I originally placed an order for three 8' bamboo rods with extra tips. My intention was to give these rods as gifts of appreciation to members of the CodeMarine, Inc. board of directors (of which I am a member). I placed the order on approximately August 15th, shortly after fellow ROFFians Tom Brown and Walt Winter received (and praised the quality of) their Gehrke rods. What I didn't realize at the time was that George had a sizeable order fulfillment backlog and for purposes of production efficiency was basically restricting his rod building to a single taper--the 7.5' 4wt model. 

After waiting several weeks without hearing anything from George about his progress on my rods, I sent him email and visited his infamous chat site . He assured me that he was aware of my order but would not be able to get to it for another couple of weeks. Shortly thereafter, reports began to trickle into ROFF that some people weren't entirely happy with the quality of the rods they were getting.

At that point, due to the indeterminate delivery date of my order and the seeds of doubt that had begun to emerge, I decided that giving Gehrke's rods as corporate gifts might not be such a splendid idea after all, so I cancelled my order, albeit reluctantly.

No sooner had I cancelled the order, though, when the battle on ROFF over the quality of the rods reached a feverish pitch. Dave Tatosian and Dave LaCourse--two of the ROFFians whose judgement I respect most--had received and returned rods that they deemed unacceptable. They were initially quite tight-lipped about the ordeal, not wanting to criticize George for his efforts. But after being denigrated by George on his chat site and on ROFF, Dave and Dave told their side of the story. They explained--in detail--several serious problems with each of the rods they received and George--deciding that the best defense is a good offense--called into question their integrity and motives.

This turn of events was as disheartening as it was fascinating. While I haven't yet met Dave, Dave, or George, I've exchanged private emails and/or phone calls with all three of them and they all seem to be good people. Yes, George's on-line persona is clearly unfriendly at times, but he was genuinely likable and  sincere in my phone conversations with him.

It was at this point that I decided to order a 7.5' 4wt Gehrke rod for myself (no extra tip). I just had to see what I'd end up with. In a post on ROFF dated September 28th, I offered George the opportunity to send me best of the rods returned by Dave and Dave or any other recently-built Gehrke rod.

George told me was planning to use the Tatosian rod as a gift to someone else, so he would send me another rod in a matter of days.

Click here for Part III of the story...