.

The Fiberglass Manifesto Lucky 7 Build

TFM – PBR

 

Alternative Tackle

For those interested in purchasing some of my work and the work of a few  other fine builders by the likes of Christian Horgan Fine Tackle, Luke Banister Bamboo, Ijuin Rods and a select few other fine craftsman, Alternative Tackle is worth having a browse through and the added plus is most of these items are ready to ship.

Alternative Tackle

Golden Trout

This rod and reel is something I have been sitting on for some time.  They both sat in the “to be completed ” basket for several months and I just needed some sort of inspiration to get them done. It turns out flicking through some photos from our trip to California last year is all it took.

The Details

The rod is an Epic 580 built on house made seat of Australian Mallee Burl and drawn nickel silver rings with Snake Brand Guides and Struble 12mm Stripper. The reel is just a simple click with Mallee handle and a Golden Trout watercolour (by yours truly) insert sealed in epoxy.

Hope you all enjoy the final finish.  This piece is available for purchase ready to be shipped anywhere in the world $945.00 USD + shipping.

Link to our trip to Cali    TFM – Adventure

Creation

After having procrastinated for too long, I’ve finally done something about getting a webpage up and running.

Hopefully this WordPress format will serve both as an up to date blog of my work and also as a contact/storefront for those wishing to purchase my work or to have a gander at the manufacturing process.

Cheers

Vince