It has always been my belief that custom built fly rods whether of bamboo, graphite or glass are works of art. The custom builder has the opportunity to create something of beauty and elegance. The custom builder takes a great deal of care and pays attention to every detail that goes into the rods construction.

It is our desire to offer to the rod building community reel seat designs that are lighter in weight and elegant in design. We offer a traditional series of nickel silver reel seats in three configurations, a down lock slide band, an up lock threaded barrel and a down lock threaded barrel and a selection of woods that complement these designs. In the last year we have had the pleasure of collaborating on a new design that incorporates elegance of design and lines that flow with the subtle yet elegant rope knurling. We are also featuring a new alloy that is lighter than nickel silver and its beautiful gold tone is a compliment to any rod. It can also be done in a black nickel which is another feature that we are excited about.

It is our goal and desire to offer on Mother Nature's Finest collection of fine woods to enhance the beauty of our reel seat designs. I have been buying burls and speciality woods for over 10 years. We have found that only about 3% of the woods available will be used as an insert with one of our designs. We are trying to narrow our selection to those wood species that make your custom rod a show piece. We offer the following:

Big Leaf Maple Burl - Tight eye patterns in light and dark tones and accepts dye readily.

Spalted Maple - Warm tones a complement to any bamboo rod Dyed Maple-A maroon coloration with cream and black figuring.

English Walnut - A classic on any bamboo rod, however the supplies are limited.

Flamed Redwood - One of my favorites because of the highlights in the wood. Simply put it finds light and radiates it back.

Redwood Burl - Highly figured and elegant.

Buckeye Natural - This wood offers the greatest variation of colors from blackish/grey tones to yellow and blacks to warm creamy brown tones to amazing eye patterns, pieces that picks up light from all angles.

Dyed Buckeye - I can't believe the the beauty of this coloration which is a purple/black tone with creamy yellow eyes or marbelization.

For any dark toned rod the dyed buckeye would be my first choice. For some reason because of mineralization in the burls we will sometimes get a limited quantity of wood that take on an elegant green tone when dyed.

We feel that any beautiful wood that is offered by Snake Brand Guides deserves a high quality finish to bring out the beauty of the wood. It is not uncommon for it to take 3 months from the time that we cut into a burl and for it to go through the drying process, send it to our stabilizer and then on through our finishing process. We feel so honored to share with the rod building community some of Mother Nature's Finest Creations.