The Rod Shop in Wise River builds memory makers

Hunter Dixon, store manager and co-owner of The Rod Shop in Wise River, works on building a fly rod for Montana Rodsmiths. The Rod Shop recently opened.

Hunter Dixon is store manager and a co-owner of The Rod Shop, which recently opened in Wise River near the H Bar J Saloon and Cafe.

Butte native Hunter Dixon, 27, has spent years fly fishing the Big Hole River. He believes that accumulated knowledge about the river will help him serve customers of the newly-opened store, The Rod Shop.

WISE RIVER - Hunter Dixon starts with a graphite blank, adds Portuguese cork, guides, wraps and more and crafts 9-foot, 3-inch memory makers.

Dixon, a Butte native, builds Montana Rodsmiths fly rods at The Rod Shop in Wise River. The shop opened in late May in a new building a long cast away from the H Bar J Saloon and Cafe.

During the summer of 2022, patrons at the H Bar J could perch on barstools, tease the bartender and watch and comment as the building took shape. Rudy Ketchum, co-owner of the bar and The Rod Shop with partner Brandi Bartscher, is Dixon's father.

Montana Rodsmiths got its start a few years ago in Dewey and both Ketchum and Bartscher built fly rods. But Dixon said supply chain challenges during COVID-19 for the graphite blanks required a recess.

"That essentially brought us to a standstill for about two years," he said. "We decided the summer of 2023 would be a good time to get back into business and get it up and running again. We’ve had plenty of demand."

Dixon, 27, learned to fly fish on the nearby Big Hole River when he was 5 or 6 years old. A brother, Cooper Ketchum, works now as a fishing guide on the famous river.

"We were always on the water," Dixon said. "My whole life I’ve been fly fishing. Always been around it."

In the years since graduating high school in Billings, Dixon has worked as a sous chef in Helena and Butte and also as a painter for McGrath Painting in Butte.

He said he is grateful to be working now in a role that allows him to live and build community in the Big Hole Valley and be linked to fly fishing.

Dixon said The Rod Shop is developing a marketing strategy. The business is close to the intersection of Montana Highway 43 and the Pioneer Mountains Scenic Byway and will certainly attract motorists passing by.

In addition to fly rods, The Rod Shop sells flies, reels, fly line, nets, fly boxes, clothing and other accessories.

The store sells two types of four-piece fly rods. The Aurora Lady Flex has a black graphite blank with pink, purple, green or teal wraps. The Grizzly Classic features a chocolate graphite blank with cinnamon wraps. Both are available in 5 or 6 weights at 9 feet and 3 inches.

The rods sell for $550 each.

Dixon said the new business is aware of concerns about declining trout populations in the Big Hole River and shares those concerns. The Rod Shop is committed, he said, to being good stewards of the resource.

"There's still plenty of opportunity out here to catch a lot of fish," he said. "We’ve been out a few times this year and we’ve caught some nice looking, healthy fish."

Meanwhile, Dixon acknowledged that his long history with the Big Hole River should help when either fly fishing rookies or regular river floggers come through the door seeking advice about flies and other equipment.

"We want to set people up with all the right stuff that they need to go out there and catch fish," he said. "That's what everybody wants to do."

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