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Zimmerlin, Dan

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My name is Dan.  I live in Berkeley, CA and work at the university as a teacher educator. I was a public school math teacher in Oakland for 17 years before getting hired at Cal.  I have been making bamboo rods for a little more than 3 years.  I began as a woodcarver, doing my first carving, and getting my first scar, when I was 11.  I have done some sculpture and some furniture making.  Where I live now, I don't have a shop (no basement, no garage, no spare room) so I work out on a picnic table in the back yard when the weather is good. Fortunately, in CA the weather is good a lot of the time and I have summers off.

I started by taking Chris Raine's week long rod making class.  It was great, I built a rod that I am very proud of, and marked it "No. 1."  So I gathered tools and started on my own.  I have finished 13 rods to date, most being small stream rods.  I have also built 3 Dickerson 8013s for friends, and am working on one for myself, #014.  I am also working on a modified Sir D, a 7' 4 wt 4 piece backpack rod.  I like to fish the small streams in the high Sierra, including backpacking into the high country where the fish are eager, small, and plentiful.

I went to the Great Western gathering this fall.  I cast a lot of rods and learned a lot from the more experienced people there.  I am starting to understand how tapers translate into feel.  Thanks, Jerry, for that.  I think the next challenge will be trying to design a taper of my own, though at this point it is hard to imagine a better taper (for me) than the Sir D.  Thanks to Wayne, and the late Darryl Hayashida for that.

Thanks to everyone on the list  as well.  And thanks for the archives, Hexrod, RodDNA, and all.