Winter projects?

@Dryflyphotography

Life of the Party
Who has a bamboo or fiberglass rod related "winter project" waiting for them?

I have three, which is probably one or two too many.

The one I'm excited about is a hard to find 7-1/2' Heddon #14 in the sweetest of casting f1.5 ferrule ("extra light") taper in 3/2 configuration. It's a bit of a rescue project which began over a year ago when I first found the rod online. It had only one tip and that one tip has a clear "repair" wrap out near the tip end which was placed there by an unknown former owner for an unknown reason that isn't apparent at close inspection. The rod casts well and I suspect will hold up fine in normal fishing but the repair wrap nags at my desire for perfection. But to be safe, and to satisfy my need for a two tip rod when it was originally made that way (I know, its anal to have to have a second tip but tradition must be respected) I had a new second tip made by the highly competent bamboo rod maker Jeff Pope of Spokane. The tip is ferruled, perfectly toned to match the original pieces and nicely varnished by Jeff. Now I need to add the guides and matching red wraps. Once that is done the rod will be ready to join my fishing collection, a delicate yet lively 4 weight for small stream dry fly fishing.

The next project has been sitting in a halfway stage of completion for an embarrassingly long 3 years now. Its a very hard to find, excellent casting Phillipson MF76L glass rod which in the "L" version is the hard to find lighter taper casting a 5 or 6 weight. I had fished it in its original, beat to heck and back condition and decided that it needed to be remodeled to rid it of its bent guides and chipped yellow paint covering its base. But when I stripped it a couple years ago I discovered that the two pieces, butt and tip, actually have different colored fiberglass under the old paint. The tip is a medium root beer brown and the butt is a golden orange. Wow, two-toned! I replaced the bad seat and grip then set it aside then to finish another project and it's sitting in the corner of the room waiting for me to replace its guides. Once it's done it will be a good casting rod although I doubt it will take the place of my bamboo rods on the stream as I am partial to those.

Lastly, I have a 7' 2-piece 2-tip bamboo rod ready to wrap. It was possibly the last blank sitting in Dick Hedges' stash in Mill Creek when he hung up his rod building a couple years ago. It was probably last because it is probably over flamed to the point of being a very dark brown and although Dick said the rod was impregnated I don't know that for a fact. I mounted a grip and seat and its ready to wrap but lawn casting has left me unexcited and I know I will gravitate to my 7-1/2' rods which to me have more feel and flex than this 7' rod has. This one might make my "bench" projects but it might never reach it. If anyone wants a very inexpensive project this one would be very cheap.

So that's my project pipeline for this winter in addition to refilling some fly boxes, learning how to play bluegrass guitar and editing some cool images captured on trips this past year. Happy Winter Season All! Let me know what you are working on.
 

Mike Monsos

Steelhead
Forum Supporter
Fun sounding assortment of treasures awaiting rejuvenation Ron. A nice way to spend the dark days of winter.

I'm trying to keep motivated in a "new" taper using Resorcinol as the glue this time. I'm not setting any speed records making curls on the forms but starting to get my plaining eye calibrated again after a long hiatus. Funny how it takes a bit of work to tune in your arm, hand, eye and irons. Life is good!

Mike
 

Tim Cottage

Steelhead
Forum Supporter
Given that I work on rods at what could be called a glacial pace at best i have plenty to do.
I have two rods on the bench that should be ready for hollowing in about a week or so but first I'll need to make a hollowing jig.

I have a Constable Empress that needs a small repair on the tip.
I have another Empress that needs to be completely re-wrapped and maybe a bit of varnish touchup here and there.
I have a 3 pc Wright & McGill, Stream & Lake that needs to be completely re-finished
I have a 3pc 9ft Phillipson Pacemaker that needs a guide or two replaced
I have a Ray Gould RR-166 that has a serious set in the butt that may or may not need surgery to fix.
 

@Dryflyphotography

Life of the Party
Given that I work on rods at what could be called a glacial pace at best i have plenty to do.
I have two rods on the bench that should be ready for hollowing in about a week or so but first I'll need to make a hollowing jig.

I have a Constable Empress that needs a small repair on the tip.
I have another Empress that needs to be completely re-wrapped and maybe a bit of varnish touchup here and there.
I have a 3 pc Wright & McGill, Stream & Lake that needs to be completely re-finished
I have a 3pc 9ft Phillipson Pacemaker that needs a guide or two replaced
I have a Ray Gould RR-166 that has a serious set in the butt that may or may not need surgery to fix.
Tim, what is the RR-166 Gould taper like? Ray is someone I wish I'd met, and he lived very close to me all that time too.
 

