@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 But to be safe, and to satisfy my need for a two tip rod when it was originally made that way (I know, its anal to have to have a second tip but tradition must be respected) I had a new second tip made by the highly competent bamboo rod maker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.
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.