Beartooth Custom Fly Rods--Built on the Madison River

"Fly Rods Built by Passionate Fly Fishers for Passionate Fly Fishers"

Dan Delekta began building fly rods in 1975.  Until recently, Beartooth Custom Fly Rods have had only one rod builder--Dan.  Now Dan has an apprentice, Marty Authement.  Dan is enjoying passing on his rod building knowledge to Marty.  Marty Authement is a redfish captain in Houma, Louisiana, and a custom rod builder in his own right--constructing Mardi Gras weaves on his redfish fly rods. 

Dan has had the special focus of building fly rods that fit a broad spectrum of individual needs and desires.  This involves using unique components that result in a variety of rod lengths, pieces, weights, actions, and materials.  All Beartooth Custom Fly Rods are built in our lodge on the Madison River by Dan and Marty. 

Recent years have produced many new fly fishermen and fly fisherwomen.  The fly tackle industry has met this demand of increased production, but at what cost?  In our profit-oriented world, quantity has been chosen, rather than quality. The high quality we once knew and expected has vanished, resulting in cheap production rods with inflated prices.

Beartooth Custom Built Fly Rods has always concentrated on quality. Dan feels that craftsmanship and tradition are the American way of life. Dan has experimented with many different rod blanks, components, and finishes.   He has then field tested his rods.  The end product of this study has resulted in Beartooth Fly Rods. It is with great satisfaction that we offer our fly rods to the fly fishing public. We at Beartooth are striving to revive the quality and tradition of the American Way: Craftsmanship.

Dan on His Rodbuilding:

The Rocket Launcher:

has a matte black finish that is very stealthy and doesn’t reflect light.  All my stuff basically reverts back to rods that were built in the last hundred years.  This is a study I’ve made—a comprehensive study—by buying old rods and seeing how they were constructed.  All my rods parallel those old concepts and traditions.  Then what we do is put black titanium guides on it from start to finish.  We have 10 guides on all our 9 foot, 4 piece rods.  We have two stripper guides on all models up to 6 weight.  And then from 7 weight on, we have three stripper guides.  Not only do we have more guides, but our guides also have larger openings, so there’s no restriction to the line, including through the tip top.  So what we are using for components for the Rocket Launcher are the highest priced components on the market today.  There is no expense spared on the Rocket Launcher series. 

The Rocket Launcher blanks are “state of the art” material—a “High Modulus/High Strain Rate” fiber combined with a carbon fiber scrim.  A new space age resin system coupled with a proprietary carbon fiber reinforcement technique makes this a cutting edge graphite material.  These are the lightest, strongest, and most sensitive blanks made, making the Rocket Launcher our fastest and stiffest rod.  The Rocket Launcher is a tool—a specific tool made to be able to cast with a minimum of false casting.  It’s made to be able to pick up the line and cast it to a target, with any weight of fly, in any conditions, to a broad range of fish, both fresh water and salt water. 

The Brown Bear:

series of rods use blanks that are made of graphite of “Intermediate Modulus/High Strain Rate” fiber combined with a light fiberglass scrim, bonded together with a space age resin system and coupled with a proprietary carbon fiber reinforcement technique.  These are cutting edge blanks.  Instead of being a super fast rods, they are fast rods, and are also very forgiving.  The brown color of the blanks is pleasing to the eye and aesthetically they are beautiful rods.  They are also casting tools, but they’re a little more forgiving and you have to wait a little longer for the line to straighten out before you push the rod forward.  They carry extremely tight loops at extremely high line speeds—not quite the same as the Rocket Launcher.  The Brown Bear is great for wind.  They’re great for fishing anywhere on the planet for any species.  These are my wife’s favorite rods to fish and I find myself picking up her rod and fishing it and it’s very forgiving and very comfortable for me to fish these rods.  I think anyone would enjoy casting these rods.  They’re for someone who is not into such a high rate of speed, but wants the top of the line, cutting edge blank to fish, with the finest titanium guides and materials.  The Brown Bear series is the one I would push them to.

We have different options on the cork grips.  I like the Western grip and the Full Wells grip.  We’ve got what I think is the nicest cork available.  These cork grips were made for me specially in Portugal.  The same cork grips are used in all the series. 

The reel seats are all wood and nickel silver in the Rocket Launcher and Brown Bear series, with burled wood spacers that remind me of expensive gunstocks.  They have the Old World look that I’m trying to achieve.  I’m trying to build rods that are modern, yet reflect the last 100 years of rod building. 

The thread work on all the series starts with a main color wrap and then they continue with a trim wrap, which is historical on all the old bamboo rods and the better quality production rods.  I have the maximum number of guides—even on the least expensive rods.  From the most expensive rod to the least expensive rod of my series, they all have the same amount of guides, the same spacing, and the same workmanship.  The different price ranges are due to the prices of the blanks—either the graphite scrims or the modulus of the graphite.  I like all of our rods.  They all cast well and they offer a wide range of actions.

