Barder Rod

Edward Barder started making rods in 1990, after buying the workshop equipment once used by Clifford Constable, the maker of Dermot Wilson's "Wallop Brook" rods. Before that he worked at Hardy's in Pall Mall, where handling and appraising rods by the great American and European makers taught him what a good one looks and feels like. His friend Colin Whitehouse joined in 1993 and the two still work together. Chris Yates, the carp record holder, helped inspire the company's founding and later co-designed a rod range with them.

The workshop is at Ham Mill in Newbury, where the Lambourn meets the Kennet, and a branch of the Lambourn runs nine feet from the door. Split cane is the core of the business, with custom carbon fibre and fibreglass rods also built to order. About three quarters of what leaves the workshop are fly rods, the rest coarse rods for carp, barbel and Avon fishing. There is no grading system: every rod is made to the same standard, the best they can produce.

The split cane fly rods run from 7' in a #3 or #4 to 8'6" in a #4, #5 or #6. Each is built from Tonkin bamboo culms, hand-tempered over an open flame, split into six 60-degree strips tapered to within a thousandth of an inch and pressure-bonded with waterproof adhesive. Nickel silver ferrules are hand-lapped and whipped in tan silk, guides are hard chrome-plated snake guides with Brazilian agate stripping guides and tip-tops, the handle is cigar-shaped Portuguese cork and the reel seat olive wood with nickel silver fittings, finished with several coats of marine varnish. Barder describes the action as smooth and progressive, medium-fast for cane, with fine tips built to protect light tippets.

Every rod comes with two mirrored tip sections, a silk bag and an aluminium-lined leather case. All the split cane fly rod models are £3,300 at 2026 pricing, ordered against a one-third non-refundable deposit with the balance due on completion.