LANESBORO, Minn. — Steve Sobieniak knew what a good fly fishing rod felt like. He developed a feel for the graceful casting tool, particularly ones made of bamboo. He could pick one up, hold it, test ...

ESKO -- When Phil Johnson was in college, making $3 an hour working summers at the paper mill in Cloquet, he saved enough to buy himself a bamboo fly rod. "I bought an Orvis Battenkill," says Johnson, ...

In the rarified world of bamboo fly rod making, names like Ed Payne and Sam Carlson, and their progeny, acolytes and apprentices, stand like giants, casting long shadows that stretch from the dawn of ...

LANESBORO, Minn. (AP) — Steve Sobieniak hopes that decades from now, someone will pick up a fly rod he made, cast it, admire how it wafts out line in gentle curls and appreciate its lithe grace and ...