The roots of Dr.Grass

  Its safe to say bamboo fly rod makers stand on the shoulders of the many great men that came before. My name is Jordan Inge and I make bamboo fly rods. Rod making is the deepest most fulfilling passion I have. 

My angler’s desire and sailor’s wanderlust came with my genes. Richard Hoverson was a sturdy, feisty man. He sailed the pacific on the port side gunnel during the second world war and came home with out a scratch. He pursued his doctorate in the field of agronomy focusing on the evolution of the North American grass planes, earning him the collegiate nickname of “Dr. Grass”. He built a home for his bride in Mexico. Reared a family in the Dominican Republic. Finished his active years as sport fishing captain in the Gulf of Mexico out of Port Mansfield. And finally grew old and bald in deep south Texas in a white stucco house surrounded by sugar cane fields and mesquite trees. 

It was in that white stucco house with a deep-blue 21 foot center-console out front that I became aware of my being. Every word Papaw said to me rang of wisdom and adventure. He had dust bowled, he had pacific theatered, he poached in the woods of Mexico to provide for his family, built his own homes, built his own boats, became a heavily degreed man, made a living at sea, and then spent lots of time and energy raising me. Just by the act of himself liking it, he gave me the constant burning desire to have a fish on a line. Some of my earliest memories are me, my mother, and Papaw all fishing on the flats boat he built. He was an icon of a passing way of life. 

I am not entirely dissimilar now from the man who raised me, balding, getting older, and trying to make a living off of a passion for fishing. I have built a few boats and I built my house. I have hiked the Appalachian trail and the Pacific crest trail. I’ll never be the shirtless hunter next to a dead hog on the front of the local newspaper, but I work every day to make the idea of that man proud. Dr. Grass Fly Rods are made with the intention that the next two generations of your angling family will be able to also use your bamboo rod with the same joy and confidence that you are able to when it’s new. Instead of writing my name on every fly rod I make I decided to pay homage by naming my company after my grandfather, Richard “Dr. Grass” Hoverson. He is the inspiration, the source of my passion, and the ultimate quality control.