{"id":38097,"date":"2022-10-02T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-02T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pjs-fine-bamboo-rods-brings-unique-style-to-fly-fishing\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:42:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:42:06","slug":"pjs-fine-bamboo-rods-brings-unique-style-to-fly-fishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pjs-fine-bamboo-rods-brings-unique-style-to-fly-fishing\/","title":{"rendered":"PJ\u2019s Fine Bamboo Rods brings unique style to fly fishing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Rosanna
Rosanna Dufour, co-owner of PJ\u2019s Fine Bamboo Rods, works in the bamboo rod and net building area Thursday inside the new store, 262 Pagosa St. Unit 103 in Pagosa Springs. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

PJ\u2019s Fine Bamboo Rods will open its first brick-and-mortar store in Pagosa Springs on Oct. 8.<\/p>\n

The custom fly rod maker has been servicing Southwest Colorado with its e-commerce business since 2019, and the owners are finally living out their dream of opening a store.<\/p>\n

Through the Southwest Colorado Accelerator Program for Entrepreneurs, the business was able to receive the resources it needed to make the transition.<\/p>\n

SCAPE Executive Director Elizabeth Marsh said the organization selected PJ\u2019s for the 2022 cohort because the bamboo rods were a phenomenal product.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve seen their product, they\u2019re the most gorgeous fly rods and fishing nets,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was just such a great asset for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Owners PJ and Rosanna Dufour started the business after selling their restaurant Rosie\u2019s Pizzeria in Pagosa Springs.<\/p>\n

\"A
A custom hand-carved grip on a bamboo fly rod on Thursday was made by PJ Dufour, co-owner of PJs Fine Bamboo Rods. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Marsh was impressed by the couple\u2019s understanding of their market and their consumer.<\/p>\n

The owners applied for the SCAPE cohort because they wanted to build the business in a strategic and financially smart way. It was important to the owners, who understand they are selling in a niche market.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing that fly fishing is an aspect of fishing, and bamboo fly fishing is an even smaller aspect of that, we knew we had a very focused and small audience that we were directing this business toward,\u201d Rosanna said.<\/p>\n

PJ has been an avid fly fisherman for most of his life with an educational background in the arts as well as working as a contractor for more than 30 years. He started building bamboo fly rods as a hobby when he was diagnosed with melanoma in 2015 and was receiving treatment.<\/p>\n

\"PJ\u2019s
PJ\u2019s Fine Bamboo Rods is located at 262 Pagosa St. Unit 103 in Pagosa Springs. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cFrom there, we just started selling them to friends and family,\u201d Rosanna said.<\/p>\n

The couple had wanted to open their own store previously but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, they felt it was more logical to start their business in e-commerce. Rosanna compares bamboo fly rods to a luxury car.<\/p>\n

She said people tend to like bamboo rods because of tradition and nostalgia.<\/p>\n

\u201cBamboo is the oldest of fly-fishing materials, and then most of our customers come in and have great sentimental value toward bamboo fly rods from learning to fish with their grandparents,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A custom hand-carved grip on a bamboo fly rod was made by PJ Dufour, co-owner of PJ\u2019s Fine Bamboo Rods in Pagosa Springs. (Jerry McBride\/Durango herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The shop will not only sell retail products but will also offer classes in fly fishing and a six-day bamboo rod-making class starting in 2023. It is part of the couple\u2019s dedication to developing a store with an experienced-based economy.<\/p>\n

Rosanna said it was always their intention for the shop to be multifaceted and adding this element has bettered their brand awareness in the fly-fishing industry.<\/p>\n

She says each rod takes between 40 and 80 hours to make. One element that differentiates their rods is the grip. She calls the grip functional art because each handle is designed for both aesthetic and grip. Because of PJ\u2019s background in art, each handle has a different design on the grip.<\/p>\n

\"Handmade
Handmade landing nets are made by PJ Dufour, co-owner of PJ\u2019s Fine Bamboo Rods, at the new store located at 262 Pagosa St. Unit 103 in Pagosa Springs. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cOne of the biggest things we hear is, \u2018Those rods are too pretty to fish,\u2019 but they actually fish beautifully,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While the shop hasn\u2019t been fully opened yet, the owners have been allowing customers to come in and check out fly rod projects. Rosanna said that has worked well for getting people to sign up for the various classes offered by the store.<\/p>\n

PJ\u2019s Fine Bamboo Rods will host a grand opening event at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 8. It will feature live music from Bob Hemenger.<\/p>\n

tbrown@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"A
A handmade bamboo fly rod was made by PJ Dufour, co-owner of PJ\u2019s Fine Bamboo Rods, at the new store located at 262 Pagosa St. Unit 103 in Pagosa Springs. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Stacks
Stacks of bamboo are ready to be made into rods at PJ\u2019s Fine Bamboo Rods on Thursday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rosanna
Rosanna Dufour, co-owner of PJ\u2019s Fine Bamboo Rods, checks merchandise in front of the new store at 262 Pagosa St. Unit 103 in Pagosa Springs. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Handmade
Handmade landing nets are made by PJ Dufour, co-owner of PJ\u2019s Fine Bamboo Rods. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Hardy
Hardy fly reels are sold at PJ\u2019s Fine Bamboo Rods, located at 262 Pagosa St. Unit 103 in Pagosa Springs. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Springs based e-commerce business is set to open its first store next week<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,885,28,310,500],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-fishing","tag-headlines","tag-pagosa-springs","tag-retail"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38097"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83913,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38097\/revisions\/83913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38097"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}