R.K. Bolt 5WT – 8’0″ – 3pc w/Extra Tip #1205. Uplocking Reel Seat with beautiful Zebra Wood Spacer and Robert’s Brass Ferrule Plugs.

“Robert K. Bolt has been making rods for more than 20 years with several hundred rods built.

Robert is one of the very few rod makers on the west coast of the U.S. with a direct link to the discipline, heritage, and craftsmanship of the old masters, toiling daily with the equipment and tooling handed down through Winston to Gary H. Howells to Robert Bolt. These rods may be art, but they are made for fishing, with a singular action refined through the generations to accomplish all a fly fisher needs to do in a day’s fishing.

In the early hand-planing days, Robert had the assistance of many knowledgeable fly fishers, including Andy Puyans, Jim Adams, Marty Keane, and Gary H. Howells. Aside from being expert anglers, these individuals taught Robert the extraordinary history and high values of fly fishing and the embodiment of centuries of this history and values in high quality bamboo rods; a history and build-value he has taken to heart.

Through Robert’s friendship with Andy Puyans and Gary Howells, he was offered an unprecedented opportunity to continue this commitment to the traditions and build values of the highest quality bamboo rod builders who came before him. The acquisition of the Gary H. Howells rod shop, and the ensuing initiation and immersion in these precise and refined build values, brought Robert’s rods to a level of detail and care second to none. Instrumental in this initiation were Glenn Brackett, and, especially, Jeff Walker, who was, near the end of his career at Winston, one of the finest living rod makers and keenest thinkers about all things bamboo.

Robert Bolt’s commitment to the highest level of build-value includes the precision crafting of all hollow rod blank, all ferrules, ferrule plugs, reel seat fillers, reel seat fixtures (screw-lock, seat pockets, slide bands, etc.), and grip checks. Immersion in the traditional values also allows Robert to avoid, “reinventing the wheel”, using all the traditional methods melded together with modern tools, equipment and knowledge, including myriad hand tools handed down from generations past as well as jigs and fixtures made by Robert for task-specific requirements.

This dedication to the highest build-value produces a rod built to last a lifetime of chasing trout with the exceptional and singular action that only a bamboo fly rod can offer.”