This is our new long sleeve Tech Shirt.  It is a poly fabric that will wick moisture and will breath very well.  I made this shirt because it is long sleeve, and is a tight enough weave to keep those black flies out from under the cuffs.  The shirt is also a great undershirt and is perfect when you need something to wear for the evening when you know you will be hot when the fishing starts but cold when the fishing ends. 

The shirts are available now in medium, large and xl.  smaller and bigger sizes are coming.

The shirt is $29.95 on our web site.

Color: light gray

JP Crest on the front and Give Blood Logo on the back.

go to online store to buy now.

The presence of dragonflies in virtually all freshwater aquatic environments makes it a very interesting group to reveal the state of conservation of these environments, which have been severely degraded in Britain in recent decades.

The association "Bretagne Vivante " (a nature protection association) is currently making a dragonflies (Odonata) atlas of Britanny, to improve our knowledge of these species : distribution, abundance, biology ... It is also to identify important sites for conservation.

To collect as much data, it is important to develop a network of informants, lovers or just curious by nature, who may contribute to the identification of Odonata.

About fifty species of dragonflies are found in Britanny (one hundred species in France).
This is a group of insects that are easiest to identify and, using a simple identification guide and with the advice of an expert, learning to recognize the different species is within reach for everyone.

I had the idea that, in this project, fishermen could make a valuable contribution by sharing their experience. Indeed, they are privileged observers of dragonflies: they are interested in nature, they spend time with aquatic environments, and many still carry a digital camera.
And now, the Réserve Naturelle de Séné (where I work), in partnership with the Departmental Fishing Federation of Morbihan, Brittany Association of Fly Fishing and with Odyssaum (a museum for discovery of wild salmon ), move to fishermen to participate in the preparation of this atlas.

To participate, the process is very simple, fishermen just have to :
- Photography dragonflies
- Identify the species,
- Note the date and place of observation,
- Submit the information to the Reserve Naturelle des Marais de Séné.

Involving in making this atlas is to make a useful contribution to the protection of aquatic environments. It is also an opportunity to get to know a little better these particular insects, companions of our summer fishing trips.
Indeed, to help fishermen in this process, we provide fishermen identification guides, a forum and free training...

In my journey to come up with a fiberglass fly rod that would be best for our brand, I started out buying up a bunch of fiberglass fly rods.  I have kept some for myself, and some I have just cast to get the feel of them, while others I just simply glanced at to get their look and feel. 

Starting April 1st, I will release this collection to the public and sell the many fiberglass fly rods and old style reels I have collected.  Some of them are just old H.I. fiberglass rods worth very little, while other Orvis and Fenwick fiberglass fly rods I think will be very interesting to some people.  I am going to photograph them and begin adding them to our online store but will not make them available until April. 

Reels consist of Hardys, Medalists, and HI's. In the attached pictures you can see a sampling of the reels we will be offering.  All of these reels are in working condition and could be fished. 

Also in the attached photos you will find fly rods from the likes of Abercrombie and Fitch, Orvis, Garcia, Conolon Live Fiber Fiberglass, and my favorite... the Fenwick fiberglass fly rod.  Some of these rods are tip over butt ferrules, some are old style metal ferrules. 

Prices will range from $20.00 and up on the reels and rods will start at 65.00. 

In general, shipping for reels will be $8.95 and shipping for rods will be $14.95 to $16.95 depending on the ship to address. 

We will ship to Europe and Alaska.

Photos shown are not the entire collection.

Email me if you have any questions.

Hey Jp,

I used the ole Beaver Meadow today; wow! Honestly JP, absolutely the best rod I have ever fished with! You are the freaking man! I'm very happy, and so glad that I bought a JP Ross Fly Rod years ago, thus leading me to buy another JP rod!!

Have a good night!

Jeff

Hi Jordan,

Oh yeah,

JP,

 Just wanted to let you know I received my repaired Beaver Meadow today – I noticed you even put my name on the replacement butt section!  I have to tell you I was more than happy – I was thrilled!  Thanks for the quick turnaround on this, hope to put it to work this weekend!

Thanks again,

Mike

You may be wondering why this event is on a fly fishing web site?  We'll the simple truth is, Angela is my Girlfriend and also is a contributor to Bucks for Browns and the FFAA.  So we want to do everything we can to thank her for all she has done for us.  It woudl be great to hear that this show sold out.  Please help us sell out this show to help the music for the mission!  JP Ross.

2) Bring a friend; team spot fishing can be very productive in some situations. Sometimes I end up relying on my partner to see something I can’t because I’m on the river. In technical tailwaters precision can mean everything, and having good eyes on your fish will be one of the most important aspects of getting it done. I’ve seen a lot of fish check out my bugs and dart off. If you’re leading the fish to much this can happen, on the other hand casting on top of spooky fish will never produce anything. It’s a touchy deal trying to get a good drift into selective fish.

 If you can position one person to present a good cast, and one to have good eyes on the fish your chance at hooking up will increase significantly.

