Roughly 50 years ago, a military transfer landed me in the Bay Area for a three-year tour of duty. While there, I had time to explore and fish the many excellent Northern California Rivers and lakes within easy driving distance of my apartment. Additionally, I learned about the famous casting pools at Golden Gate Park, and the well-known R. L. Winston Rod Company located at 475 Third Street in downtown San Francisco.
The day I first ventured into the shop, Doug Merrick was behind the counter. I looked around in awe of the large inventory of bamboo fly rods, reels, and flies displayed in the front room. Doug sold me a couple of excellent fiberglass rod blanks—the first of many Winston blanks and bamboo rods that I would buy over the next 50 or so years. At the time, I was unaware that Mr. Merrick was a very talented and important player in the world of fly fishing.
Douglas Merrick was born in rural Wisconsin, near the Fox River, in 1911. In his youth, he fished, hunted birds, and otherwise kept himself busy with woodworking projects and related outdoor activities. He worked for the Fish and Game Department briefly before graduation and enlistment in the Army Air Corps (389th Bomb Group), where he became a staff sergeant and eventually waist gunner in the B-24 bomber ‘Betsy II.’
It’s easy to imagine that his shooting and related outdoor skills served Doug well in the “Mighty 8th” Air Force before—and after—his plane “Betsy II” was shot down near Mainz, Germany, on October 10, 1944, his 23rd mission—only two short of a complete combat tour of duty. Three crewmembers were killed in the action and seven bailed out. Doug and a fellow crewmember managed to pull an unconscious comrade from the plane and open his chute before parachuting into enemy territory. Despite a leg injury and missing one boot, Doug managed to evade the Germans for almost a week. He was then captured, became a POW, and spent time in three different German camps before he was set free by Russian civilians in 1945. His weight had dropped to a little over 100 pounds. His awards for valor include a Purple Heart and the Air Medal.
After Doug’s recovery in a French hospital and his separation from military service in 1945, he returned to his Wisconsin home, where he worked for Fish and Game. About a year later, he moved to California and took a job with Standard Oil. Shortly thereafter, he walked into the Winston shop that was then on San Francisco’s Harrison Street, where he met the company co-founder and bamboo rod-building legend Lew Stoner. Lew had formed the company with Robert Winther in 1927. Doug took a job at Winston, where he worked building bamboo rods until 1953, when he purchased a share of the company. After Lew’s untimely death in 1957, Doug became the sole owner of Winston.
During his tenure at Winston, Doug developed new rod models and refined the bamboo tapers and construction of the company’s world-famous hollow fluted rods. Lew Stoner developed hollow-fluted rods in 1937 and patented the design in 1951. At that time, Winston made many types of bamboo rods for bait casting, trolling, and deep-sea fishing in addition to their famous fly rods.
Many of Winston’s hollow-built rods were designed for tournament casting and used by national tournament champions like Dick Miller and Marvin Hedge to break many distance casting records. The great world-casting champion Jon Tarantino used Winston’s rods to set many national and world records. One of Jon’s rods came to the secondary market this year, an extremely stiff and strong tournament distance rod.
Over time, Doug modified the Winston tapers to make them better fishing instruments. Cosmetically, Winston’s were not as elegant as the highest-grade eastern rods like Gillum’s and Payne’s, but they were lighter, faster, and much better casters, primarily because Doug was a master at selecting the best culms of bamboo for any given rod. My personal big-fish favorite is their 9-foot 5 1/4-weight model for a #9 line. This rod will cast a fly a mile and has more than enough backbone to set hooks and provide good control with a steelhead on.
At the light end of the rod spectrum, their famous “Leetle Feller” rods, first developed with help from fishing writer Peter Schwab, are still in serious demand today by fly fishers that need a light rod taking a #3 or #4 line. Somewhere in the middle of Winston’s lineup is another favorite of mine, the 8-foot 6-inch 4 1/8-weight for a #5 line. This rod still goes with me on my trips to Hat Creek.
Doug was at the helm when Winston converted from using animal glues to ‘modern’ casein glue in 1948. He introduced an excellent line of fiberglass rods, and he bought the Thompson reels and parts when that company failed. In 1957, Doug made a very smart move when he hired a young Gary Howells, who built Winston rods for 13 years before going on his own, to become a superb rod builder under his own name.
Winston Rods have been used to win countless casting tournaments, and many anglers feel that their tapers were the absolute best available. This should not be a surprise: Both Doug and his first wife Angie were excellent tournament casters, and sport fishers as well. They were photographed as the casting models in Eugene Burns 1953 book, Fishing for Women. Doug often manned the Winston booth at outdoor shows and gave casting demonstrations to Bay Area fishers.
