Joe Bradley rods

[creakycane]

I wiggled one of Joe's rods out in Mike Lawson's old shop many years ago, and recently received my first two Bradley rods directly from Joe. One is his Para 13, a 7 1/2' 4 wt 2/2 rod that is a full working 4, can cast just the leader or a smooth medium length cast, and shoot a bit of line if needed --- it is primarily a full-working 4 for medium streams, roll casts, dry flies and small nymphs. It is super smooth and very supple in the hand; I would compare it to a Jenkins 756, maybe a tad lighter. It is finished with blued hardware, cap and ring, cigar grip and Joe's standard black ash burl, wraps and tipping.
The other rod is the Bradley Para 14, a 7'9" 5 wt 2/2 that is very different from the smaller rod; this rod seems like it would make an all round 5 for just about anywhere - its not for the smallest of streams or a huge river, but everything in between would be covered more than adequately. It is full working and fairly powerful, and finished as above except it has an up screwlock and suitable Payne style grip that fits the rod very well.
The hard-rubbed finish has a nice sheen to it, seems rich but durable to me (not surprisingly, like that on a high-grade gunstock), and the canework and all the handywork is excellent. Joe includes a TT line with each rod (in this case a 4 and 5 TT), but I have not used the lines yet, testing them out with suitable DT lines only. My preliminary casting of the rods tell me these tapers are dialed in quite well for my kind of casting stroke.
I am very happy I got around to getting some of Joe's rods, even if I sat on the idea for close to 2 decades - and with the opportunity to chat with a gentleman like Joe Bradley...
My photos are not as good as Joe's, so pics are best viewed on his website.
I'd be curious if anyone has the 8' 4 wt progressive rod that Joe makes, and could share their thoughts on that taper. Thanks in advance.

[Eric Peper]

I cast Joe's 8' progressive briefly last June, and I was very impressed. On the same day, I cast a Doug Daniel 8'3" quad, and that's the one that ended up getting my attention and my order. Had it not been for Doug's rod I would have been hard pressed to turn away from Joe's 8'. FWIW, my target for performance for any rod is how it would do on the ranch water of the Henry's Fork as that is where I spend my time.

Eric

[Boo]

I own Joe Bradley's 'Para 14' as well. I was on the verge of buying his 8'/4wt you mentioned and then cast the 7'9"/5wt. I ended up with the Para 14. It's a powerful rod I wouldn't be afraid to use in any situation for trout. IMO, of all the rods I own or have owned it is one of the most solidly constructed rods I have seen. Sturdy, and beautiful workmanship...nothing is out of line. Generally, I would prefer a slower rod but there is just something about his 7'9"5wt that gives me confidence on any river. Difficult to explain but knowing what I 'normally' like in a taper I would say this rod doesn't fit me, yet, it has become my 'go to rod.' I get tight loops and good distance and it's a rod I'm not afraid to put the butt into when fighting a good size trout. I'd highly recommend a one of Joe's rods!

[Flykuni3]

Have met Joe and cast several of his models, all nice. He has worked on rifles and his finishing work on rods is top notch.

[norcal_1]

I had the privilege on Saturday to visit with Joe and spend several hours casting his rods, learn his building process, and hear his thoughts on rod tapers and fly fishing. It was an extremely enjoyable day. I had cast several of his rods at the Pleasanton fly fishing show earlier this year so I knew I liked them a lot already and wanted to cast most of his models before pulling the trigger on one for dry fly fishing.

In the end, I bought the same two rods as Creakycane - Joe's version of the Para 13 & 14 in the same line sizes as Creaky - 7'6 4 wt Para 13 and 7'9 5 wt Para 14.

Both have an absolutely light, effortless, silky smooth intuitive feel, with a truly wonderful full parabolic action. Of note, it was an especially windy day when I was casting these, with very strong wind gusts, and they performed well at every distance, even directly into the wind. Joe's Progressive line-up rods were also really nice casters, I just happen to have several progressive rods already, and wanted to get a parabolic for dry fly fishing.

I would note that (to me), these are pure dry fly rods, even the Para 14. Swinging soft hackles and emergers would be fine as well, but I wouldn't use a heavy weighted rig on these, but YMMV. Think PHY dry fly tips

Those of you fishing the Henry's Fork should catch up with Joe in person there the next 7 months and try both Para rods for yourselves (or see/cast them in Mike Lawson's shop).

My camera had trouble adjusting to the light and washed out many of these pictures, so the second picture below is the one that best captures the richness of Joe's rod finishes and what you'd see up close with the naked eye:

[Tim Anderson]

Congratulations to those who have just obtained one or more of Joe's rods. He continuously improves his already great tapers and, I think, is remarkable in that he makes both parabolic and progressive tapers which cast superbly. And, his rods are very reasonably priced.

Tim

[rsagebrush]

He makes nice twisted leaders too.

