WOW ... that reelseat is gleaming! Duff ... you have quite a wonderful collection.

likely made for a lefty.

I have a Gallatin Onyx OXF9026 2 piece from my early graphite days which has the hook keeper on the left side on the rod as held.

Being left-handed, but not a lefty caster, I agree with Rockthief, that must be for a left-handed caster. Are the windings factory original?

Wow! Whoever owned that rod must have been someone special to get it custom from the factory!

A few days ago I took my beautiful FF75 out to examine it closely, something I'm embarrassed to say I didn't do when I received the rod. It was so perfect I guess I thought it wasn't necessary - wrong. I noticed a small discoloration about an inch down from the tip top and under closer examination - with magnification - I saw to my horror that the mark was a very deep hook penetration which actually made fractures on the opposite side of the tip. It was a wonder the tip didn't just snap off when I lawn casted it. Fiberglass is STRONG! Lesson learned: a mint rod may be mint for a reason - LOOK OVER EVERY INCH OF A NEW ROD. Errant hooks can do evil things to fly rods.

Long story short, it was way past the return period but Bob Selb of "Classic Fly Fisherman" graciously told me to simply return it - no problem. Quite an endorsement I think. The mark was so subtle and in an area of the rod that wasn't viewed when holding the rod to cast so it's no wonder we both missed it. So, sadly I packed it up tonight and will mail it back tomorrow. Dang! It was beautiful!

It is seldom I do a repair without simply doing a replacement section, but sometimes that isn't possible, for obvious reasons. On a rod like that, I would remove the tip top and find a needle that will fit inside the section, put plenty of epoxy up in there and glue it in place. I would then do a nice thread wrap over the whole area, with a thread that will be a very close match for the blank color. I did that with a broken tip, just last week, on a rod I sold to a customer many years ago. There haven't been any sections available for a long time. It is a very nice fix. I know he will be very pleased. I have probably a dozen such repairs out there that I've done over the years and have never had one come back. Often a break is a lot lower down where you can do the repair with a piece of broken tip section. The one I did the other day was pretty small diameter, but I found a piece of blank section that would fit, so I used it and glued a needle inside for additional strength. The thread match was perfect and the only thing you can notice is an inch long swell just below a guide.

Duff

Sorry to hear about the return.

I have the exact same rod and use a TT5 line. In fact, I fished it today on a local river and landed a couple of 18" browns with it. It is a sweet casting medium-action glass rod that has great reserve power if needed. Wonderful for small BWOs today as well as weighted San Juan Worms. It has great tippet protections (as can be expected) with glass but also has backbone to turn those browns this afternoon. It feels very similar to my Winston (S.F.) 7'6" 5 wt in many ways.

I've never cast the popular FF755, but I can't imagine anything else that could be improved vs. the FF75 for my casting style. Not that it matters at this point, but I'll check my hook keeper location to see if it is similarly located as your (former) rod.