50 YEARS OF LIFE, MUSIC, TOM PETTY & THE BAMBOO FLY ROD

Turning 50 in the shit tsunami wake of COVID-19 creates an unexpected bittersweet layer to the meaning of life gravity of it all. So, I’ll combine the past, present and future here and try not to bore you to death keep it as trite as possible. The single consistency throughout most of our lives […]

a crisis, choosing good, and the bamboo fly rod

THE COVID-19 CRISIS SUCKS. THE END. Not really… FORGET EVERYTHING YOU KNOW. So, we can all agree on one thing…there is a crisis out there. Since the shit the fan the world was sent off camber…it has been eerily peaceful here around Oyster…except for when I my parents visit and I yell at them from a 6 […]

ANATOMY, ENGRAVING and THE BAMBOO FLY ROD

WHY HAND ENGRAVING? Legacy? Because it’s beautiful? Investment? To honor? Customization? Memorialize? Yes. While these reasons may seem obvious, perhaps the most significant reason to hand engrave your bamboo fly rod cannot be seen or even carefully explained…it can only be felt. Let me say this…throughout the years here at Oyster, hand engraving our bamboo […]

Mud, Belonging and the Bamboo Fly rod

25 years ago Bill asked me where I wanted to live. I told him anywhere in the world as long as it was in Georgia. Bill: “What am I going to wear to that? We donated my funeral suit.” This was exactly Bill’s reaction when I told him (breathlessly I might add) that we […]

2019 Optimism, Rumination’s and “Savants” of the Bamboo Fly Rod Making Lifestyle

One woman’s journey into the bamboo fly rod making abyss…

Twenty years of Oyster Bamboo Fly Rods

Celebrating 20 years family, Heritage, Bamboo fly rods, the American Craftsman and Small Business Here is one woman’s interpretation of a 20-year bamboo fly rod making abyss. “You may say I’m a dreamer…but I’m not the only one” Boy meets girl Girl meets boy Boy is noticeably hungry Girl makes boy meatballs Boy and girl get […]

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 […]

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 […]