Saturday, May 21, 2016

Rod #431604

Rod #431604

Here is rod #431604. It is a light and dark strip node-less 7'10" 2/2 for a Five weight line. This rod is hollow built in the butt section. The reel seat hardware and ferrules are both made in house. Reel seat timber is Norfolk Island Pine. Snake brand guides wrapped in Black Gossamer silks tipped in Orange.

I made this rod as a do it all five weight. One light tip and one heavier tip. The light tip is nice with a TT 5 weight line and the heavy tip casts a Peach DT 5 nicely. 

I took this rod out recently to fish the Sulphur hatch on a Central PA Limestone Stream. The rod performed great and I am very happy with the taper. I fished nymphs and streamers with the heavy tip and it handles both very well. The lighter tip was great for dry fly fishing later in the day. Although the rod is hollow built. I did not get too carried away with it being node-less. I know with the strong heat set glue that I can probably get it a bit lighter.

The rod balanced perfectly with a 1920's 3" St. George reel.

This will be my new go to Five weight taper.

This rod had a quick rubbing out of the varnish. Not a complete polish. Had to get it out on the water.

There are Three Four turn wraps at 12", 15" and 18"



New Grip Option



Shop Made Ferrules From Tube


Orange Agate




Orange Tipped Wraps


Norfolk Island Pine Timber





The Sulphur Hatch

Spent a day out in Central PA looking for some dry fly fishing over wild Brown Trout. The first stop was a very famous stream that is known to be moody at best. The weather was great which translates to bad fishing. Very sunny and not a lot of hatching during the early morning and afternoon. Still a great wild place to be. No risers early but that surely changed later in the day. I did some exploring and left for another famous spring creek in Central PA.

The Tunnel At Poe Paddy




The next spring creek was pretty much dead in the afternoon. As the day went on there were intermittent clouds that begin blocking the bright sun. This when things started to take off. Sulphurs started coming off and fish begin to rise. The conditions were excellent. The bugs started sporadically  at around 5:00 and built up from there. The topwater action lasted for hours and I got to give this new rod design a great work out. Nothing better than breaking in a new rod on a great hatch. I don't have many pictures of the day because the fishing was that good. One of the best Sulphur hatches I ever encountered. Bugs floating on the water everywhere with trout just carelessly eating them one after another. Not the usual half hour before dark spinner fall.

Beautiful Spring Creek Trout on Dry Flies



Thanks for looking. I will soon post a casting video of this rod.