HOT RODS

Hatteras Jack owner Ryan White hand-crafts a fishing rod in the shop’s backroom workspace.

SINCE 1988, THE CRAFTSMEN AT RODANTHE’S HATTERAS JACK HAVE BEEN MAKING MEMORIES FOR COUNTLESS ANGLERS ONE CUSTOM ROD AT A TIME.

PHOTOS BY RYAN MOSER STORY BY STEVE HANF

Ryan White grabs a new rod blank, marks the spine, places the blank onto the rod lathe and lines up the guides by eye as though sighting a rifle. Spools of thread spin to secure the guides, with highlight colors added as a subtle special feature. Finishing touches from custom grips to a perfect epoxy coating round out the production cycle.

And by the end of the process, guess what? You’re catching dinner – or that record-setting sportfish – with a work of art rather than “just” a fishing pole.

“We’ve taken it to, like, McLaren, you know?” Ryan says of the famous elite automaker. “It’s the geekiest of geeky fishing rods. We take it as far as we can.”

Once one order is complete, then the labor of love starts all over for Ryan and the craftsmen he oversees at Hatteras Jack in Rodanthe, where custom rods have been painstakingly made since 1988.

“I still have rods coming in that my grandfather built more than 20 years ago,” Ryan says proudly. “People are still using them.”

That history is on full display when visitors enter the cozy confines of Hatteras Jack, a little shop about a hundred yards from the sound that offers so much more than a quick bait and tackle run.

Framed photos and Polaroids line the walls – and even parts of the ceiling – featuring fun fishing outings over the decades, while a number of plaques that commemorate tournament wins hang above the store’s merchandise.

As for the fishing rods? They’re everywhere: Stacked in corners. Lined up on wall-mounted racks. In various stages

of production in Ryan’s backroom workshop.

Ryan’s bustling business is bursting at the seams, to the point that he’s planning to shift the rod building area to a workroom in his house behind the shop so that the retail space can expand.

And when it comes to his custom rods, there’s oh-so-much for customers to consider.

“I’ve only got two limitations,” Ryan says with a laugh. “One’s your pocketbook, and the other’s your imagination.”

Ryan’s spent his whole life learning the family business. His grandfather Bill, and father, Mike, started their enterprise with a charter boat and boat rental business out of the bait and tackle shop, with Ryan helping wherever he was needed. Bill later began building some custom rods, and when Ryan got into tournament casting, the family started exploring new designs for that pursuit as well.

The business was flourishing when the unimaginable took place in 2002: Within a month of each other, first Mike and then Bill died, leaving Ryan – at 26 years old – to figure out the next steps all on his own.

He stayed the course as much as possible for a time, but then he had to find a new manufacturer to work with and weather the financial crisis of 2008 – all while steadying himself after the loss of his family. “I managed to hold on to it, and now it’s better than it’s ever been,” Ryan says. “I’ve kind of taken what my dad and granddad started and went to the next level. It’s cool to have that legacy going on.”

Ryan started working with the United Kingdombased company Century in 2004 in order to bring some of its products to this side of the Atlantic. Over the years that partnership’s grown so much that Ryan and the other craftsmen at Hatteras Jack make more than a hundred different rod varieties. Pre-pandemic, Ryan even traveled coast to coast promoting Century rods at trade shows, fishing with them in Mexico and talking with record-setting anglers about their catches using Century gear.

“I design all the Century rods for the United States and distribute them, so if you see a Century factory rod anywhere in the U.S., it came through this shop,” Ryan

explains. “It’s very craft-oriented, but the artistry is being able to walk into a shop here and being able to walk into a shop in Salem, Massachusetts, and pick up the exact same rod with the exact same specs. They’ll both look identical – and they’re both hand-built by local craftsmen in the Outer Banks.” All of this means that about a thousand rods a year are cranked out of Hatteras Jack. Some are more customized than others. When it comes to the threaded inlays, for example, Ryan prefers black with some decorative touches for a classic look, but options abound. Ryan’s head rod builder, Jim Focht, can do thread art on a loom to create all kinds of special designs: An image of Johnny Cash for a “Johnny Cast” rod. A ram’s head for a University of North Carolina fan. A red-and-black pentagram reminiscent of the ‘80s metal band Slayer for Precision is key when it comes to making custom rods, and a custom order epically named the “Salmon Slayer.” Ryan takes pride in the fact that about a thousand handmade “However deep they want to go down the rabbit rods come out of Hatteras Jack every year (above). hole, we can help them out,” Ryan says cheerfully. That’s what they’ve been doing at Hatteras Jack for decades, and that’s what makes the whole operation so one of a kind. When Ryan has customers come back year after year to tell endless stories about the memories they’ve made with their custom rods, it’s simply another reminder that he’s not just in the business of making some run-of-the-mill fishing poles. “It’s really cool that this shop’s been a highlight of a lot of people’s vacations,” Ryan says. “I’ve had people come in and tell me, ‘This is like coming home,’ or, ‘This reminds me of my grandfather’s workshop.’ It’s pretty incredible that what you think of as coming to work is what somebody else thinks of as a refuge from their life. Just the impact that we’ve had on people is crazy – I can’t even explain it.”

“i’ve kind of taken what my dad and granddad started and went to the next level. it’s cool to have that legacy going on.” -ryan white, owner hatteras jack