| Dan Told me he had an old ribbed boat of mine.
The last boat I ever built that had ribs in it was 1981 sometime. So that's a pretty old clunker. It's sitting in Dan's front yard as a planter now: filled with potting soil and flowers. I had to laugh. Dan said he rowed my boat for years-- and loved the way handled. But he didn't love the work it took to keep an old-fashioned wood boat in guide-ready shape for the Madison River. ...I understand. That's why I gave up on on ribbed boats and starting building stitch-and-glue boats in 1982. Makes you feel old when you meet an old friend who bought a boat you built 25 years ago. Dan said he also had a Phil Sadowski boat (also a planter now). Phil started hanging around my shop a lot one summer in the mid-80s He acted like he was going to buy a boat any minute. He asked me a million questions, and then next thing you know he was building and selling stitch and glue boats. Oddly, or ironically or something, I do remember Phil's fiberglass work was better than mine (back then anyway) but his wood-working skills were, well, lacking in discipline. Phil got sent to prison for murder a few years later. He shot a guy at point blank range, over a whiskey bottle and across a card table. He escaped prison about 10 years after that and has never been heard from since. He was smart devious dangerous and often dishonest. And he had a really bad problem with whiskey Where ever he is now, Montana is the last place on the face the earth he would go to now. And I like that a lot. |
Dan Delekta/
Badger Screamer
Black Pearl
Braided Brown Stone
Braided Flashback Big Red
Bunny Streamer
CDC Baby
CDC Halloween
CDC Prince
Christmas Tree
Delektable Worm
Double Olive Black Screamer
Double Olive Screamer
Double Yellow Screamer
Gray Hurless Flashback Nymph
Jointed Streamer
Mega Prince
Midnight Fire
October Caddis
Olive Hurless Flashback Nymph
Pink Bonefish Fly
Rubber Legs Golden Stone
Single Yellow Brown Screamer
Yellow Brown Christmas Tree