By Friday afternoon, you could be catching fish on a rod you built with your own two hands.
This Is Not Just a Class. This Is a Legacy.
There are things you do in a life that matter only to you. And then there are things you do that echo forward — into the hands of your children, your grandchildren, the people who will fish the waters you love long after you're gone.
Building a bamboo fly rod by hand is one of those things.
The rod you build here won't just be the finest fly rod you've ever owned. It will be a piece of craft that carries your name, your patience, your hands. It will fish the Madison. It will fish the Yellowstone. And someday — maybe on a river you'll never stand in yourself — someone you love will make a first cast with it and think of you.
That's not a product. That's a legacy.
Montana Rodmakers Guild exists for one reason: to make sure that legacy is worthy of being passed down. And the lineage behind it — from Tom Morgan to Ric Plante to the rod you'll build this week — is as fine as any in American bamboo rod making.
Bamboo Hand Plane The Tool That Makes It Possible
At the heart of bamboo rod making is the hand plane — and the one you'll use all week carries a lineage that matters.
Most rod makers use what's called a planing form — a long metal groove that guides a hand plane along the strip. It's the traditional method and it works. But here's the truth that every serious rod maker eventually confronts: with planing forms, you are the precision instrument. Consistent results take years — sometimes decades — of practice to develop. The margin for error lives entirely in your hands.
The MRG Bamboo Hand Plane is different. The precision is built into the tool. You're not guessing. You're not spending years developing feel. You're holding tolerances to within half a thousandth of an inch — consistently, repeatably, strip after strip — on your very first day.
The original design came from Tom Morgan himself — a testament to the genius of a man who spent his life thinking about how to make bamboo rod building more precise, more consistent, more beautiful. Ric worked alongside Tom, learned from him, and when that chapter of the craft's history came to a close, Ric carried the knowledge forward. Then he did what a great craftsman does — he took what Tom had given him and made it better. Component by component, tolerance by tolerance, drawing on twenty years of precision machining experience.
Ric didn't reinvent it. He perfected it.
You'll pick it up Monday morning not knowing quite what to expect. By Tuesday you'll understand. By Friday you won't be able to imagine making a rod without it. The craft Tom Morgan devoted his life to lives on in this tool — and this week, it will live in your hands.