Ron Scott

A. Background

Ron Scott has been fly fishing since 1967 and building fly rods since 1975. He worked his way through college doing finish carpentry with his grandfather (old school master). After college he took on the challenge of completely renovating a 200 year old house in central Massachusetts. He did everything from making furniture and custom cabinets, hand forging hinges, door latches and cabinet hardware, to milling crown moldings and wood paneling. After finishing the renovation he took up gunsmithing and competitive bench rest shooting, then in 1987, after reading about Lee Wulff’s accomplishments, he built his first bamboo fly rod -- a 6’ ultralight rod -- and used it to catch a number Atlantic salmon with it. Today Ron continues to build fly rods, but now he not only builds them, he “makes” them from scratch. From splitting the seasoned cane, to planing the strips down, to adding the highest quality components. And in order to serve customers who want even finer embellishments he has teamed up with a highly respected goldsmith and life long friend, Lisa Svedberg. Together they can create the finest casting heirloom quality fly rod money can buy.

B. Quote from RS

“A fly rod, first and foremost, most cast extremely well. It must be designed and built to the highest order, without compromise. In order for a fly rod to cast that well it needs to be custom built for the specific requirements of the fisherman and the type of fishing he/she will be doing. Then and only then should the rod be embellished visually to honor it and make it a personal extension of yourself.”

C. Qualifications / Experience

50 plus years of fly fishing for Atlantic salmon and trout; over 40 years of woodworking, cabinet making, and building exceptional fly rods. After building many graphite and bamboo fly rods from blanks, Ron studied the art of split bamboo fly rod making under 2 masters with over 30 years of rod making experience. Every split bamboo rod he makes now starts out as a raw culm, which he painstakingly splits and planes by hand. He makes both hex and penta rods – which can be impregnated or varnished. All of Ron’s tapers are of his own design and incorporate a proprietary “elliptical” pattern that results in a very powerful yet sensitive rod. This unique taper design is called the Spitfire Taper and is currently pending registration with the USTPO. For more information please go to the Spitfire Taper tab.

D. Philosophy, Catch and Release, Fair Fight, Sustainability, etc

In 1936 Lee Wulff came up with what has become a famous quote: “Gamefish are too valuable to be caught only once.” He was way ahead of his time. Today fly fishing has become very popular and many streams are overfished. It is more important than ever that we, as fishermen, learn the proper way to catch and release fish.

I believe that, “fair fight,” means to catch a fish and play it in an ethical manner. An ethical manner is a means of fishing with respect towards the fish and the environment. There is an old saying about the three stages that a fisherman goes through. The first is when he or she wants to catch as many fish as possible -- everything is about how many fish are caught. The second stage is when the fisherman goes after the biggest fish -- the trophy fish. Toda that means a very cool picture of the fisherman holding a large fish out of the water on Social Media. The third and final stage that some fishermen reach is when the experience of fishing is more important than how many or how big the fish he catches are. This is the stage that is best exemplified by the custom bamboo fly rod. Bamboo fly rods represent the highest art in fly rod making and they provide the most challenging and enjoyable means of catching a worthy gamefish.

Backcountry Cane and Svenska Rods are two different lines of handmade split cane bamboo fly rods under one roof. Backcountry Cane rods are made by me for me without embellishments. These rods are designed by me, most but not all employ my proprietary Spitfire Taper, and are very basic fishing tools. I tend to prefer very lightweight hardware -- it's simple, strong, and serves only one purpose: to function as part of the rod as a casting machine. I sometimes use a stronger thread to wrap the ferrules which may not exactly match the thread color of the guide wraps. I may randomly stagger the nodes because I am not trying to achieve a visual effect -- the only goal is to have a good casting useful bamboo fly rod. These rods are well made, strong, and will last a lifetime but artistic beauty is not the goal. I make what I want when I want -- you can request a certain rod length and line weight and if that seems like something I would enjoy making I will take your order but you will not have any say in other aspects of the rod. There is no deposit required but I will let you know when I start and when your rod is finished -- you then can either purchase it or not. These rods are considerably less expensive than our full custom line which we call Svenska Rods.

Svenska rods are all full custom rods made specifically for one person. As described elsewhere they are a collaboration between me and Lisa Svedberg, life long friend and well known goldsmith/artist from Camden Maine. We named this line of rods "Svenska" Rods because we are both 100% Swedish. All of our grandparents immigrated from Sweden and most of them were master carpenters/woodworkers/furniture makers. It may not be a complete coincidence that at least two of the most famous and best rod makers in history were Swedish!

All Svenska Rods start with a free consultation. After all it's a two way street -- you need to feel comfortable working with us, and we need you to feel comfortable that this type of rod is right for you. A lot more work goes into this full custom line of fly rods. Because every Svenska rod is designed from the ground up to meet a specific person and his or her unique requirements, we sometimes make a trial rod to test cast before committing to the final design. And Lisa will spend a lot of time working with you to get all of the unique embellishments just the way you want them. When you get this rod you will own a absolute work of art -- and not only will it be beautiful, it will cast better than any other bamboo rod in your collection. It is an investment that you will be proud of. Sending it back to us for normal annual maintenance is recommended and is provided free of cost.