Adam, our tour guide, started working
at Winston six years ago. He told
us one of the senior employees
approached him one day as he was
working in the rod shop to say, "Dude,
you're not just here building fly rods,
you're building a Winston." That pride
and attitude echoes throughout the
building. Employees are proud to
wear Winston shirts, and hang grip
and grins above their work spaces to
remind themselves why they are here.
Our first stop was to the pre-preg
material storage and pattern
cutting area. Annette, Winston's
general manager and one of the
most respected people in the fly
rod industry, gave us some industry
insight that needs to remain at
Winston. However, the great lengths
she and her team go through to make
sure materials are taken care of and
sourced well are top shelf. I hadn't
realized what an advantage in butt
strength boron adds to the rod. I also
didn't realize how tough boron material
is. The pattern cutter told us that
he can only cut about 18 inches of
material before it ruins his razor blade
and he needs to switch. Patterns are
cut out by hand to exact specifications
that have been perfected since 1929.
Next, we went downstairs to the area
where the blanks are then rolled, taped,
sanded and finally baked. Probably one
of the biggest light bulbs that went
on for me in this process was actually
something one of the employees,
John, said. They sand their blanks so
that they can make sure when they
put their proprietary green finish on
the blanks any imperfections can be
noticed easily. I can tell you not all rod
companies do this. If any employee
at Winston finds an imperfection in a