I’m proud to introduce the Backwaterangler.com community to our very own Bill Felter. Bill is a Maryland State Licensed Fishing Guide, Backwater Angler Clinic Instructor, and Bamboo fly rod Builder. Bill will be contributing to the site on various topics including fly fishing reports, guide know-how and bamboo rod building, of course. –Theaux

Hi there, it’s Bill. I just started working on another rod for the shop. I finished flaming and splitting the culm that will become a copy of the famous Model 97 taper designed by Jim Payne. It’s a 7-foot, 2 piece rod with 2 tips that casts a 4 weight line. I really love this rod for its smooth action and it’s my favorite rod for fishing those little Brook Trout streams out in Garrett County. It loads up with just a few feet of line out and it has enough power to reach out to about 40 feet before it starts to feel overworked. It really shines in the 15 to 30 foot range, which is as far as anyone would need to cast in most small stream situations. It can handle streamers up to about #6 and turns over long leaders for fishing really little dry flies. I routinely fish this taper on the Gunpowder and think it does a nice job of landing fish in the 12 inch and under range. It’s not the rod you’d take to the North Branch.

The rod is darkly flamed and will have blued ferrules and hardware, an agate stripping guide and dark bronze guides. The reel seat hardware will be the classic down-locking cap and ring style. Wraps will be chestnut brown silk with black tipping. I hope to have it finished and in the shop by October. After that I’ll have 1 or 2 rods ready for the holidays.

Tight lines,
Bill