SRG 2007

The southern rod makers gathering was great this year. There were 80+ registered for the event. I attend the gatherings to learn as much as possible but it's the fellowship that makes it fun. Here's a photo of Lee Koch (Lincoln, NE) telling fish stories...well not really. He was doing a presentation on hex reel seat inserts. Not sure what that gesture has to do with reel seat inserts. Alan Kube (Denver, CO) is always willing to talk bamboo. He was wrapping guides on the gathering rod in this photo. Casting the rods is icing on the cake. And there were lots of rods there this year.









Jeff Hatton hauled his personal bamboo museum to Arkansas for the gathering. It's an amazing collection of bamboo rods dating back to the late 1800s. Very cool!





I mentioned the gathering rod. A rod was made as a gift for Lowell Davis. Lowell has organized the gathering for the last 5 years. The success of SRG has been largely because of his efforts to keep it going in recent years. The rod was assembled from parts donated by several rod makers. It was assembled at the gathering by volunteers that mounted the ferrules and wrapped the guides. The blank was signed by everyone that worked on it. A silk fly line, Hardy reel and dozens of flies were also presented to Lowell. Lowell seemed to struggle with accepting the gifts at first but he got over that. These gatherings would never happen without folks like Lowell that volunteer their personal time to organize the event. No one is on the payroll at SRG. See more info on the gathering at www.southernrodmakers.org. Charlie Curro has posted SRG 2007 pictures at www.curro.net/SRG/index.html.