Hello
My ultimate fl 683 challenge started several months ago.
As some know when Steve Jenkins offered the bulk of his remaining plg blanks for sale I purchased them.
Due to the drama that enveloped surrounding these blanks unfortunately Steve was stuck holding the bag as they say.
From my perspective I looked at the blanks as a starting point a canvas from where I could basically possibly create some very special custom made fiberglass fly rods.
Hence my challenge.
My starting point was with the plg 7'3" 4 weight blank to see where this blank could be refined.
Before long after some initial trimming, ferrule adjustments, etc, etc I realized the blanks could be with some hand work made into a very nice 6'8" small stream rod.
Many rod makers challenge themselves everyday there's nothing new about that I suppose.
Some rod makers are more fortunate than others in terms of the resources they have available to them be that financial or otherwise, some "most" such as myself are limited to working within very tight budgets, budgets that will not allow us for example to have rod blanks of our own design manufactured.
This situation can be extremely frustrating especially for those of us whom have volumes of taper specifications and piles of mocked up prototypes.
Then we read forum topics that basically relegate anyone whom doesn't roll there own blanks to the level of an assembler or rod wrapper, those opinions are just astonishing, if the general consensus within the fiberglass fly fishing community is a fact that to be considered a "rod maker" or "rod designer" you must have the capability to roll your own blanks by your own hands then we are all in trouble in my opinion.
Just because someone has the space, tools, equipment, finances, etc to produce their own fiberglass blanks does not necessarily make them master rod makers or rod designers.
Please note my comments are not intended to insult anyone it's just something that needed to be said.
I'm not ranting trust me I'm not alone in my opinion I'm just standing up for a good portion of my peers, custom rod makers and fellow rod smiths!
Lets face it we have all occasionally seen and cast some real dogs from people, company's, etc with vast resources, whom have produced and marketed rods that lets just say aren't exactly remarkable, marketable yes remarkable no.
On the flip side historically really remarkable rods have been made by some "custom rod makers" and rod tinkers who never rolled a fiberglass or graphite blank, people whom worked with off the shelf rod blanks, that through there experiences and feel for what makes a fishing rod ultimately perform have created amazing fishing rods, fishing rods that don't reassemble the original design or "feel" in any other way other than maybe the blank color.
Okay now we must ask how do they do that? first off it's lots of hard work that much I can tell you!
There are several ways to improve, alter, refine, fine tune and overall enhance a rod blanks action or feel.
Trimming, ferrule placement and design, utilizing sections from different blanks, addition of stents paying attention to size and placement of them,"dressing" sanding the blank to reduce wall thickness, guide placement, addition of dampening agents such as structural foam, weight distribution re balance, incorporating different materials such as a graphite section or a fiberglass section or sections on say a 3 or 4 piece rod for some examples, there are more many more, the only limit is the "custom rod makers" imagination.
Now I'm not saying that these methods are as good or better than making changes in the blank design, mandrel or lay up!
That's the ideal situation naturally and possibly much less work in some respects?
What my point is that we should keep an open mind.
We shouldn't dismiss a custom rod makers accomplishments just because the rod maker is only producing small quantities by hand of a given model for example.
Here's something else to consider when does a rod line make the transition from custom made to factory made? wheres the line between bench made or shop made and production made or manufactured?
I'm sure you get the point okay I'll get back to my ultimate 683 challenge.
As I mentioned 6'8" was decided after lots of trial and error lots of changes were made.
Then the next challenge was to reduce the line weight from a 4 to a 3.
Also considered was the number of sections with every one trending toward the erector set rods as I call them.
Maybe a switcher a rod with different pieces combined to make up into several different lengths and weights.
What happens if I take some sections from the 7'3" 4 weight and mix them with sections of the 7'6" 5 weight.
Just to give you an idea of some of the creative process that was going on.
Now one of the things that made these blanks desirable in the first place is that through my previous experiences with the river moss green blanks, I knew that particularly the butt section had large wall thicknesses.
Why would that be desirable? because it gives you something to work with in terms of dressing
The blank to remove material to fine tune the flex profile.
The process continued I wont bore you with any more of the trials now.
The first couple of prototypes were nice but not remarkable.
As with most projects of this type they take up lots of time so at this point I moved on to other more lucrative pursuits, "building rods" for folks to take fishing "repairing some salty dogs", "restoring" a few bamboo rods and such.
A few weeks passed I picked up the prototypes now and then I cast them with some different lines, the next month I ask some other folks to play with them take them fishing and tell me what they think.
You know some field testing and feedback, I actually brought one to the glass clave but I never took it out of the tube.
Honestly I was concerned that it either wasn't remarkable enough or someone would insist on taking it home with them
Truly I wasn't satisfied with the feel!
About 3 weeks ago the phone rings it's a new person someone I never heard of or met.
The fellow lives here in connecticut and often reads the fiberglass fly rod forum although he's not a registered member.
He's got a problem it seems while roll casting his vince Cummings ultimate 1 6' 8" 2 pc #3 weight fiberglass fly rod the unthinkable happened, yep you guessed it "the rod snapped".
I'm sure you can all feel his pain I sure did.
Well after a brief description of the condition of the rod we made arrangements for the fellow whom we will call j. O. To drop by with the rod.
You know your obsessed with fiberglass rods when you see a classic rod like this one broken and it brings a tear to your eye.
Upon my initial assessment it was apparent that the rod naturally could be repaired with an internal repair sleeve, it was also noted that most of the original varnish clear coat on the shafts was compromised and flaking off, this may have been the root of the problem it's hard to say for sure? the rod was taken in for repair.
That night I was hanging around late in the shop doing a little straightening out, checking on some bamboo sections in the drying cabinet, I picked up the little Cummings rod checking out the scripts to see how best to protect them during the clear coat restoration.
At that point I read the custom made for j*** co***ta 1976.
I almost fell out of my chair.
Here's why.
Quote:
hello j. O.
I'm out of the shop until monday, however I realized something very ironic last night about your rod, I was looking at how I was going to protect the scripts on your rod in preparation for removing the flaking clear coat.
When I read the "custom made for j*** co***ta 1976 " I almost fell out of my chair.
J*** co***ta was one of my fathers fishing buddies , they along with 9 other guys founded the battenkill fly fishers association back in 72.
I remember when j*** co***ta first got this rod him bringing it to camp and showing it off to all the guys.
He let everyone cast the little jewel, I remember the rod introduction like it was yesterday. In those days 3 weight lines were specialty lines that not every fly shop carried. I remember he had an Orvis dt 3 weight and a early Orvis battenkill lightweight reel made for Orvis by young that he had purchased the day before at the Orvis store for his new ultimate 1.
Also remember j*** co***ta first fish that afternoon it was a 6" battenkill brown he caught on a turkey wing caddis in the run by the camp.
Some of the guys were busting his balls basically the little rods only for catching little trout or something like that.
J*** co***ta was a little guy he was short maybe 5'5" or so with tiny hands, they were busting balls on him about little rods for little people that night at the camp fire.
It was all in fun but I remember j*** co***ta getting pissed off.
J*** co***ta was and exceptional fly fisherman and fly tier I remember his midges were deadly!
Tight lines and small rods and small world loops.
Andy M
This is getting pretty long and there's allot more to come, this looks like a good place so I'll sign off for now and give you folks some time to consider some of my ramblings.
Tight lines and ultimate challenge loops
Andy M