I have been able to spend some time with Tom Moran of late and went through the resume of his career that I had written a year a two or go and got him to verify or correct some of the details of my research. This is the updated version.

I am talking here of Tom Moran - Master Rodmaker - Englishman and not Tom Morgan of Manhattan, MT or Steve Moran of Spokane, WA

It seems to be an 'English' trait that high end makers here do not need to advertise so they do not, they are generally quietly modest and just get on with making their rods for those who know of and appreciate them. For this reason two of the five finest rod makers in the world are here in the UK and are not as widely known as their work would merit, they seem to prefer it that way. It is generally appreciated that Tom Moran is probably the finest complete maker of bamboo rods living today, there are a few who can match certain aspects of his work but very, very few who can achieve this level in all aspects. The other Englishman in the category is Lawrence Waldron - best known for his remarkable LAW vices and reels, both of which are generally regarded as the finest that money can buy but I understand is now making very few (if any) rods and concentrating on his engineering. "Lawrence Waldron is a machinist and cane rod builder who has made numerous planing forms, including sets for notable builders such as Tom Moran".

Tom Moran started building bamboo rods in the early 1970's. He was self taught and started with tapers by Richard Walker although later acknowledges Everett Garrison's influence through his book 'A Bamboo Fly Rod'

In the mid 1970's while living in Scotland he worked in partnership with Mike Jordan and they built rods commercially after buying a milling machine from Malcolm Grey (of Greys of Alnwick). After a short while this business failed.

Tom had met Alan Bramley of Partridge at The Game Fair and had been invited to join the company if he ever was in need of a job and he subsequently joined as the Foreman at Partridge's rod building division. He started in January of 1981 and was there for 3 years. During this time he also worked with Homer Jennings (now of Colorado, USA) who was then living in Northamptonshire. Quite a few of the Jennings-Moran rods were produced while Tom was still working at Partridge. Homer Jennings was not a full time rod builder at this time (he had a Hotel). These rods are of a quality comparable with later 'Tom Moran' rods but are much rarer because fewer were made, Moran estimates about 40 bamboo rods in total and one graphite. The bamboo work was mostly Moran and fittings and wraps were by Jennings with Moran then finishing the varnish work. This 'sometimes tempestuous' partnership dissolved acrimoniously in or around 1984

This coincided with Moran being introduced to the Japanese market by Hoagy Carmichael and he became a full time independent rod maker for 6 or 7 years before taking a job with Tom Dorsey at T & T in the USA from April. He was unhappy with the winter weather in New England and was offered a workshop in England where he returned to the UK and set up in December 1995, he then moved to Southampton. The rods produced in this time were generally not signed but had stamped butt caps and are of the finest quality, they also further refined the 'style' - blond cane, clear wraps with the single thread black highlight, mainly maple highly figured and marked reel seats and immaculate finish. His flamed rods have semi clear caramel wraps with slightly wider black thread trim, darker reel seats, etc.

The numbers are sequenced from the rod length (in inches) line weight, then the sequential number of the rod for the length/weight so 965/10 would be 96 inches, 5wt and the tenth rod of this type.

He joined forces with Mark Tunley who was finishing out graphite rods to a high quality as below ( from www.marktunley.com ) :-

"I moved on from the Chalk Stream Angler to join forces with the Master, Tom Moran. Tom in my opinion, and the opinion of many in the know is the finest maker of Bamboo fly rods alive today in the world. I had become known at the high end of rod building in quite a short time and being that the rod world is quite a small one, I was approached by Tom to join forces, which I did in January 2001. Our rods retailed at $2500 USD each (about £1750 at the time) with a 6-9 month waiting list. Due to my love of coarse fishing, it was only natural to offer a custom rod building service for this market. In November 2002 I left working with Tom to concentrate on my own thing, mainly carp rods."

This was 'The Moran Rod Company' and lasted for a very short time.

Tom Moran continued building rods under his own name until some time around 2003/4 when for personal reasons he stopped building completely.

Tom Moran has now started building again but production is at only 12 or so rods per year. One of the newest development in his 'style' is a bamboo strip reel seat, which, to his annoyance has been copied in the USA - his response is to make his reel seat more complex and more demanding of skill - the bamboo slivers are now inserted into the reel seat to avoid compression of the cork and retain a tightness on the reel foot in what could be described as 'surgical marquetry'.

Named Rods ;

There are a few time periods when rods carried names which can allow reasonably accurate dating -

'Contessa' rods are dark flamed rods, about 8 of them were made just before Tom left Partridge and went to T & T so they date to 1991/2

'Spring Run' rods are blonde - some were made just before Tom went to T & T so they date to 1991/2, they were made again when working with Tunley.

'Traun' rods are from a batch of 20 rods at most made for H R Heibesen in Austria just after the Jennings-Moran partnership dissolved and are marked with an HRH specification, some of the line weights are high to suit the HRH requirement but cast very well with conventional casting techniques about 2 line weights below that marked. They do have Tom Moran Rod Co. tubes but were made only by Moran and are mostly 6½ or 7' rods. Some are marked as 7wts.

Unmarked Rods ;

A few rods were sold by Thomas Dürkopp in Germany / Austria which are unmarked and were sold in Moran Rod Co. tubes.

Most Moran rods of the current era are the highest possible quality, his progressive tapers are based on Garrison's work and he has continued to refine his style. Varnish is perfect, wraps are clear with a single thread trim in black, markings are limited to the inked specification of the rod on the butt and a stamped butt cap, nearly all reel seats are specially selected maple - either pale for the blonde rods or lightly stained to match the cane on the lightly flamed rods.

Tom is not internet / email enabled so there is no web site and his rods sell at well above the new price on the secondary market because of the difficulties of obtaining and therefore the rarity of new ones, all of his somewhat sporadic production is spoken for at the present time.