3) Persistence and humility; I’ve been rocked on the river to many times not to write about this. Don’t ever dismiss a river due to technicality of it. Once you have a great day, your perception of a river can significantly change. Our winter tailwaters can be very difficult but yield great rewards. The winter can be a lot of work, but if there is a time of year when I try to get better, this is it. January proved to be a very tough month for me, to say the least. I didn’t catch to many fish, but every time I got worked over I went back with a different game plan and in the process learned some cool stuff about the winter fishing here.

5 & 5 sale:  For a limited time JP Ross Fly Rods, the leader in small stream fly rod, will be offering a special on our 5 foot Beaver Meadow series of rods.  For a very limited time we will be offering out 5 foot 2 weight and 5 foot 3 weight rods for only $155.00. 

Order these rods from our online store or email us for an order.  To make things even better, we also are offering a free feather inlay and inscription on these rods.  Normally these rods sell for well over $200.00, but for the Holidays we are doing a special dedicated run, and can meet a price point we have never been able to meet.

Pay in 30 days SALE:  To make things easier, JP Ross has started a 50% down and 50% in 30 days sale.  Its simple.  At the time of checkout, either on the phone or via email or even on our online store… just indicate 50% now, and we will take care of the rest.  You will need a valid Credit card on file for this transaction.  All transactions will be handled through our e-commerce web site.

JP Ross Fly Rods, Custom Payment plan:  If the 50/50 plan does not work for you.. for just $25.00 we will set up a payment plan that is easy for you.  Just talk it over with our representatives at the time of purchase and we will take your Credit Card info and bill accordingly.  All transactions will be handled through our e-commerce web site.

Fly Box Certificates:  For years we have been trying to come up with a neat way to offer our services as a gift certificate.  Now we have done it.  Buy a $100, $200, $300 or $400.00 gift certificate from JP Ross and get a free Wheatley fly box.  Click here for info and ordering details.

Adirondack Flies, Volume 1, THE BOOK.  For the holidays, this book will be on sale for only $19.95. 

Click here for more information and ordering details.

We have added a new feature to our web site.  It is a Buy Now Button.  Soon you will see this button popping up all over the site.  It is an easier way for our readers to find the items that we sell online. 

Here is what it looks like.

Look for it, and click on it when you see it.

New for the Holiday Season.  JP Ross introduces the Wheatley Fly Box Gift Certificate. 

Choose from $100, $200, $300 and $400.00 gift certificates and get a free Wheatley Fly Box. 

Here is more info to Buy Now.

Wheatley Fly Box Gift Certificate Link.

Hi Everyone.  As some of you may know, I truley enjoy refurbishing old fly rods.  I have done many over the years and recently my love of fiberglass fly rods has brought me to this treasure.  Here is what we have; it is a Vintage Conolon Garcia Live Fiber 7 foot 8 inch fly rod.  The history of Narmco, the name of the company that designed this rod is below.  It is a very interesting history I must say, considering they were the first company to make tubular glass blanks.    I purchased this rod in some what pristine shape, however I wanted to fish it.

What I have done is completely re-done this rod to make it look better than original and completely fishable. 

• I have varnished the entire blank
• Polished and cleaned the beautiful brass ferrules
• Cleaned the handle and epoxied the thread wraps
• You also will notice that I added a new stripping guide, because the old style guide will just choke when you try to shoot line... And this rod will shoot line. 
• It is a smooth medium slow action, heavy but very well balanced.  It is like taking out an old Corvette or Mopar or 427 Ford street rod.  I love making these sleeper type rods, and this is the best one I have made to date.
• I also added my JP Ross Crest to the blank.  Hopefully some day this will add to the value of the rod as we believe we are well certified to restore any fly rod of yesteryear.

I also have found the best line that will fish this rod, it is a wf 5 weight, and I have included this new line with the package.  However, that was not enough.  I also found that in order to fish these rods, you need to balance them well.  So what I did was, I found an old 1950 Pfleuger 1495 Vintage Reel.  This reel is special because it was made in the USA, and features the original Ivory center cap and reel handle. The reel also comes with an old 6 weight double taper line on it, in case you want to just put the reel on the shelf and enjoy it.  I have been buying a bunch of these reels lately, and I just lost one on ebay for $272.00, however that one had the round diamolite line guard.  This reel is easily worth $100.00 to $200.00 to any collector.  When I went over it, it had grease in it that looked like old ear wax.  I cleaned it up and will lube it before it ships. 

I also added a new aluminum vent seal rod tube, with bronze anodizing, and a hand painted cap by me. 

I am asking a firm $499.95 for this entire set. Only sold through an email.  Please email me if you are interested.  I will ship in the USA for Free. 

If you are looking for an inventment and something to challenge yourself on the water, look no further.

Enjoy reading about it below.

Garcia Conolon, Initially established as NARMCO, Conolon developed the early technology of the hollow fiberglass rod.  Later owned by Garcia. An American company named NARMCO invented the first hollow fiberglass fishing rod blanks in 1946. Dr. Glenn Havens, head of research for NARMCO, is credited for the invention. Though fibers made of glass can be traced back to the 1890s, Owens-Corning is credited for the invention of fiberglass in 1938.