Tim Cottage

Steelhead
Forum Supporter
I never knew you had a Ray Gould taper in your quiver. Someday I'd like to see it and possibly cast it in your casting lane.

Mike you have cast my Ray Gould rod. It was one day when our little group of fly tying friends got together at the park in Redmond. It was soon after you had finished your first Ray Gould rod.
 

Mike Monsos

Steelhead
Forum Supporter
Memory is not my friend lately LOL. You're still sharp as a tack my friend. I'd still like to cast it again :rolleyes: if you decide to bring it to an event. Now what was the question again????? :unsure:
 

Tim Cottage

Steelhead
Forum Supporter
You're certainly welcome to cast it again anytime. Unfortunately the casting lane in my yard has been overgrown by vine maples so we would have to go somewhere else.
 

Tim Cottage

Steelhead
Forum Supporter
Tim, what is the RR-166 Gould taper like? Ray is someone I wish I'd met, and he lived very close to me all that time too.
The jury is still out on the RR-166 but only because I have only lawn cast it with one line. It didn't ring any bells when I did that but I certainly can't make a judgement until I get it on the water and try different lines. It might very well come alive and reveal itself when I do that.
 

booner05

Just Hatched
I've got a southbend 290 that needs to be stripped, sealed, guides, and a reel seat. I wanted to preserve the 'comficent' grip but will add a modern number of guides. I ordered components last night. I will upload pics if I actually get it finished.

I want to make the reel seat. Any cool diy ideas out there? I'm thinking double sliding band on a bakelite seat...to do homage to broken maroon seat on the rod and southbend 1144 finalist

Any suggestion on how to remove discoloration on bamboo? I have some dark spots and some orange from the old thread
Thanks

Edit: this is my first rod repair/rebuild
 
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Bambooflyguy

Life of the Party
Sounds like you have a good plan for the rod! As far as the dark areas.....we call them “ghost marks” from where the original wraps/guides were, and are very hard to get rid of. Just adds character. Reelseats.....check out Ray Lee’s on eBay, the best for the $. There’s all kinds of options for reelseats, I’ve made some from wood, bamboo and incorporated the seat with the swelled mortised grip like Hardy’s cork grip/seats. Have fun!
 

Dave Westburg

Fish the classics
Forum Supporter
You guys are much more ambitious than me, but one of the things I like to do over the holidays is take apart and clean and re-oil my fly reels with Nyoil. Usually do this on a short winter day when the rivers are blown or it's so cold that ice will form in my guides.
 

Wetswinger

Go Deep
Forum Supporter
I have 3 Iconoglass rods to deal with. An 8ft 6in, 8# and a 7ft, 4# to build up. Then an 8ft, 5# I need to get sold. I'm trying to make rod-building a hobby. I can't keep but a couple rods and must try to sell the others for near materials cost. It's a challenge to sell them, even for cost with no charge for labor. I mistakenly thought these Iconoglass rods would sell themselves for such a low asking price. Oops, wrong again.. It's amazes me how people will pay so much money for a top commercial brand and shun everything else. There's some really good less expensive rods out there...
 

Kado

Steelhead
Just finished a 13ft 10 inch 3 pc bamboo ferruledView attachment 47853View attachment 47853View attachment 478545 sided and it feels good just need to get it out on the riverView attachment 47851View attachment 47852
That is so great! Metal or Bamboo ferrules (wasn't sure from the description)? I think we talked briefly at the 'Fling' about metal ferrules for a doublehander. I still can't get up the courage to go with the metal ferrules for fear of breaking. Your casting stroke is so smooth...that probably helps a lot. What lines have you tried? Looks like agate guides too. Were you able to find a large enough agate guide (16mm?) for the first guide. I haven't found a source for one and probably couldn't afford it anyway.
I've split cane for a hopeful 12' 3 piece 7wt with metal ferrules....haven't cut the lengths yet due to possibly chickening out and going for a 10' 6" 6 wt with spliced ferrules ; ).
Hope you get a chance to use it this year. The weather gods have conspired against me when I had the opportunity to go.
Happy New Year to everyone!
Mark
 
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