About Vale Creek Rod Works
I am a passionate fly fisher, precision machinist running our own machine shop for the last 21 years.
I machined my first part when I was seven years old on my Dad's metal lathe in the shed in our back yard, since then all I have done is make stuff, I love making things especially fly rods and reels so please talk to me about building your next fly rod!
My rod building studio over looks the Vale Creek in Perthville NSW, hence the name Vale Creek Rodworks. From here I create our beautiful hand made custom fly rods.
My first modern glass build was an Epic 476 and I instantly fell in love with the action and feel of modern glass. I've found my Epic glass to be good in close while still having the power for making a longer cast when needed. They also feature plenty of flex for light tippet protection but still able to pull up a fast running power house of a fish.
To get a better understanding of where fibreglass fly rods were heading I have now built and tested rods using blanks from Kabuto Rods, Ijuin Rods and Blue Heron Glass Geek out of Japan, James Green, McFarland, JP Ross and Anglers Roost from the United States, along with more Epics from New Zealand. These rods range from 1 weight through to 10 weight glass.
If you would like to visit and test cast any of our rods please contact Mick.
Our Build Process
Fish fiber glass and feel the fishes every move.
Mick Warren
I am a passionate fly fisher, precision machinist running our own machine shop for the last 21 years.
I machined my first part when I was seven years old on my Dad's metal lathe in the shed in our back yard, since then all I have done is make stuff, I love making things especially fly rods and reels so please talk to me about building your next fly rod!
My rod building studio over looks the Vale Creek in Perthville NSW, hence the name Vale Creek Rodworks. From here I create our beautiful hand made custom fly rods.
My first modern glass build was an Epic 476 and I instantly fell in love with the action and feel of modern glass. I've found my Epic glass to be good in close while still having the power for making a longer cast when needed. They also feature plenty of flex for light tippet protection but still able to pull up a fast running power house of a fish.
To get a better understanding of where fibreglass fly rods were heading I have now built and tested rods using blanks from Kabuto Rods, Ijuin Rods and Blue Heron Glass Geek out of Japan, James Green, McFarland, JP Ross and Anglers Roost from the United States, along with more Epics from New Zealand. These rods range from 1 weight through to 10 weight glass.
If you would like to visit and test cast any of our rods please contact Mick.
Our Build Process
- We use the highest quality flor grade cork rings to create our grips, then we individually machine the center of each ring to perfectly fit the blank.
- Next we mark out where we want to position the grip, then we glue the rings to the blank one at a time taking care to have glue between each ring and the blank.
- We then clamp them in place with a jig, taking care to remove excess glue, we leave it to cure for minimum of 24 hours.
- After it has cured we then place the blank with cork rings fixed in place into our lathe and carefully sand it to our customers desired shape and size. Cork is a natural material and you will always have some blemishes but we prefer not to use filler.
- Next I glue the reel seat in place then wrap the hook keeper in place and prep the butt section for epoxy coating of the wraps.
- If you commission a rod build from Vale Creek Rod works you can have any shaped grip you want as we shape to our customers personal preference long, short, fat or thin what ever your taste.
- You can also pick your preference in guide finish i e hard chrome or black nickel coated and also you can have your choice of stripping guide even colored agate guides and wraps to match your rod.
Fish fiber glass and feel the fishes every move.
Mick Warren