R.L. Nunley Fly Rods...
a Short History

Fishing Cane on Wyoming's Snake River

Many years ago, I decided I wanted a fine bamboo fly rod, but back then, money was scarce, and there was no way I could lay out the kind of money it took to buy a custom cane rod. This being the case, I decided to find old cane fly rods and restore them, moving up in quality more and more with each rod until I finally got the kind of Custom Cane Fly Rod that I really wanted. Before long, I found myself immersed in repairing the rods to the point that I was building sections for the older rods. One day it dawned on me, that if I could duplicate the "cheap" fly rods, why could I not duplicate the expensive Custom fly rods... so... I just dove in and started building rods after some of the Classic Tapers.

At first I was very happy with the rods I was building, but then realized that nobody (that I knew of, at the time) had ever built a fly rod that exactly suited what I expected from a quality cane rod. This led me to research exactly why bamboo rods react and cast the way they do. After many months of brushing up on Physics and digging through the old textbooks from my Engineering studies, I delved into the formulas originally used by Everett Garrison and used them to develop bamboo fly rods that would cast in a manner that was comfortable for me.

The first few were nothing more than test rods and ended up in the trash can at the end of my work bench. After many hours of planing and fighting bamboo, I finally built a rod that cast the way I wanted one to. From that point, it was just a matter of spending a lot of time at the work bench, designing the same action into different length and line weight rods.

At the time I was very happy with what I had done, and I thought that I'd figured out the rodmaking business, at least from the craftsman's standpoint... Then along came Ron Kusse... Ron, the former Vice President of H.L. Leonard Rod Company, became a very dear friend and a much admired mentor. He taught me things about making bamboo fly rods that I never imagined. With his advice and help, my rods soon soared to a new pinnacle. Even after producing almost 600 rods, I still learn something new from Ron every time we speak. Not only do I learn about the making of the rods, but I learn about the history of rodmaking. My friendship and mentor/student relationship with Ron has been a Godsend. My finishes are better than I ever thought (I didn't think my finish could be improved upon until Ron clued me in on a couple of things). My tapers have evolved to a much more refined and much more pleasurable to cast taper. My entire rodmaking philosophy has changed, evolved since my friendship with Ron Kusse began.

Well, at this point, all of my rods are of my own design. I no longer duplicate the classic tapers. If you want a classic taper, I'll be more than happy to recommend a quality rodmaker that specializes in reproducing the classics. I prefer to spend my time forever refining my new tapers... I say new, but the tapers are anywhere from recently developed to 15 years old. I make rods from 6' to 9' in length ranging from 2 weight to 7 weight. You can see the list of rod models and prices on the pricing page.