[kconway]

I met Joe Bradley this year at the Sportsman Show in Sacramento this past January. He was hanging out at the Sweetgrass Rods booth with Luca Troiani and I stopped to admire their rods. I spent the next half hour talking with these two interesting and funny guys. Then In February my wife and I ran into Joe and his lovely wife at the Pleasanton Fly Show. Wonderful people and a great visit.
Thanks Joe! See you in Idaho. Ken & Shari.

[SxS]

I have his slightly stretched 7'9" version of the para 13. It's a really fun rod to fish! Plays really hot fish with grace! This was my 2nd respectable fish on this rod on the 1st day I ever fished it. Joe was downstream a click or two in his lawn chair chatting with Whitefish Ed when all this took place.

Also, the rod bags that come with all of his rods which are hand made by his wife, are among the nicest rod bags ever made! Joe is one of the nicest guys out there and he builds a great fishing tool which is also nice to look at for a really fair price!

[norcal_1]

^that ferrule is screaming 'No Mas! fish too big!' I think you were testing the limits of that 4 wt Para 13 with that fish, amigo! I saw a picture of the big rainbow you landed in an earlier post - huge

[Flykuni3]

Bendy.

[BigTJ]

Anybody who sees that pic and still thinks the maximum stress in a fly rod is near the tip needs to go back to physics class. The middle part of that rod is getting a workout.

[sagegrouse715]

I have 2 Joe Bradley rods: 7'9" Para 14 5 wt. and a 7"9" Pro 4 wt. They are lovely cosmetically and fish well. I met Joe on the H. Fork banks. He is a great conversationalist.

[norcal_1]

Yesterday, I had chance to visit w/ rod maker Joe Bradley again at the Pleasanton, CA Fly Fishing Show and get to cast a few new models.

Last year, I arranged to visit him at his house to test cast his entire line-up of rods more leisurely than I could at the crowded casting ponds of the Pleasanton show. I walked away with his Para 13 (7'6 4 wt) and Para 14 (7'9, 5 wt) rods. A year later couldn't be more happy with them, and that's after also adding some original Paul Youngs last year. They cast like a dream - silky smooth and very parabolic for the para-holics out there. They are blond rods, but his rods are beautifully finished, super clean builds and some of the best looking blond rods (ala Homer Jennings). They are much nicer in person and in hand than the pictures below.

A couple months ago I went to visit Joe again at his house and got his stretched version of a Paul Young Para 17 taper, Joe's being 9 ft in length. It's magnificent. Light in hand despite not being hollow built, very parabolic and smooth deep reserve of power. It's now my large trout rod, to go along with an original Paul Young Doerr. Joe's is every bit as good as a PHY Texas General, Para 17 or Doerr, and encapsulates the best of each of those models into one rod - smoothness and power of Doerr + Tx General with parabolicness of Para 17. Would be a great steelhead rod since it comes with a removable fighting butt. Something about stretching the Para 17 really smoothed out the taper from the originals I've cast. Highly recommended for any one looking for an effortless casting powerful big rod that you can fish all day and not wear your arm out. Parabolics really shine at these 7 and 8 line wts, imho - much easier to cast than progressives due to the parabolic kick doing all the work of the cast. And their ability to roll cast is exceptional, eliminating a lot of over head casting if you want to take advantage of water loading the rod on the swing and rolling it back upstream.

Two new rods Joe brought to Pleasanton this year were his tweaked version of a PHY Perfectionist taper and a stretched Para 14. For the Perfectionist taper, he added just a little more wood to the butt but also made it more parabolic than the original taper to offset the change. The result is a superb silky smooth casting rod with a nice parabolic kick, more than the original, which I think is a welcome improvement if you like more parabolic rods.

The other new model is a stretched 8'3 5 wt version of a Para 14, where he added 6 inches to the his normal 7'9 Para 14. Joe uses Rod DNA and prototypes to get new models dialed in. This rod literally cast like a dream - the perfect Henry's Fork rod. Had I not already owned his Para 13 and Para 14 that bookend these new rods and/or regularly fished spring creeks or the Henry's Fork, I would have grabbed that rod in a nanosecond.

Joe only made 1 or 2 of each model, so a smaller batch than last year. If a forum member is located in the Bay area, they can come cast mine on weekends at the Golden Gate Angling & Casting club on Saturday mornings. I don't get paid to say any of this, I just think his rods are special and he's in his mid 70's and won't be building forever.

[tcorfey]

Just ordered one of Joe's PHY Perfectionist 7'6" 5wt taper. What a nice rod it just felt so natural in my hand. Got to cast 4 of Joe's rods the Para 13 and two 14's. I really liked all of them but the Perfectionist just spoke my name. I wanted a different reel seat then what Joe had on the rod currently so I ordered what I wanted instead. Great guy, he listens to you, watches you, and talks you through the process. Pleasure doing business with this gentleman. Looking forward to getting the rod later this year.