Then we get to the Stealth:

and Traditional

The blanks for these rods are made of graphite of “Intermediate Modulus/High Strain Rate” fiber (43 million) combined with a light fiberglass scrim.  This is bonded together with a space age resin.  They are medium fast action and have a light overall weight.  They come in two colors.  The Stealth series is made of matte black blanks that do not reflect light.  I blend a woven graphite reel seat with titanium plated guides and we use an overall matte finish on all components so they reflect no light.  This is for people who like that look and effect, who want everything to blend in with nature.  That is what that series is dedicated to.  This series of rods are very durable, they’re easy to cast, and they’re very forgiving.  The companion to Stealth series is the Traditional.  The Traditional series is a kelly green blank.  We make these rods to be very traditional.  We use titanium plated guides and wood spacers.  They’re made to be very aesthetically pleasing to the eye and yet in an affordable price range.  They’re made for a person who likes to really feel the rod load and unload.  These make the caster feel the cast and when it is easy to feel the cast, you can understand when the rod is loading and unloading.  When you get into these space age graphites, the rods load and unload so quickly that you can’t really feel the whole rod bend and the line being stretched behind you and the line being stretched in front of you, whereas these rods that are made of a little softer material, are so pleasing to cast, because you can feel the rod load  and unload, like a bamboo rod.  That’s why I believe these rods are very important to fish and feel.  It’s part of fly fishing that is very pleasing and important.  You can regulate the line—to be tight, to be open.  You can make a soft cast or make a tight loop under overhanging trees.  The ability to manage the line and make it do more things is so much easier when you have more time.  These rods that are softer give you more time.  I love these series of rods and I enjoy building them. 

The next in the series, which comes in a lot of different model is the Maverick:

— one of my favorites, because of the very attractive pricing and the softness of the rods.  The graphite is “Standard Modulus/High Strain Rate” fiber (33 million) combined with a light fiberglass scrim.  It features moderately fast action, which also gives a person the ability to feel the line load and unload on the rod.  These blanks come in a dark blue color and our selection is extremely large in this series of rods.  It starts with a 6 ½ foot 2 weight, that I love, with a 7 foot, 7 1/2 foot, 7 foot 9 inch, 8 foot and goes all the way up to steelhead rods in 9 ½ foot length.  We also have a large selection of 5 piece rods in this series.  We try to make these rods aesthetically pleasing by using hard chrome plated guides.  These hard plated chrome guides are featured on almost all the rods you can buy.  We don’t use titanium guides, because they are too expensive, but the same amount of workmanship goes into this series.  The same amount of care goes into building these rods that goes into building all my rods.  Because these rods are softer, the line loads at shorter distances, making them great for fishing small streams. 

The last series of rods, in terms of action, is the Golden Shadow, made of diamondback blanks:

I've been building with these blanks for the past thirty years.  These are the blanks that went on H.L. Leonard’s graphite rods that Diamondback called their Golden Shadows.  Actually Diamondback had a factory built custom rod that was very pricey, called the Golden Shadow, after the Leonard rod company went out of business.  So I’m very proud to offer these rods.  They’re available in 8 1/2 and 9 foot rods in 4, 5, and 6 weight models, in 4 pieces.  These rods are probably the prettiest rods I’ve ever built.  They feature gold colored guides that are titanium plated.  They’re made to be beautiful rods and they’re softer rods to cast and to fish.  They made to feel the whole line.  I’ve built these rods for almost 30 years.  They’re some of my favorite rods to fish when I’m fishing smaller nymphs and dry flies, when fishing bigger spring creeks and tailwaters.  They’re big shock absorbers when you’re fishing small flies and light tippet, so you tend not to break the line using them.  They’re very forgiving as far as hook setting, and the fish running and shaking their heads.  It’s a throwback to what fiberglass and bamboo was.      

The top two series that we make are specific casting machines, made to cast more line and made to fish for an all around range of species.  Whereas, when you get down into the other series—Stealth, Traditional, and Maverick--I offer a lot more models and rods for small streams.  The top two series include 8 ½ foot, 9 foot, and 9 ½ foot rods only.  They’re specific for trout, steelhead, bonefish, tarpon, a lot of different salt water species, and all the fresh water species.  When you get down into my other series I make 6 ½ foot rods.  They’re wonderful rods to fish small streams with.  They have soft, sweet action for fishing small flies to smaller fish and they cover all the different applications that the top two series don’t cover.  They’re made to be softer for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 weight lines.  We have the same models that are available in 9 ½ foot, 10 foot, spey rods, and switch spey rods.  The series are huge, covering so many fishing situations--and they are very affordable.  I think the blending of all the different series of rods that I make cover almost any fly fishing that you could do on the planet.  I just don’t think that in only one or two series that you can really say that. 

