Why is this blog called "The Dead Drift"

In my years of fly fishing, one often overlooked thing I have learned is the importance of the 'Dead Drift'.  Being able to present your fly to the fish without any influence from the drag of the line or leader.  Mastering the dead drift will increase the number of strikes and hookups, making your fishing trip more successful and fun.

Many fly fishermen spend countless hours practicing and many dollars buying equipment to improve their casting ability.  Now I am not saying that being a proficient fly caster, and having good equipment are not important, but even with those, if a fly fisherman cannot achieve a dead drift with their chosen fly, the number of fish caught and even the number of strikes will be greatly reduce.

A dead drift is when the fly drifts naturally in the current, unaffected by the movement of the tippet, leader and fly line.  In later posts I will discuss strategies to improve your ability to achieve the dead drift, but this post is to discuss why I chose the name for my blog.

I chose to call my blog "The Dead Drift - My Fly Fishing Obsession" because I feel it is how I am progressing through my journey. No, not because I am dead, but because I am moving where the currents of this hobby are taking me.  I am trying to learn and improve, have fun and keep busy.  I am trying new things, not because someone else says I need to, but because that is where the current is taking me.

Two currents in my life came together to create this obsession.  My professional career began as a machinist and I have been involved in manufacturing for over 25 years as a manager and consultant.  As my career evolved I no longer was able to run machines, but loved it so much I bought a mill and a lathe for my garage, so I could dabble in it when I had time.  When I started to get hooked on fly fishing, I decided to try and machine my own fly reels.

I setup my own anodizing systems, developed my own drag design and started making custom fly reels for friends and then later for a few customers.






The next natural drift in the current was to begin learning how to build rods, and then build the two in sets. I started buying blanks, guides, reel seats and grips and learned how to build rods.  The rod pictured below is one that I built with a matching reel for myself.  It is still my go to 5 weight for dry flies.

After showing this rod to a custom rod builder, he explained to me that one of his favorite manufacturers of reel seats, Struble Mfg., had stopped producing them and wondered if I could machine something similar.  So that was the next current in my journey, to begin making my own reel seats.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

Now that I could make my own reel seats, the next obvious drift in the current was to begin making my own grips.

I have 'dead drifted' to the point in my  journey, where I officially opened up for business to produce custom rods, and rod components for the public.  I only buy the blank and the guides, I make everything else from scratch.

 Who knows where I will end up, as I continue to dead drift through this journey.

KB2 Custom Fly Rods