A New Rod, And Someday, Some New Fish

The following appears in the June issue of California Sportsman:

When I played tennis for my high school team, twice for trout, so I’d trust his expertise. I saved up enough money from Christmas/birthday money, my paper route checks and those falls when I worked at Candlestick Park directing traffic on San Francisco 49er football game days to buy new rackets.

At the tennis shop near my home, the rackets I bought came unstrung, so I felt like a pro player going over the stringing options with the clerk. A day or two later I’d come back to pick up my new toy. But the real joy was heading onto the court for the first time and getting a feel for the racket by banging a few balls back and forth with my teammates. Spoiler alert: I wasn’t very good – nor was our team. But we had a blast those years.

I recently thought back about this when I was preparing to test out a new piece of equipment – in this case, not a tennis racket but a special fishing rod.

Friend of the magazine Chris Wegeleben, who builds custom rods for his company, Washington State-based Prolite Rod Technology (proliterods.com), was nice enough to create a fishing pole for me. I told Chris my favorite fishing is simply dunking bait

“This rod came from a mix of personal experience and customer feedback. I wanted to build something that could handle the technical demands of the fishery but still feel effortless and fun to fish with,” Wegeleben said. “I always try to blend function with feel – whether that’s sensitivity, balance or action – so it doesn’t just perform well; it connects with the angler.”

I spent some time in May down in the Bay Area visiting family and friends, and on a Friday afternoon I started setting up my new rod in the backyard of my sister Charlene’s house in San Mateo. It was like trying out a new tennis racket back in the day. I’d already admired Chris’s creation when it arrived in the mail, but now I was attaching a reel to it, spooling line through the eyes and getting a feel for it. I attached a sinker and swivel to the line and, being sure not to hit me and my sister’s dogs running around the backyard, got in a few practice casts. I loved how effortless it was to cast!

“The blank is made from a quality graphite that gives it both strength and sensitivity while keeping weight to a minimum,” Wegeleben told me. “On top of that, I pay close attention to the balance of the rod, and the guides are chosen to reduce overall weight and make casting feel smooth and natural.”

I was eager to try it for real.

TRUTH BE TOLD: I think I’m a much better writer than a fisherman. I have some great memories of catching fish, but probably far more tales of the ones that got away or, more often, the ones that never bit.

But I keep trying to change my luck. My sister joined me for an early-morning Saturday trip across San Francisco Bay to what’s becoming one of my favorite destinations when I’m back in NorCal: Livermore’s Los Vaqueros Reservoir.

I enjoy fishing there, the staff is always friendly, they’re constantly planting trout and other species, and there’s always plenty of shoreline to set up for a relaxing morning.
Our day at Los Vaqueros started out chilly and blustery before the sun made it feel a lot warmer; the temperature rose to nearly 80 degrees by the time we called it a day. But first, I had a new rod that Chris built for me, and I was excited.

Fishing was slow, at least for me and the few guys who set up on a point across the way, and it felt like pressure was surprisingly light that morning. The buzz I heard as anglers came and went confirmed what I was seeing. I kept hoping for some bites, but they never came. Well, except for a young couple fishing about 100 feet away between me and the guys on the point who were also getting skunked. Three times the lucky ones down the bank landed respectable-sized stocked rainbows. I walked down to admire one of their catches and we briefly chatted. They too were soaking PowerBait, so I wondered what I was doing wrong. Maybe that’s just my legacy!

But what I couldn’t complain about was my new Prolite toy to play with. As Wegeleben promised, the rod was light. I’m eager to get back out again and hope my luck changes. But I know Chris sent me one of his great creations. I asked him about channeling his inner artist when building rods for specific purposes.

“Prolite is fun because it brings the artistic side into the performance of the tool. The tool is most important – but it’s gotta look right. Clean and minimalistic is definitely the Prolite way. You’ve got to build with precision because performance matters,” he said. “But at the same time, there’s an artistic side to rod building – choosing the right materials, color combinations, the way a guide wrap flows into the blank finish. It’s the details that make it personal, and I think that’s where craftsmanship becomes art.”

THE MOST ACTION CHARLENE and I had on our outing was when she walked back up the hill to the restroom and was alerted to a rattlesnake by passersby on the trail. So she checked out the mostly unbothered snake – wisely keeping her distance but getting a kick out of the brief encounter.

As for me, I realized that for a mediocre tennis player I make a pretty lousy angler. But it’s certainly not because the tennis racket and, in this instance, the rod didn’t do their jobs. Wegeleben crafted something that I hope will catch a lot of fish. Such success would make it all worthwhile for a rod builder.

“Every rod I design and build is a reflection of the individual it’s made for. I really pour my heart into these rods – making sure they match the personality and style of the angler who’ll be using them,” Chris told me. “There’s something special about building gear that becomes part of someone’s best days on the water. Seeing a photo of a fish caught on a rod I made or hearing that it made someone’s trip better – that never gets old. That’s the part that keeps me excited to go back into the shop every day.”

I hope I can send him some photos of a memorable fish with the rod that catches them. -Chris Cocoles