HCE announced as the official Australian Agent for CTS Fly Rod Blanks.

HCE announced as the official Australian Agent for CTS Fly Rod Blanks.

HCE has been in a close working relationship with the great people at CTS in New Zealand (An innovative & quality focused fly rod blank manufacturer) for some time.

Over the last few years, we have gotten to know their range of fly blanks quite well, testing and developing builds, using some as the base platform for some of our SPEC builds.

We also began to work with CTS to produce our own proprietary blank designs like the Native Spec and the soon to be launched Hyper Spec.

We have even worked with individual clients to develop special, one off blanks.

 When we started HCE, part of our mission was to build on the best blanks available in the market. Without a doubt, CTS are up there – their dedication to quality and ongoing development is admirable and would be the envy of many.

Many fly fishers have cast our CTS builds and many now own them.

Our friends out there who know us personally also know we are independent, that we are not swayed by media hype and we prefer our products to speak for themselves.

We test the product and we say what we think of it. CTS fly blanks have managed to win a special place in our business. They are a proven product.

As the official Australian Agent for CTS Fly Rod Blanks, we look forward to be able to grow the awareness of a fly fishing focused, worthy and quality driven organisation like CTS.

We can supply CTS blanks in a myriad of colors, weights, lengths, pieces, actions and tapers: whatever your fly fishing situation, we can custom cater to you. Even one off blanks!

Tony & I will be handling all enquiries from local fly rod crafters for the CTS Fly Rod Blanks range.

Native Spec 10wt 8' Blooded!

Nick Kneipp recently blooded the custom 8' 10wt Native Spec we designed and built for him.

CTS in New Zealand made the blank for us to our specifications, we rolled it here in Melbourne and then sent it up to NSW where Nick showed it to some cod!

To quote Nick...

"Blooded the new HCE Native Spec 8ft'er, matched to a 10 wt Outbound Short floater and a 

8/0 Bendy Roller Popper. Had my chance with another two fish, but that's fishing. The rods is 

a thing of beauty and definately has some muscle, perfect for chasing the mighty Murray Cod."

Well done Nick!

Check out Nicks sensational exploits on his blog here...

Fly rod action & taper as explained by our fly blank partner in New Zealand, CTS

Sage 7wt One - A new build begins...

Tuned the 7wt One today.

We stay impartial when we tune our rods. We don't compare the rod in hand to anything else, our focus remains solely on the rod's performance, dynamics and form. 
We consider a set of serious criteria we've developed: a formula if you wish to call it something. It took us a while to develop this formula and so far, it's worked pretty well. 

Perhaps, after the rod is finally set in the lathe, we might start to chat about how it compares to this or that. From those type of discussions, builds are dreamed up and we start to squiggle on paper: this action, that taper...

And we will talk about the rod we just cast. What we thought, what lines it liked, that sort of thing.

Today was no different. 

This is a nice rod. It casts well. It picked up 60' of line and one back cast saw the whole Rio Gold line through the tip. SA Striper goes well too.
It is very accurate: pinging the targets 20/30/40/50' unerringly. The recovery is great.
It has a good natured feel to it and is lively in hand. It is, a fine fishing rod with a lovely bend - a moderate/fast action with a nice quickish taper. 
We got a very good impression on how it would be able to put typical 7wt backbone against a fleeing fish. 
'Bones' we thought.


Tony said Geoff should be pleased. I agree.

Tonight we set up, prep guides & design the weave. Tomorrow we bind. 

April 17th, he casts.

And the finished rod...

                                                                               

Custom Length Native Spec

Nick Kneipp should be no stranger to local cod fly fishers. His great blog, Cods Country features great footage of close quarters cod fishing on fly.

Nick went for the all
water REC seat. This
would make a great
Barra rod!

We are honored to have been asked by Nick to develop an 8 foot version of our 10wt Native Spec. It took a bit of re engineering to the blank design but our blank maker partner, CTS in New Zealand, have done an amazing job.

It is a little less tippy than the original 8'6" stock version we developed earlier but still possesses all those great attributes... Lightness in hand for all day casts, pin point accuracy and load of power to spare!

We hope you like it Nick!

Perfect for float tubing or fishing from a kayak.

21 April 2012

We sent Nick an email to check if the new rod had arrived safely to its new owner.

This was his reply "The rod has turned up on Thursday evening. I got it out and grass cast it using the Outbound 10wt 426gr short line, it handles it with ease.  The wife and I are impressed with the build quality and colour scheme, she actually managed some tight loops as well.  My 11 year old daughter had a cast as well, so it has attracted attention at my camp.  

I had a talk ... about a short 8ft dedicated Bass rod and a 7wt rod would be the ideal weight, since most flylines are available in tropical rated.

  

I hope to fish it soon and gather some footage and photos....

Thanking you for vision of building quality rods.  You will hear from me soon.

Regards Nick"      


Can't wait until he gets to blood it !   

10' HCE Spec CTS Affinity X lake rod

Last week end I was out at Millbrook Lakes (Where Tony & I have done a few photo shoots) for a week end away with some of the guys.
Apart it being a terrific social weekend, it was also a great opportunity to really put our special lake rod, the HCE Spec Affinity X 10 foot 6wt through it's paces.
I used the rod exclusively for three days, hooking into about 40 fish, landing 27 - a good chance to get to know this rod very, very well.
It was used to slowly strip nymphs from a boat.
Polaroiding from high banks then dropping flies down from there with really good accuracy. Punching into head winds to target Gambusia feeders.
Indicator fishing deep dam wall sections and
throwing dry/nymph/emerger combos at actively feeding fish on the move...
It is perfect for deep wading, longer casts and is great at dampening the sudden lunges of big fish with the forgiving tip action.
There is plenty of reserve down low to really put some muscle on stubborn fish.

A great fly rod for lake fishing that we are proud to be able to offer.

Here is a series of shots from Chris Beech of Flymax fame of yours truly getting into a polaroided shark at Middle Forbes... Thanks Chris!

After spotting the cruiser, stalking into position

The cast is made, about 20' up off the water - the 10' HCE Spec dropped the fly in the perfect spot... the fish sees it... and then...

...takes it! I saw the fish turn, slink up to the fly, decide it was food and got the eat!
Look at that rod action... perfect bend!

How cool is this! Note the high vantage point the cast was made from, and all the dead wood in the water the fish had to be steered away from

My nice bow, handled for me by Phillip Weigal
Awesome stuff made easy with an awesome rod!