Meet Paul Dufour

Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Dufour. Them and their team share their story with us below:

“PJ” or Paul was born and raised in the mountains and has been an avid trout and high mountain stream fisherman for as long as he can remember. A retired carpenter by trade, an educational background in the fine arts, and a lifelong love of fishing made building bamboo fly rods a perfect hobby turn business for PJ.

PJ and his wife and business partner, Rosanna, sold a successful pizzeria in late 2019 to pursue PJ’s Fine Bamboo Rods full time. The business model was always to an experience-based business, including a workshop to host classes and actively work on building rods and landing nets connected to a natural fiber mercantile where customers can shop natural, organic, locally sourced products that reflect PJ’s values while being able to watch PJ and his students or apprentice work in the workshop. Unfortunately, before moving into the location for this business, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and we temporarily scaled the business back to an eCommerce business where we have been selling custom bamboo fly rods and landing net from for the last two years.

It is very excited to now see our full experience-based business model now coming to life. PJ’s Fine Bamboo Rods opened its workshop, mercantile, and showroom doors in downtown Pagosa Spring in the summer of 2022. PJ will begin hosting six-day bamboo fly rod building classes, fly fishing workshops, and fly tying classes in early 2023. People are welcome to stop by to see PJ working, shop around, watch participants of a class building their rods, and check out all of the “functional fly fishing art” in our showroom.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Our largest struggle was the timing of the pandemic. We had to completely pivot our business model to continue to pursue PJ’s Fine Bamboo Rods. We were not able to open a retail location, nor were there any onsite Fly Fishing Shows to showcase and promote our products. Fortunately, being the owners of prior businesses, we were able to transition temporarily to an online-based business focusing our promoting ourselves on social media platforms. It is easy to look back and realize that having to scale back the business model initially was really a blessing for us. It enabled us to improve our product, grow a strong audience base, and strengthen our business model.

Now that we have been able to complete the retail and class component of our business, our biggest struggle is the same as most companies in the post-pandemic world, supply chain issues. It has been difficult to stock the shelves of our mercantile with products of our desired values and get rod components in. However, we are grateful that our primary products are handcrafted from raw materials and only take minimal externally sourced components. This worldwide issue has also pushed us to stock small batches locally sourced products from like-minded businesses.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
PJ’s Fine Bamboo Fly Rods specializes in heirloom quality, handcrafted bamboo fly rods that are built to be handed down for generations to come. We call our bamboo fly rods functional art because they are beautiful enough to hang on the wall but fish and beautifully as they look. Each custom rod starts from a single culm of Tonkin bamboo and is hand planed into six-sided rod sections onsite in our workshop to assure the highest level of care and precision. Through years of research and development, we have found the highest quality hardware, components, and materials for our custom rods. What sets us apart from our bamboo fly rod builders is that we hand plane each of our rod blanks in-house to assure the highest quality process and materials.

Additionally, we are the only bamboo fly rod builder on the market that adds engraving into our wood grips and reel seats. This is an artistic aspect that takes our custom rods to another level and makes each rod one of a kind for our clients. There is nothing more satisfying than delivering a custom-created rod to a client that has designed and envision each of the aspects alongside of PJ know that the rod will not only be cherished by our client but will be used to make memories with friends and family for generations to come.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I don’t know that I necessarily believe in luck playing a role in my business. I absolutely believe that a positive mindset, hard work, and a quality product play a huge role in my success. Clients can see the pride I take in what I build and feel confident that they will enjoy owning one of my rods as much as I enjoy building them. I believe that claiming anything in a business has to do with luck simply means that the owner is not paying close enough attention to their business model and intentions.

Pricing:

• Custom Bamboo Fly Rods range $1,295 – $3,595
• Custom Landing Nets $295-$600
• Bamboo Fly Rod Building Classes $2095

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pjsfinebamboo.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/pjsfinebamboo
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/pjsfinebamboo
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/pjsfinebamboo
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1zF0UW-aYmPinyyqvRHLRw
• Yelp: https://biz.yelp.com/biz_info/X297l2XKjCLpd9CZJqN5rg 

Image Credits
Photo Credits: Dustin English