About Us and the Shop

How Rushbrooke Strand began

My wife Rose Rushbrooke is an artist and quilt maker. When we moved back to the States from the Caribbean in 1996 she set up http://www.roserushbrooke.com to showcase her artwork; and later started marketing the quilting and sewing supplies she used.

The web site grew and she shipped to quilters all over the world. Interestingly, she found fishermen loved the YLI Silk Thread for fishing rod building, repair and classic fly tying.

I got involved in the business helping with the web site, packaging and shipping. As an avid fisherman myself, I also noticed the increasing requests for rod wrapping threads from the bamboo fly rod, custom and professional rod builders and decided to create a web site for fishermen. Rushbrooke Strand - Threads for Fishermen was born.

David T. Mullins

David Mullins

I was born and raised on the west coast of Florida, where I was a passionate fisherman almost from birth. My father was nuts about Florida and fishing. We waded the flats for redfish, worked the passes for tarpon, were there for the kingfish migrations, crabbed / shrimped, and went on adventures to the Everglades for snook.

In my 20's I sailed to the Caribbean to live. It was fantastic trolling for tuna, dolphin, barracuda, and diving for grouper, lobster, and conch. On returning to the States we lived in Virginia where I took up fly fishing and worked the rivers and lakes for small mouth bass.

I really got hooked on fly fishing. Now back in the Tampa Bay area I spend as much time as I can fly fishing in salt water for snook, redfish and trout. Florida has some beautiful rivers and lakes and, you guessed it, I have been fly fishing for bass and sunfish.

This winter I'll be getting ready for the summer tarpon fishing by building a custom 9wt fly rod to replace my old one. I'm also planning to build a 5wt bamboo fly rod for fresh water fishing.

Resume in a nutshell - commercial fisherman, yachtsman, boat builder, professional pilot, businessman, entrepreneur, salesman, web site designer, telcom engineer, marine engineer, amateur radio operator, gardener and world traveler (twice around the world, 45 countries so far). I can't weld!

In my spare time, you'll find me out fishing, fishing, fishing...

I am a member of the Federation of Fly Fishers, Tampa Bay Fly Fishing Club.

Rose Rushbrooke

Rose Rushbrooke

I am English. The family village of Rushbrooke was recorded in the Domesday book - which contained records for 13,418 settlements in the English counties south of the rivers Ribble and Tees (the border with Scotland at the time). The first draft was finished in August 1086. My grandfather lived in Rushbrooke Hall in Suffolk when he was a boy.

My pet love is hand work. Many of my quilts are hand pieced, embroidered and quilted. And I love threads - all sorts of threads.

If you like cartoons and animations you'll like my hobby - Trollbaby Toons. And if you are curious about finding out more about me you can go to my blog To A Neon Mini Mart. To find out more about my artwork go to About the Art.

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