Tom Moran ‘La Contessa’ 7’3″ #4-weight fly rod.

This is the best Tom Moran fly rod I’ve ever seen.

La Contessa was a model -a brand name if you like, that Tom used briefly when he returned to England from a stint with Thomas & Thomas in America. It is therefore rare, even by Moran standards. It is numbered 874/9. This means it’s 87″ long for a #4 line and it’s the 9th of this model to have been built.

7’3″ 2-piece, with two mirrored tips. Darkly flamed cane. Elegant swelled butt. Needle straight sections. Flawless finish.

5¾” classic cigar shaped Flor grade cork handle.

The reel seat is a nickel silver cap & band down-locking model, perfectly knurled, oxidised and stamped with the maker’s mark. The reel seat spacer is highly figured fiddle back Maple.

The ferrules are perfectly fitted 1X short Tom Moran Super-Z style with Tom’s distinctive Indian Rosewood stopper.

Bronzed stainless steel Tom Moran guides and hook keeper. Perfection tip rings. Mildrum nickel silver and carbide butt ring.

Action: Strong, vigourous dry fly for a #4-weight.

Rod weight: 3.4 oz (97 g).

The rod has a taylor made bag with a tip protector made by Tom’s wife.

The aluminium lined leather case was made by Ger Vroomen of the Netherlands.

A lovely, brisk rod, unused and in new condition. I’ve just had a cast with it on the Lambourn behind my workshop. Pair it with your favourite reel and a Rio Gold or similar fly line. You’ll have a brook rod outfit worth of St Peter himself.

I first met Tom in 1995 and I’ve seen a lot of his rods. If you want to know what all the fuss is about -the legend, the mystery, the awe- this rod, above all of the other Moran treasures I’ve handled, explains everything. It’s that good. I’d say, to stretch the cliche’s legs a bit, that he made this rod when he was at the height of his powers.

The mid nineties certainly weren’t what you’d call settled for Tom, but this was not unusual. When he made this rod, he’d just returned from a stint with Thomas & Thomas. His workshop was in the turbine house at Testwood Pool. You can see some pictures of him there if you visit Per Brandin’s website.

He almost certainly made the split cane blank in Redditch, before departing for the US. He took a good stock of blanks with him and when he returned, he built rods on them for some years. They were made from exceptionally good bamboo by a craftsman who was relatively young, passionate about his craft and exceptionally gifted.

The bamboo was oven heat treated and then darkly flamed. The hand-split strips of bamboo had their nodes perfectly straightened and pressed in an infernal device that Tom had got from one of the Europeans (I forget which one). Each node had to be heated within this tool, whose grub screws were gradually tightened strategically while the bamboo was hot and plastic in order to straighten it. The node then had to cool before the next one could be done. It took forever, but it did produce the most impeccable results.

The 5¾” cork handle is seamless and smooth, turned from the very best cork. The reel seat, Tom’s own work, is perfect. The finely knurled sliding band has just the right internal taper to grip a reel’s foot, as does the inside of the butt cap. Both are blued and lacquered. The butt cap is impressed with Tom’s logo within a cartouche. The spacer is a fabulous piece of fiddle back Maple which Tom shaped by hand to fit perfectly with the underside of a Hardy reel’s foot.

Above the handle is another unique feature: A Moran hook keeper ring. Tom made these to match his guides.

The butt ring is a size 8 Mildrum SRMC (nickel silver frame, carbide centre) and the tip rings are antique Perfections -the best ever. The stainless steel snake guides are Tom’s own make. Nobody else has made and used their own guides. The machine on which they were made was designed and built by Lawrence Waldron of fly tying vice fame. Tom bronzed them in the traditional way.

The whippings (wraps, if you are American) are varnish (Valspar number 10) impregnated Pearsall’s Gossamer silk (white before varnishing, transparent thereafter) with his famous single thread tippings. If you’re really keen on the minutiae, I can tell you that they were over-coated with Gibbs two part polymer finish. Don’t rush out to buy some. It hasn’t been made for twenty years (Valspar number 10, from the US, disappeared over thirty years ago).

This rod is an absolute masterpiece and I’m incredibly excited to be offering it for sale.