Catskill Rod Makers Gathering
Hi,
For anyone interested, here's a look at last weekend's gathering of 100 cane rod makers at the Catskill Museum and Fly Fishing Center.
While the weekend begins with a big Friday night supper and George Barnes' homemade cheeses, we always miss that driving down after school. The real start was Saturday morning's dedication of the culm of cane (to be made into a rod for donation) by Harold Demarest, the 95+ years young importer who actually supplied the cane to make the original Garrison rods. Since the taper this year was to be a Garrison taper, Hoagy Carmichael, Jr, who wrote the book on Everett Garrison, told how that came about next.
Rod racks were assembled, and dozens of rods, some traditional, some new designs, some amazing experiments, were out for two days of casting with a variety of reels and lines. The most unusal, I thought, was a two-strip rod (poor man's quad) that was then beveled into a triangle. Cast just fine
Hands-on sessions on making reel seats, Leroy lettering, and making leather reel cases were offered. There was a session for new makers (my husband David Van Burgel and Art Port led that one). I ran the dvd of the 2005 Catskill Cane class I put together from our June footage, and David Rinker supplied the Cahrlie Jenkins dvd.
I spent most of the time just casting assorted tapers, sharing ideas (mostly absorbing them), and catching up with old friends, meeting new. Maine had a good showing (David Van Burgel, George Barnes, Don Taylor, Henry Mitchell, Carl Cote, me), and Michael Simon (artist and occassionally a Mainer), and there was John Zimney, Bill Harms, Bill Fink, Dennis Higham, Al and Carole Medved, Tom Smithwick, Ron Barch, John Pickard, more (100 there), many attending exceptional makers who have never sold a rod.
The Museum is raising funds for a new building to house, among other things, a bamboo shop. They have a $350,000 grant from one individual to match, and Hoagy donated Garrison's own equipment for a start.
Good time, good people. I was awed, as always.
Kat
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