Pêcheur des Hautes Terres

I've been building custom rods for about ten years now, in my workshop in Saint-Simon, in the Cantal region of France. My company, Pêcheur des Hautes Terres, is about to celebrate its sixth year.

Here, every rod is built by hand, one at a time: I select the components or make them myself, I assemble, I adjust, until I end up with a tool that truly matches the fishing of the person who will use it. I also turn my own reel seat grips on a wood lathe, in stabilised wood and epoxy resin. They are one-off pieces — no two are ever the same.

I discovered fishing as a small boy, with my grandfather. Since then I've fished both freshwater and saltwater, and I've stayed curious about everything: as soon as a technique intrigues me, I go and try it. That curiosity is what serves me most in the workshop. Building a rod for touch-ledgering, for fly fishing, for sea fishing or for predators does not mean the same constraints, the same balance or the same feel — and it is precisely because I practise such different styles of fishing that I can build very precise rods for each of them.

I cover every discipline: trout, predators, sea, fly, touch-ledgering, and a carp range that I am gradually developing. I also run rodbuilding courses, one-to-one or in groups in partnership with Rodhouse, for anyone who wants to learn to build their own rod.

Custom work takes time, around two months of building, but that is the price of owning a rod that really looks like you, rather than one more off-the-shelf model.