Dear rod builders,

As prompted by Mr. Jim Upton, I want to give you an update on where the rods went. The attached letter is from Bill Winters of Navy MWR (with Mr. Winters' permission). It contains details on destination of the rods that you will find interesting.

Thanks again to you who supported this effort. I will update you when I have a good plan in place to do this again.

Tight wraps!

Bob Lee
Pacific Bay International, Inc.

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Bob--

Great to hear from you. As a mater of fact, I received your colored-catalog earlier this week and was thumbing through it looking at the various components, thinking, damn these guys (rod makers) are good.

When I was growing up in southern Oregon (Rogue River Valley), I though it was cool to tie flies and catch steelhead on them. I remember how proud I was whenever I caught fish on flies that I had tied. I can only imagine the satisfaction one gets when they have built their rod by hand--pretty amazing stuff.

Where did the rods go? I worked closely with the command Master chief for U.S. Naval Central Command/5th fleet, at Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and had him identify those commands, detachments, or units of military personnel (both Sailors and Marines) that were situated near or at locations where they could use the gear to fish. Some units were security detachments at former royal palaces where there were large ponds; other units were serving on oil rigs (protecting against sabotage); others were assigned to small boats in the inner coastal waterways of the Arabian Gulf where the Euphrates and Tigress River discharge into the sea. Finally, a handful of the heavier action rods made it to one of the minesweepers temporarily home ported in the United Arab Emirates.

As you may recall, you hooked me up with Okuma and we outfitted each rod with an appropriately matched reel. We also worked with Bass Pro out of Springfield and secured a packed tackle box for each rod and reel combination. Each box was chock-full of line, lures, terminal tackle, plastics, jigs--all of which was quality equipment. I purchase some four-inch PVC and we made some durable rod savers for the shipment overseas. Wherever a rod went, a reel went, and where they were shipped, a tackle box was provided.

I remember seeing notes and letters attached to some of the rods--specifically a rod made for a Marine, with the anchor and globe on the reel butt, and "Semper Fi" etched on the rod itself. I remember thinking, "what a privilege and honor it will be for the Marine getting to use this special rod." I made sure every letter stayed with its rod. I too hoped that some of these rod builders would have established at least a pen pal relationship with recipient of this equipment. Should we repeat this program, I'm pretty confident we can do much better on this aspect of it.

We had purchased disposable cameras and placed one in each tackle box that was shipped. I received two cameras in the mail and had the photos developed. for whatever reason, all of the pictures pretty much failed and it was difficult to figure out images--someone told me it had to do with the security scanning system of boxes mailed stateside from military locations. The photos were so bad I had to pitch them. This time I hope to have command's use a digital camera and send the images to me via Internet.

If we're to do get together and do something like this again, and I certainly hope we do, I have a couple of suggestions that may be useful to you and your craftsmen. For rods and reels going overseas to SWA, we may want to make them a bit more stout, with the majority of fishing occurring from ships in the harbor, oil rigs on the flats, and patrol boats in the inner coastal waterways. for those rods and reels being shipped inland to Marines and other units, the type of rods and reels supplies last time were ideal.

Standing by to assist and to provide the assistance necessary to kick this off. We have plenty of lessons learned from last time and we're much better at logistics than before.

Hopefully, your good friends from Okuma wil be up for the challenge as well.

V/R

BILL WINTERS
Navywide MWR Commercial Sponsorship Coordinator
Commander, Navy Installations, Command
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Thanx Bob, I appreciate the update. Perhaps one day we will get a letter or picture with a fish from one of the recipients. It's a great program and one that I will be glad to participate in again.

Bob, If the Rods 4 Troops program goes again with the need for more "stout tackle", I'd be willing to participate and I'm sure others with the NorthEast RodBuilderS would do likewise.

Hey Bob,
Please count me in as well for the next time! It would be an honor to assist in any way I can!

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

Ditto for me , if you do it again I'd like to be involved.

What type rods are being sent to these guys ? I would like to know so I can have a blank ready if and when it goes off again
Thanks

Hi gang,

You guys all have big hearts. Thanks! I will put your names down and keep you updated on how it goes.

Have a great weekend!

Bob Lee
Pacific Bay International, Inc.

I have some of the Andy Dear saltwater specials here at the house that sound like they'd work. If this starts again let me know and I'll build some and donate others to the pool.