As I write this, I’m packing the car for a trip to Florida to visit the in-laws. If I have my way, I’ll be exploring the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, one of the few remaining unspoiled ...

Chet Kiekhafer’s business requires the accuracy of an engineer, the steady hands of a surgeon, the creativity of an artist, and the mastery of an avid angler. Kiekhafer of Hutchinson incorporates each ...

I'm getting anxious now. Tom Smithwick, who moved to Shippensburg several years ago, builds bamboo fly rods. A couple weeks ago, he found three bamboo rod blanks and offered to help me build out a fly ...

Building fishing rods is a productive way to spend winter evenings. A few hours of work will result in a rod better than anything you can buy off the rack. Of course it will take you a few rods of ...

CHISHOLM — If there’s ever a tornado warning for this Iron Range town, Mike Lesch will likely be safe. That’s because he already spends a lot of time in his basement shop, where he turns drab sticks ...

When it comes to making custom fishing rods, Barry Weaver employs many skills. Weaver alternates among being a woodworker, an engineer, a lathe operator, a technician and an assembler. And when it ...

CHISHOLM, Minn. — If there’s ever a tornado warning for this Iron Range town, Mike Lesch will likely be safe. That’s because he already spends a lot of time in his basement shop, where he turns drab ...

It took Dale Clemens less than 10 years to build a hobby into a million dollar-plus business. And his business is still building – rod building, to be exact. Clemens, 53, oversees the world’s largest ...

Rob Horken might best be remembered as "Ernie the Angler," his longtime alter ego who did weekly summer fishing reports on WDAZ-TV Channel 8 in Grand Forks, but in retirement, Horken keeps his feet in ...

WOODLAND — Gary Loomis has reeled in thousands of fish. His passion for designing rods to catch them has helped Woodland spawn a cluster of rod manufacturers revered by anglers across the country. The ...