In the five series I can cover all the ranges of fly fishing and all the different tastes.  Everybody has a different taste—for food, for wine, for sport.  The rods I offer resulted from my life in rod building since 1975.  I cover a large range of  rods with the graphite, and what I don’t cover with the graphite, I cover with the fiberglass and with the bamboo.  And they’re all built the same way.

We build fiberglass rods—the “S” Glass--a very limited edition:

I have a limited number of blanks in the S Glass Series made by Lamiglas.  I bought these blanks thirty years ago. 

I have a new series of bamboo rods—the True Believer--that I will be building:

The blanks are made for us.  They’re available in 7 foot, 7 ½ foot, and 8 foot lengths. 

I was building golf clubs when I started building rods in 1975.  My golf club building migrated into my rod building.  From that point, the epoxies I used to put on cork grips and reel seats and wood spacers were developed by the golf industry.  At the time, these epoxies were made to hold wood heads on steel shafts and now it has migrated to titanium heads on graphite shafts, where these guys beat the clubs into the ground, whack balls and the epoxies that hold that stuff are unparalleled  for use in fly rods.  There are not many rod builders that put the materials into their rods that will give them that longevity.  That’s where the art of rod building is when you can take whatever materials you are using and make a rod that is functional and aesthetically pleasing.  I believe all those things are factored into what makes a fly rod really sweet to fish. 

All of my rods have 18 and 20 inch markers in all the trout models, from the reel seat butt.  That’s normally a dead area of the rod where the blank is showing.  That’s a place where I like a little decoration.  It takes longer to put those wraps in there, but I feel they add to the beauty of the rod.  When you put the rod down on the bank next to a fish, you can see how big the fish is.  It’s a very functional thing that is very pretty.  All the years that I’ve built fly rods goes into each rod that I build and each is a piece of art to me and no two rods that I build are exactly the same.  Everything I do, I want to make each piece unique.  I appreciate a rod that is built properly and is aesthetically beautiful—when you take it out of the case and the cloth and you put it together and it makes you feel a certain way. 

Now I’ve brought Marty on to help me build fly rods together and he has the same feelings I do about each piece and each rod he builds.  He has been my apprentice and learned the way I feel a fly rod should be built and he is of the same mind as I am.  That part has been great—to have somebody work with me who thinks the same way and feels so passionate about what he is doing.  We’re having lots of fun building rods together.

Beartooth Quality
Each Beartooth Fly Rod is a masterpiece. Consistency is achieved by dedication to producing the ultimate fly fishing instrument. We do not concern ourselves with the length of time or the amount of effort involved.  We stress craftsmanship--not profit margins. Give us a chance to prove our quality.  Test a Beartooth casting machine that is enhanced by old world workmanship. You be the judge.  You will find a broad selection of Beartooth Custom Built Fly Rods at our Fly Shop on the Madison River.

• Graphite Blanks
• Bamboo Blanks
• Fiberglass Blanks
• Restored Antique Bamboo
• Craftsmanship
• Components
• Ferrules
• Finish

To Order Your Custom Built Fly Rod Call Beartooth at 406-682-7525. 

Prices are subject to change.  Custom options will differ in price.

You Can Use This Form To Keep Track Of Your Choices:

Beartooth FlyFishing                           

PO Box 309

2925 Highway 287 North

Cameron, MT  59720                                                        Date of Order ______________

Ph: 406-682-7525    Fax: 406-682-7796

www.beartoothflyfishing.com                          Taken By     ________________     

                BEARTOOTH CUSTOM ROD ORDER FORM

SERIES                   Price Includes Case

Rocket Launcher (Matte Black Blanks)  $625   _____    3,4 piece        

True Believer ( Bamboo)                        $750   _____   2 piece

Brown Bear (Brown Blanks)                    $575   _____   3,4,5 piece

Golden Shadow (Diamondback)             $575   _____   2 piece

Traditional (Kelly Green Blanks)             $400   _____   2,3 piece

Stealth (Matte Black Blanks)                   $400   _____   3 piece

Maverick (Blue Blanks)                           $275   _____   2,3,4,5 piece

“S” Glass                                                $275   _____   2 piece

WEIGHT                                                              PIECES

8/9   _____                                                             5   _____

7/8   _____                                                             4   _____

6/7   _____                                                             3   _____

5/6   _____                                                             2   _____

4/5   _____                                                           

3/4   _____                                 GRIP:    Western ___               Full Wells ___             

2/3   _____

                                                   FIGHTING BUTT: Yes ___       No ___

LENGTH

                                                NAME:  ________________________________

9ft  6in   _____                   STREET:  ______________________________

9ft          _____                   CITY:   ________________________________

8ft  6in   _____                   STATE:  _________        ZIP  ______________

8ft          _____                   PHONE: ________________________

7ft  6in   _____                   E-MAIL  ____________________________

7ft          _____                  

6ft  6in   _____                   DEPOSIT:  $________________

NAME TO BE ENGRAVED ______________________________________

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS: