A few folks here on the Forum have been calling me "the Monty Man" for a while, so I've decided to adopt the name. Before that, I was active on this Forum as GoneFlyFishin.

Why do I collect and fish with Montague rods???

My first bamboo rod was an old Montague Rapidan that I picked up on eBay for next to nothing. It was a bit clunky, but fishable. I decided to stay in the Montague line and work my way up. I've found that Montague actually made dozens of high-end rod models, many of which are sweet fishing instruments. I'm working my way through the line and have been pleasantly surprised. I sold my Orvis Zero Gravity, my TLS Power Matrix, and most of my Sage, St. Croix and Scott glass rods, and spend much of my spare time (the time I would be fishing, if it was summer) researching and buying bamboo rods. I fish primarily with bamboo rods, and I've become a bamboo junkie!

My first passion is fishing

I'm lucky enough to spend an average of over 60 days per year on the water chasing fish. I help small companies and start-ups launch new products, and have been successful at making my work fit around my fishing adventures. I am blessed to live in the Pacific Northwest, with hundreds of fishable lakes and streams within a short drive from my home. This past season (2009) I caught and released over 500 fish, caught on 19 different vintage Montague fly rod models. My wading boots have gravel imbedded in them from rivers such as the Deschutes, McKenzie, Crooked, Donner & Blitzen, Imnaha, Umatilla, Yakima, Umpqua, Metolius, Clackamas, Kenai, Russian and Anchor.

My wife and I spend an average of over 60 nights a year in our tent. It's our home away from home during the summer. From mid-May through October, we rarely unpack the camping gear from our truck. We pull out the ice chests and the dirty clothes on Monday or Tuesday when we return, wash the clothes, refill the ice chests, and pack them back in on Thursday or Friday when we head out again. We're considering a camper, just so we can extend our camping and fishing further into the spring and fall seasons. If you're looking for a secluded or fishy spot to explore in the Pacific Northwest, I can help you find either, or both.

A modern-day treasure hunt

Shortly after starting to collect Monty rods, I found an undocumented model, then another, and another. I turns out that most of the Montague line of production rods is undocumented. I'm having loads of fun finding, identifying and documenting the models that have been lost to time. About 50 models are currently documented in publicly accessible collectors' guides and reference manuals. To date, I've documented over 220 distinct Montague bamboo fly rod production models (not including trade rods), and I suspect there are another 25 to 50 models out there waiting to be discovered.

I need your help!!

I'm looking for any Montague rod model that I don't already have in my collection, or that is not already documented fully. I am continually adding to my collection, as my budget allows, and I need examples of as many rods as I can find for reference.

How can I help you??

I enjoy helping people ID their Monty rods. I've built an extensive research library with over 1,000 pages of vintage Montague advertisements from trade catalogs and magazines. I have a collection of over 200 Montague rods, representing about 90 different models from different production eras. If you have a rod that you suspect is a Montague, or you have an interesting model, drop me a line, and I'd be glad to help you identify and evaluate it.

This is fun stuff!!