Little River Rods

ABOUT Dennis Menscer >>

 

Dennis Menscer was born in Lakewood, New Jersey in 1953 into a fishing family. He grew up helping his father on clam boats and later captained his own fishing boats and ran traps for lobster, retiring from commercial fishing in 2000.

 

Dennis made his first fiberglass rods in 1965. He started fly fishing in the mid ‘70s on the South Branch of the Raritan and the Little River in Tennessee, after which he has named Little River Rod Company.

 

Dennis’ interest in bamboo began in 1990 when he acquired an F.E. Thomas rod with a broken mid and tip. He challenged himself to make a replacement but wasn’t satisfied with the color of the two new sections and he has never looked back. Dennis has subsequently made hundreds of rods that have been fished around the world and has repaired and restored many fine rods by the great makers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

 

Dennis moved the shop to the West Branch of the Delaware in 2003 and keeps an eye on the hatches from the windows of the shop. He welcomes his customers to try Little River rods out on the finicky wild browns feeding on the famed hatches of the West Branch.