Jono Winnel | 11 November 2019
Renato may be the happiest man alive. Rarely serious and often with a glass of wine in hand. Content and living his best life. And why shouldn’t he? He lives in a mountain village in Switzerland with cobblestone streets, flower boxes hanging from rustic windows and all overlooking stunning picturesque Swiss Alps. During winter there is great skiing and during summer there is fantastic trout fishing. There is also mountain biking, hiking, wine, food, swimming and also just pure serenity. His rod building workshop window and front door open up to pure Swiss mountain vistas where he sits and builds fly rods. Life is good.
But Renato is serious. If only for a brief moment. Serious about disrupting what he sees as the monotony of the big rod companies and the tradition of blandness and the lack of colour. “I want to break the law and the clouds, and let the blue sky and sunshine into the hearts of fly anglers and offer them a colourful fly rod,” says Renato. V Stick fly rod designs and aesthetic flies in the face of tweed coats and tradition. A fly fishing rebel. This might be the defining element of Renato’s work.
Fly fishing came to Renato about 15 years ago through his best friend, a seasoned fly fisher. He convinced Renato to give it a shot. “I just bought a crappy $20 fly rod and reel combo from the supermarket.” Renato was instantly hooked. “What is this”? “This is crazy and great,” says Renato. “Fly fishing is known in terms of making life more difficult, and I love it. There is nothing else for me out there to immediately find the way to myself and my deepest sense in life. I guess it’s a kind of meditation and not at all about catching that one fish.” Now with an impressive bookshelf of fly fishing literature in English, German and any of the other 6 languages that Renato can speak, he has amassed a wealth of knowledge and skill many lifelong anglers haven’t, not to mention his rod building skills.
Rod building began at the juncture of frustration with continuously breaking rods and the admiration of a friend’s nice custom Huchen fly rod. It wasn’t hard to convince Renato to give that a try either. “If you can tie a fly, you can build a fly rod,” explained Renato’s friend. A mere 5 or 6 years later Renato is now a world renowned fly rod builder.
Each rod that comes out of the V Stick shop is immaculate. Yet Renato is never satisfied: “For every rod I can always see something that could have been done better, always something.” Renato believes that perfection is impossible to obtain yet he is continuously seeking it. Stuck in an eternal loop of chasing something that cannot be caught, Renato has stripped and rebuilt more rods than he cares to count. Of course it is this obsession with perfection and details that has been the propellent behind Renato’s rod building.
Embracer of colour, Renato’s builds are perfectly synchronised and harmonious in colour scheme. “For me it is important that the rod has matching colours and forms,” says Renato. Even if the rod is a bright colour, a carefully thought out and synced colour scheme creates a harmonious rod build. And this is what allows V Stick fly rods to break the mould of muted rod colours, and what some might see as too bright and colourful. Working with colour is somewhere Renato may have found perfection in.
Whilst half the fly anglers in Renato’s town own a V Stick, many of Renato’s clients come from all across the world and from all walks of life. From trout bums to CEOs of tech companies, Renato has built custom fly rods that have travelled to every corner of the globe to catch every species imaginable and he has made many lasting friendships. Some customers come to him with a detailed list of every imaginable detail, whilst others come with not much other than a request to own a piece of fly fishing art. Renato’s favourites are those with little detail in their request, allowing him the ability of complete artistic freedom.
Renato is self taught, and through trial and error has developed his own style. “Most ideas have come about by accidents but also by following my own flow and intuition. So something new was born,” says Renato. There is a long line of people trying to figure out how Renato has created certain design elements. Renato is often reluctant to tell: “Often people ask me how and why but I think keeping some little secrets is sometimes making the game.“ The clear spiral wrap might be the most asked after technique. And Renato remains tight lipped.
Unsurprisingly, Renato’s rod workshop is also a man cave of sorts. A space to come and be, to unwind and to be creative. It is filled with all his interests, from fly fishing and rod building, to Star Wars paraphernalia, lego figurines and a state of the art sound room complete with sound proof walls and a large vinyl library. On Star Wars Renato only had one thing to say. “I prefer the latest films. In a way they are even more old school”.
Renato sees rod building as a form of self expression. As art. And for him aesthetic is paramount. Performance can take a hit if it means getting the aesthetic right. What’s a few extra grams of weight when you have a rod that looks so great? In another life Renato muses: “I probably would have been a painter.” But thankfully in this life he is a custom fly rod builder.
