Fisherman's rods are quite a catch

By Ed Mahon

- emahon@centredaily.com

Jim Downes figures he's got enough bamboo — about 600 stalks of Tonkin cane, mostly stored in a Coburn garage — to last him through retirement.

CDT photo/Ed Mahon

Jim Downes uses a blade to plane, or smooth, strips of bamboo to make a fly-fishing rod in his Coburn shop.

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Downes has built about 150 fly-fishing rods by hand, 45 of them since he opened a Penns Valley shop in August. Each takes him 28 to 30 hours to complete — that’s with the hours he saves by building two at a time.

Those rods are worth about $1,100 each. And Downes has full faith in the materials.

“I think the bamboo rods fight a fish much better than a graphite rod,” he said, inside his Coburn shop. “You can feel his heart beat when you’re hooked up to the bamboo.”

The lifelong fisherman started building rods 14 years ago and has been seriously committed to the hobby for about six years.

As a construction superintendent living in Gaithersburg, Md., Downes oversaw the building of high-rise condos.

“Of course, you know where that market went,” he said.

So he retired a couple of years earlier than he had planned, and last July, he and his wife, Sue, moved to Centre Hall. He set up work space in a shop behind the Feathered Hook, a business where he has sold his rods for years. It’s across the street from Penns Creek.

“I try to get over there once a day, even if it’s just for an hour,” Downes said.

Making the rods is a meticulous process involving patience, flames and more patience.

He trims the bamboo into smaller and smaller strips. Then before he glues them together, he planes the strips, making sure there are no loose coils.

“This is probably the most critical as far the whole operation is concerned. Because if you don’t get this within 1/1,000th of an inch, you get a glue line,” Downes said. “Glue lines are structurally immaterial, because the glue is stronger than the bamboo anyway. But they’re cosmetically unacceptable. So you need to get this right down to the bare nothing on that plane.”

Sometimes, he’ll end the process with a yellow sunshine cloth typically used to polish silver or jewelry. “But it works real well on the urethane finish,” he said.

At www.ljdownesrodcompany.com, Downes displays photos of his best work and posts his musings on fishing rods, offering advice for pros and novices. For example: “Never buy a rod to fish without trying it. At least lawn cast it, regardless of price.”

Or: Never lose “sight of the fact that it is just a fishing rod and meant to be fished.”

John Bosek, of Rochester, N.Y., was in town Monday on a fishing trip. He’s used one of Downes’ rods for about three years. He followed Downes’ rule about never buying without casting.

His choice back then came down to two rods. The first would carry a longer, heavier line, which would be good for casting farther. But he was looking for a rod that would load in short distances.

“I liked the feel of it,” Bosek said of his choice, adding that the difference was in “the suppleness of the bend through the center section of the rod.”

One of Downes’ bamboo fly rods will be raffled to benefit the Penns Valley Conservation Association. Tickets cost $50, and only 50 will be sold. Tickets can be purchased at the Elk Creek Cafe and Aleworks in Millheim.

The drawing will be at 3 p.m. June 21 at the restaraunt, but the winner does not have to be present the day of the raffle.