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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Neil Faulkner used to watch his father assemble fishing rods using baby food jars and a dictionary. The old man would put thread in the jars and feed it through the big book of words toward the rod, ...

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 ...