another tackle business and at the back of the premises, a hairdressing shop. To subsidise his income he also continued to ghillie for Lord Burton and during the same season became a member of a very small group of anglers that can lay claim to landing an Atlantic salmon in excess of 50lbs. Whilst fishing the River Garry in September at the outlet of Loch Quoich, Grant hooked this creature of the deep on a Thunder & Lightening. After much heart-pounding runs and a titanic struggle, the fish finally gave in to the greenheart and his prize lay at his feet – the salmon weighed 55lbs.
It was at his tackle shop in Baron Taylor’s Lane in Inverness that Grant began crafting his famous ‘Grant Vibration’ rods. Many anglers believed that the notable performance of the rods came from the revolutionary lap joints, which he applied for a patent (Patent No 10,385) on the 28th of May 1894 and was accepted on 4th of May 1895. Each joining section of the rod was shaped to a point, and the touching surface planed flat to allow a close and tight fit. The sections were then overlapped by about 6-8 inches depending on which sections were being bound and strapped together using linseed-treated leather lace (the leather lace was eventually replaced by insulating tape). This lap joint system allowed the rod to flex as one unified spring, with none of the dreaded ‘flat spots’ that have plagued rod builders throughout the course of fly rod making history. His intention, and indeed his achievement, was to make a rod behave like a newly cut sapling before it dries out - in other words, to distribute the load of the fly line evenly throughout the course of the rod. The inspiration for the lap joint is thought to have come not from the front of his tackle shop, but from the back room where he practised his trade as a barber. Although there is no documented evidence to suggest this, it is believed that the concept of the jointing system was conceived whilst Grant was a making a diagonal cross-section cut through the length of a customer’s hair.
Another unique feature of the ‘Vibration’ rods were the ‘Drop-Down’ rod rings, which folded as the rod was lifted from the horizontal into the backcast. As the rod tip neared the vertical, the oscillating rings clasped against the rod, thus trapping the fly line and