Doug had many well-known fishing friends, among them international tournament casting champion Tarantino who assisted in rod design, actor Robert Conrad, and Charles Ritz of hotel fame. In 1967, Mr. Ritz sponsored a trip to Paris for Doug where he was presented the Fario Club medal for his “Outstanding work and knowledge pertaining to split bamboo fly rods.”
The bamboo masterpieces that Doug made included rods for president Dwight Eisenhower, Prince Axel of Denmark, Bing Crosby, and many others, including General Randolph McCall Pate, Commandant of the Marine Corps, 1956-1959. Naturally, he made and fished many rods for both himself and Angie. By ‘many’ I mean at least 19 rods with 23 reels. His collection was high-end and included reels by Hardy, Thompson and Bogdan. In 1997 well-known Berkeley, California tackle dealer and International fisherman Jim Adams was asked by Doug’s family to sell his collection, and this is what he had to say at the time:
“I have known Doug Merrick since the early 1950s. I know from personal observation that Doug was an exceptional tournament caster who could always compete with the world’s best, although he chose not to enter tournaments as a professional. I have never fished with Doug but I have heard from many of his fishing partners that they considered him among the best fishermen that they had ever met.”
A typical Merrick-built rod has the fairly light-colored cane favored by Lew, as well as ‘3 up’ node construction and Winston’s bomb-proof Bakelite screw locking reel seat, which Doug did not change. Guides featured a strong double wrap at the inner end, and some of the longer/heavier rods sported as many as three small carbide-stripping guides. Ferrules were made from Duronz, an aircraft alloy, and were very high in both quality and perfect fit. Rods made after 1951 were inscribed with the patent number, in addition to standard length and weight markings. If requested, Doug would inscribe the new owner’s name as well.
Winston bamboo rods are beautiful and fantastic fishing instruments. A typical Merrick-era Winston retailed for approximately $100 after the war, and $165 in 1967. They currently sell on the secondary market in the $1,000-$2,000 range, with the smaller, two-tip rods commanding the top prices. If I had purchased a Leetle Feller in 1972, I could have happily fished it for 50 years and eventually sold it for about five times what I paid!
Doug had a solid work ethic, and devoted long hours to rod building, operating the retail store and working with his many dealers. He continued to run the company until 1973 when he sold it to rod makers Tom Morgan and Glenn Brackett. They subsequently relocated the company to Twin Bridges, Montana, where it remains today, still making rods that are among the very best.
Doug Merrick was a man with many talents: rod builder, business owner, tournament caster, sport fisher, ballroom dancer (!), and more. But first and foremost, I salute him on this Veteran’s Day for his highest accomplishment: He was a combat-injured war hero and a brave POW who flew on 23 bomber missions for us in WW-II. Doug passed in 1998 at the age of 87.
THE R.L. WINSTON ROD COMPANY – A BRIEF HISTORY
In 1929, Lew Stoner, a machinist by trade, built a milling machine for the West Rod Company in San Francisco. This was during the Depression. Payment was difficult and Lew ended up taking over the company with partner, Robert Winther. They rebranded as the Winther-Stoner Rod Company, later updating the name to the R. L. Winston Rod Company, a contraction of the two founders’ names.
Mr. Stoner designed some superb rods and soon Winston rods were routinely winning casting tournaments and breaking world distance records. In the 1930s Stoner and a new partner, Red Loscot, developed the hollow fluted bamboo rod that resulted in lighter and more powerful rods that quickly dominated casting tournaments. Three of the great casters who set many records with Winstons were Marvin Hedge, Primo Livenais, and Jon Tarantino.
Doug Merrick started working at the shop in 1945 and became part owner in 1953. In 1957 he hired a young Gary Howells who built rods and tied flies there until he started his own company in 1970. In 1973, Tom Morgan and Glenn Brackett purchased the business from Doug and moved it to Twin Bridges, Montana, where it remains today under the ownership of David Ondaatje who bought the company in 1991.
Winston continues to build some of the very best rods in the business, using glass, graphite, boron, and, of course, bamboo. They currently have two locations in Twin Bridges, the primary manufacturing facility and the bamboo rod shop. Their main location has a small but very informative museum, a great stop when fishing the area.
Excellent article, Craig!
This is an amazing story of Doug Merrick, an American military hero. I also learned so much about fishing rods….bamboo poles have come a long way since the ones Tom Sawyer used!