So, you married a “hardcore” fly fisherman?

The postman has nothing on the fly fisherman. photo credit: David Cannon So, when I met Bill…I knew he was a fly fisherman. In fact, on our first date we went fly fishing (technically the second date but this time around he actually talked to me *see introvert references and Bill being a man of very few […]

Space, Time and the Bamboo Fly Rod

word It’s a new year…well kind of… can we still say it’s a new year when it is almost 7% over (I did the “mathish” on that). In usual form, Oyster lunged into the New Year with dust kicking up all around us oblivious to the inevitable reflection and pause experienced by most as […]

Small is the new Big

Them: “You should franchise Oyster or try and build your brand large enough to sell it.” Me: “No.” 20 years ago, we decided that making bamboo fly rods for a living was a good idea. Why? Why would we ever dream that our passage into adulthood commerce should be anything less or more than a simple […]

Career Day and The Bamboo Fly Rod

Career Day at Blue Ridge Elementary Bill: What is your favorite thing to do in the whole world? Barrage of answers from the kids: “Drawing!” “Hunting!” “Basketball!” “Writing!” “Hunting!” “Video Games!” “Horseback riding!” “Hunting!” Bill: Now, imagine that you are able to do that “favorite thing” your entire life and make a living. .www.oysterbamboo.com

Main Street, The Bamboo Fly Rod and Love

“Find what you love and let it kill you.” – Bukowski Quinn, me (hiding), Roni and Cutter My girl Michelle and her baked goods…that just happened to look like a heart today…really. Bill and I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. We have never properly observed this particular holiday…well…we did once…23 years ago. While our memories of this fateful day […]

Karma and the Bamboo Fly Rod

In the spirit of full disclosure I must admit that the following is most likely inspired by my birthday. I turned 45 yesterday. Forty-Five. Four Five…Fifty less Five. Thirty plus Fifteen. Half of Ninety. When we started Oyster Bamboo Fly Rods, we were in our late 20s. In contrast, the majority of our clientele is and always […]

lost, found and bamboo fly rods

Many years ago, while mountain biking on the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains, I literally panicked near dusk at the bottom of a treacherous decent… Me: “Babe, we are lost.” Bill: “We are not lost…we can always go back the way we came.” 1993 Bill and I met over 21 years ago in […]

EVER and bamboo fly rods…

Summer of 2014, Oyster’s Sequence of Events and Bamboo Fly Rods

First day of school Fall is ON! Summer is o-v-e-r. Where did it go? (see theory of relativity). It was here…then stuff happened and now it’s in the review mirror. Life…it’s just a sequence of events, right? Some good awesome some bad horrendous. It’s just that simple. Most of us know We all know there […]

"Do you remember the day you realized your father was not perfect?"

circa 1971 “Do you remember the day you realized your father was not perfect?” That was the question posed to me on a mountain bike ride years ago and it has nagged me ever since. I will protect this friend’s identity but she went on to tell me about that “fateful” day in her youth […]