[kconway]

I'll jump on board with my pal Norcal about Joe's rods. My wife and I spent Friday and Saturday at the Pleasanton Fly Show with Joe and his wonderful wife Diane, casting rods with Norcal. My wife and I have "several" of Joe's rods, including a 7'6" Para 13, 7'9" Para 14 and 8' Para 15. All wonderful looking and casting rods. My wife picked up one of Joe's Perfectionist's last year and I a Pro 13 7'6" 5wt. I liked her Perfectionist so much, well when she let me cast it once in a while, that I had Joe make me one this year and I picked it up at the show. It's a wonderful rod and I have been lawn casting it all week, it's smooth and you can feel that reserve power ready for a nice fish.

tcorfey: You will love that rod when you get it.

Like Norcal we also cast Joe's new 8'3" Para 14 5wt, another rod that you can do anything with. I see one of those in our future as my wife loved it. He had two versions there, a "lite" model and one with a bit more oomph. I really liked the the "lite" version, cast very smooth and very light in the hand for an 8'3" non hollow built rod, but both models were very nice. I also cast Joe's Progressive 7'9" 3/2 5wt, another very nice rod. This would be an all around great travel rod.

You can't go wrong with Joe's rods, they're beautiful, sweet caster's and just have that "feel".

Thank you!
Ken

[bhuz]

Always on the lookout for yet another steelhead rod, the Young Bob Doerr Special offered on this forum in
December really piqued my interest. Although ultimately passing on it. I remain intrigued by the thought of a parabolic rod for steelhead. Reading Norcal's comments on Joe's Para 17 got me interested in Joe's rods, so yesterday I visited Joe at the Albany (OR) FF Expo. What a great guy! Surprisingly, his endorsement of his Para 17 was "tepid". Instead, he suggested the rod he likes best for steelhead, his 8' Para 15. I cast it with 7wt lines, plastic and silk...Wow! I'd love to hear comments from any of you who might have this rod.

I'm still interested in the heavier rods. Norcal, what weight line do you prefer with your Para 17? With your Doerr Special?

Thanks all,

Tom

[norcal_1]

^Tom,

Joe's Para 15 is more like a Para 16 scaled down to an 8 ft rod, and even stronger than normal PHY Para 16. It's a fantastic rod and might be fine for summer steelhead if they aren't too big where you are.

The Para 17 of his that I have loves a Scientific Anglers GPX7 which is a 7.5 wt line. It also likes an Airflo 8 WF line a lot. So does the PHY Doerr by the way - likes the same two lines. The Doerr is probably better with the WF8, but I like to underline it a little

Joe's is very close to the Doerr, maybe has one gear less in power, but is more parabolic. He stretched out the Para 17 taper to 9 ft from 8 1/2 ft and it works really well, it's a very smooth casting parabolic rod. I've let a lot of spey casters at the Golden Gate Angling & Casting Club here in SF cast that rod on weekends and it's universally liked by everybody who cast it.

I don't have a scale to weigh the Para 17, so I can't say exactly how heavy it is, but it's probably 5.7 oz (the Doerr is marked 5.87 oz). The swing weight is not heavy feeling either. It's a real cannon but very easy to cast. How my arm feels after several hours of casting it, I can't comment on yet b/c I just got it a couple of months ago.

I just got to cast forum member KConway's Joe built version of a Para 16 that is essentially like the Para 17 I have in normal 8 1/2 length. It's much more powerful than a real PHY Para 16 and more akin to my Para 17, very similar feel and just as powerful. That might be the right size to think about.

The nice thing about big rods being parabolic is that you don't use as much arm to cast them, the rod does the work due to the taper.

You can't go wrong with any of his rods

[czkid]

This does bring up a problem.... or at least a problem for me. The term Para-this and Para-that are to be associated with the Paul Young Company. I have no problem with something like "Inspired by..." or "My version of....", but to use the term without explanation does seem to be a bit "wrong". This would apply to copies of other makers rods as well and not just PHY.

Ralph

[derensfox]

This does bring up a problem.... or at least a problem for me. The term Para-this and Para-that are to be associated with the Paul Young Company. I have no problem with something like "Inspired by..." or "My version of....", but to use the term without explanation does seem to be a bit "wrong". This would apply to copies of other makers rods as well and not just PHY.

Ralph

The term was adopted by Young, but the term and action pioneered by Charles Ritz in the 1930s.

Note that Young Co sold Pezon y Michel Para rods before Paul et Co developed the named/Para rods......

http://mmcgr.users.sonic.net/ParabolicR ... icRods.pdf

I think it is quite obvious in this thread that the term Para 13, Para 14 etc refer to Mr Bradley's versions of comparable Young para rods, which were derivatives of Ritz and P y M's pioneering work.....