NARMCO was a WW 2 weapons manufacturing plant that used fiberglass in some of their parts. Their name was an acronym for the National Armament Company.

NARMCO became the Narmco Conolon Company at their factory in Santa Ana, California and fishing rod production began in 1947. Armed and ready (pun intended) they quickly became the world’s largest producer of fiberglass rods. Prior to this invention; all fishing rods were made of split bamboo, wood or steel.

Narmco Conolon maintained the lead by covering the full spectrum from ultra-light spinning, bait casting and fly rods to powerful heavy-duty sea rods.

In the early sixties; The Garcia Corporation became the new owner and changed the name to The Conolon Corporation with Howard Ashby as President. Mr. Ashby was also a Garcia Vice President.

Notes:
Early rod materials were just called “fiberglass”, then “Missilite” (a chemical bonding finish they had used instead of rivets on their old products such as bombs and guess what, missiles!) to seal the fiberglass rods, then quickly changed due to the negative implications to “Conolock” then to “Live Fiber” in the fifties.

All of these “surnames” were no longer used when bought by Garcia.

The Conolon Corporation closed in 1982

 NARMCO (CONOLON) TIMELINE 1943 - 1960

NARMCO - National Research and Manufacturing Company

1943

Dr. G. G. Havens and his associates produce a new laminate material known as "Conolon" in early 1943. When impregnated with highly developed resin Conolon enables the production of strong light weight products that withstand extreme temperature and humidity changes

1944

National Research and Manufacturing Company (NARMCO) founded in 1944 by Dr. G. G. Havens was established initially to develop a series of structural adhesives under the trademark "Metlbond" and a reinforced laminate under the name "Conolon"

1946

Incorporated as "NARMCO, Inc." in 1946, development of the tubular fiberglass fishing rod concluded at Corona del Mar, California in 1946. Pilot production of the tubular fiberglass fishing rod began at Corona del Mar, California in 1946.

1947

NARMCO began full production of the tubular fiberglass fishing rod at Costa Mesa, California in February 1947. Eugene H. von Ehrenberg joined NARMCO in March 1947.

1952

Renames itself NARMCO Industries, Inc., in April 1952 and splits into five divisions: NARMCO Research and Development Division, performs both private and government research;

NARMCO Manufacturing Company, manufacturer of military and aviation products; NARMCO Resins and Coating Company, produces impregnated cloth, adhesives, resins and coatings;

NARMCO Sporting Goods Company, manufacturer of fishing rods and blanks;

And National Rod Company, distributor of NARMCO Sporting Goods Division products

1956 - 1960

Eric von Ehrenberg believes that NARMCO Sporting Goods Company

Manufactured fishing rods for the Garcia Corporation under the name "Garcia-Conolon"

1960

NARMCO industries was sold to "Telecomputing Corporation" in February 1960 (later re-named Whitaker Corporation listed on the NYSE) We believe that during this time period the "Telecomputing Corporation" spins off the National Rod Company and NARMCO Sporting Goods company to the "Garcia Corporation", which re-names the two "The Conolon Corporation" a Division of the Garcia Corporation

Notes

NARMCO never referred to its fiberglass fishing rods as "hollow"

NARMCO always referred to themselves as "originator of the tubular fiberglass fishing rod"

Credits

This timeline would not have come together without the help of Eric von Ehrenburg whose father Eugene was at one time President of NARMCO Sporting Goods. I am still engaged in research but hope to have more of the NARMCO/Conolon story available in the near future.

If you have information you are willing to share (catalogs, newspaper clippings, advertisements, etc.) please feel free to reply to this article.

If you feel I have screwed up and any of the information contained in this timeline is incorrect, please let me know and if possible point me to a reference source I can use to get the correct skinny.

Found on the web, submitted by Tim Barton

Yesterday I went up to the Salmon river with my friend Smithy. The night before the power company raised the water from 180 Cfs to 320 Cfs so we thought we would give it a try. After swinging flies at Pineville and not catching anything we were told that there were a lot of fish in Pulaski so we went down there. When we got there, there were other people fishing and a couple of guy's with a fish. I started out swinging flies on my new spey rod which yielded nothing so I ran up to the car and got out the fly rod and started bottom bouncing. After a while I saw a guy hook and loose a king, so I went up above him to the tail out of a small run. When I first got there I spotted a few fish which I could not hook, so I took a few steps down stream and fished the tail-out of the run. It wasn't a minute untill a small pod of king's swam past me and I casted my fly to the one way in the back, and she took it!!! After a supprisingly short battle I landed a 14 pound hen. After taking some pictures I realized that the fish was too exhausted to release so I kept it. I managed to hook one other salmon but the hook pulled out. We took the fish to Salmon River Outfitter's and got it cleaned and at it turned out that was there first cleaning of the year so they put my picture on their website www.salomonriveroutfitterny.com under reports. As I write this, the smell of frying salmon fill's the house.

Tight lines Isak.K