Tuesday, April 3, 2018

BER FLY RODS - The Twin Golden Olives Story

Do you know what is harder than building a perfect handcrafted fly rod?  How about building two perfect handcrafted fly rods that look the same in almost every way.

Italian fly rod builder Paolo Bernabei recently finished two 7'6" three weight CTS Quartz fly rod blanks with everything identical from the olive wood reel seats to the thread trims to the agate stripping guide.  Talk about exact perfection times two.  Twinning is tough but Paolo sure makes it look easy.


 Paolo wrote...  "On a warm and windy afternoon in spring last year, while I was walking among my olive trees, I noticed a small branch moving by the wind.  It seemed like a fly rod during recovery of a brown trout.  From that branch in motion, was born the desire to dress these CTS Quartz golden olive blanks with that olive wood, with it's rich dark veins and with such an intense fragrance, that remindes me so much about the amazing countrysides in middle Italy.


I’ve created in my lab a blued hardware with classic silhouette reminding me of the black veins of reel seat which is typical of olive wood.  Thread wraps are clear silk trimmed in black for the same reason.

I’ve tried to transfer to these rods a warm and clean style, with typical Italian materials.  All this just in time for spring and for the joy of two special friends...Fabio e Pasquale!"











Paolo Bernabei does not have a website but can be reached through Facebook and Instagram.

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