Tom Moran 6½′ #4-weight Model 784 2-piece 2-top fly rod c2008.

This rod has been very carefully used a handful of times and is in exceptional condition, cosmetically and mechanically.

The late Tom Moran, who died in 2014, made this rod while he was living in Chilton Foliat, near Hungerford in Berkshire. The rod was built at the workshop he rented for a time in Mildenhall near Marlborough, Wiltshire. The final assembly and finishing work were carried out at his home, where he had converted his guest bedroom into a varnishing room. Tom was famous for doing this. He liked to monitor his finishing work very closely and the best way to achieve this was to live over the shop, so to speak.

I had the great good fortune to see Tom Moran very regularly at the time this rod was made and it was, in my view, a golden age for his rod making. He enjoyed ideal workshop conditions at Mildenhall and this rod is pure Moran. He was not working with anyone at the time.

This rod is the quintessential small stream instrument. For utility, it is beyond reproach. Small enough to be fished with in confined spaces but not a toy, capable of casting a #4 line with great accuracy and finesse from point blank to a range of thirty feet, it is light in the hand and completely practical. This type of rod, when well made, is the equal of anything made from synthetic materials. When made by Tom Moran, it is their superior.

The model number denotes a 78” long rod rated for a #4 line. The number /19 indicates that it was the nineteenth such rod Tom had made. There are very few rods of this model made solely by Tom Moran; fewer still in such wonderful condition. This is not only a stunning example, epitomising everything that made Tom’s work so sought after and respected, but it is an eminently practical fishing rod.

Due to its absolutely satisfying fishing characteristics and its superb build quality, the owner of this rod will be able to enjoy using a superlative example of rod making craft which will continue to appreciate and be appreciated for generations.

Specification.

6½’ 2-piece with two mirrored tips. The tips are numbered 1 & 2 in Indian ink and have identifying tippings to the tip ring whippings –one green, the other red.

The hand split precision made cane is Tom’s medium flamed mid-brown. Nodes are staggered 3 x 3 in the classic Leonard style, with no groups of nodes near the elegant butt swell, ferrules or tip rings. The sections are straight, true and unblemished.

Ferrules are Tom’s own nickel silver splint end Super-Z pattern, blued, lacquered and fitted with his superb cork and Rosewood stopper. The rod comes with the small square of ferrule soap Tom always supplied.

The Flor grade cork handle is a very comfortable classic cigar shape, with blued nickel silver checks at each end.

The reel seat is very unusual Maple burl, its colour in harmony with that of the blank, and hand mortised to suit the underside of a Hardy reel foot. The nickel silver butt cap and band are incredibly finely knurled, blued and lacquered. The butt cap is engraved ‘T. Moran – Maker’ There is the faintest silvering on the bottom edge of the butt cap’s oxidised finish.

The bronzed stainless steel snake guides are Tom’s own make –he was the only maker ever to produce his own world class guides. The butt ring is a Mildrum SRMC size 8. Its carbide centre is mounted in a nickel silver frame. The tip rings are Snake Brand. The hook keeper is also Tom’s own make. Whippings are in varnish impregnated white Pearsall’s Gossamer silk, with Tom’s trademark single strand tan tippings.

The varnish finish is fine and durable even by the exemplary standards of the maker.

The rod’s fine gabardine tailor made bag with a stiffener to protect the tips.

The case is in superb dark tan leather, made by the excellent Ger Vroomen of the Netherlands.