True Artistry: The Home of Winston Rods
As you round the bend on Montana 41 South and enter the town of Twin Bridges, the splendor of the community is easy to appreciate. "Twin" is a quiet town whose primary inhabitants are ranchers and fly fishermen. It doesn’t boast a huge affluence and economic luster, but Twin isn’t impoverished and rundown. Twin is a living example of practicality and simple sophistication surrounded by pure decadence. Well, at least for those who appreciate western heritage and good fly fishing. The town banner embodies this spirit better than any other town crest I have ever witnessed. The bronc rider wielding what appears to be a Winston rod tethered to a trout in buckskin and blue exemplifies the essence of this strong community.
Welcome To Winston
Winston Rod Company epitomizes this same essence. At first sight, the small building on the way out of town as you’re headed towards to Sheridan up the Ruby River the impression one gets is "how can such sophistication come from something so simple?" But, appearance is only skin deep. When you walk through the door (hopefully at 11:00 so you can join the daily tour of the inner workings of such a masterpiece), you are greeted by Adam Hutchison, sales coordinator, accomplished angler, and fly rod tech geek. Adam is truly passionate about his product, as he explains what embodies a Winston rod and the advancements that make them not only beautiful, but beyond functional, fly rod mastery in the first class. Adam explains how the intricacies of the Boron technology help add powerful drive to the cast when needed, but decrease weight and increase fish-ability. I like to call it the soul within the soul.
Want an up-close look at the makings of Winston Rods? Check out Sam and Fred's private tour here
The Crafthouse
Then Adam will lead you onto where the blanks are fitted, where each ferrule is cut and measured appropriately to its mated section. Whether sleeve-over or spigot ferrules, the rod fitters ensure the best and truest fit and spine alignment. Be it a Boron III X rod or the Nexus extreme, care and precision are taken to help the rod achieve best in class accuracy as well as feel. A custom honed fishing machine.
After fitting, the rods are laid out and marked for wrapping. The marked rods are then bundled with their appropriate chrome accouterments where they await pickup from the rod wrappers. All Winston rods are wrapped by local Madison county residents. Each is a true artist in the craft. You won’t find any machines or motors in their houses either; each guide is hand spun one section at a time using a highly specialized thread to blend exactly with the blank once the rod is coated.
Once the guides are wrapped and set, the rods make their way to the coating room to be applied with Winston’s own proprietary coating to not only bolster the illustrious blank, but to seal the soul into the rod by adding high grade molecular toughness.
Once dried, rods are equipped with the most elite cork grips we see in the industry today. All grips are precision lathed to exact specs painstakingly designed to help reduce fatigue and allow the rod to talk to the fisherman. These are solid grips made of premium Portuguese cork not glued and machined rings found in other rods; there isn’t any filler or cork dust to fall out at a later date.
After the cork is set and ready the rods are placed into inventory awaiting their orders to ship out. After the orders come in then is when they will be fitted the customer’s choice of reel seat. After the reel seat is set and if all passing criteria is met the rod will finally be fitted with it unique serial number on each section and its designation all painted by hand. Finally, it will be equipped with the RL Winston badge and make its way to the customer.
This is Wintson
When you pick up a Winston and cast it, you will feel it speak to you. In those words are a piece of each of those unique individuals who have placed a little of their own spirit somewhere along that blank. When you buy a Winston you are supporting grass roots America just like #North40FlyShop. Please come by and cast one and have the chance to hear what’s being said.
Looking to try out a Winston Rod? Check out our Winston Rod selection here
I would like to thank Adam and all the folks at Winston for their outstanding hospitality and sharing their expertise and passion with my family and me. They have ensured that more Winston rods are destined to line my closet.