This chapter is titled "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back."

Yesterday I made a 5.25" grip, reamed it and glued it to the blank. Then I taped on 8 guides and did some casting. I was underwhelmed. The rod felt heavy, tippy, noodly, sloppy. So I put it away and came back to it after running a few errands for the boss.

After wiggling and jiggling, moving my grip position up the blank, fooling with guide placement and casting trials, I decided that the blank might respond to a trim. I trimmed the top, and the butt, ending up with two equal sections measuring 6'8" joined. I replaced the tip top and carved 2" off the grip to accept the reel seat. I am going to salvage what's left of the grip (about 3") and will add cork rings to it to make a +/- 5" grip. Then I'll redo guides placement & casting.



Stay tuned for more fun with winter builds.

No! Not meant to be a diss at all! I am having fun with this and i am excited about finishing it out. The trimmed blank seems to be a little snappier and more responsive. It's all good Gary! Glad you like the flies:-)

This should be a great project. Love the older lami blanks.

Those winter projects are lookin good! Maybe one of these days I will find a nice Lami blank like that.

Right now working on a Sila-flex F-85 Apologize for the poor pics. Bruce

Nice photos FEFF. That will be a nice build. I like the Featherweight reel seats. You can still find them at Rick's Rods. I had a Fenwick fly rod with the same tip top insert.

It's on to the wrapping station for my winter rebuild. I'm thinking now that this blank is a Fenwick Yellow Jacket(?). Here is a picture I took of the butt section.

Gudebrod Sunrise and Brown/Orange Jasper at the cork check and hookeeper, and clear silk wrap in between. This will be the signature area. I call this one "Yellow Sally." She's a 6'08" 4 weight. Pictures of the "carrot grip" and distressed reel seat are coming.

It’s the start of the HoJo special

A second thin coat is on the Yellow Sally tonight. I have been using the same 8 ounce can of ACE Spar Varnish for now for over a year. The half pints are hard to find but are best for me since I use so little. Poured off half of this one and thinned it with mineral spirits. I really like working with spar and don't mind at all the longer drying time. As usual, I have a few thread nibs to deal with but after a few more coats of varnish I will deal with them.

I'm getting nowhere on rods this winter. Too much house DIY.
I am enjoying your progress's. Really impressive and varied projects.
I did fish my Green Hornet project rod from last year and caught a bunch of brookies from some new streams on Sunday. I hope you folks get to fish these gems. Soon.

It’s looking Picket.
Maybe a Ritz style grip if you aren’t happy with the carrot?
Fried clam(the Howard Johnson’s themed rod) is taking a break this week.
First week back to teaching this semester and the students are all full of questions so no time to play.

I do like Ritz grips. On this rod I wanted something small and short with a superfine-like look meant for short casting, close fishing, mostly smallish dry flies. But your suggestion makes perfect sense. Putting more beef in the handle/grip will counterbalance tip mass. The grip as it is now, is comfortable when held at the uppermost... and that helps to balance the rod. To your point, I thought about cutting it off completely and starting over. And this is still on the table. For now, I am reworking the existing grip. So still a work in progress. Back to the lab!

Just a thought. What about a heavier reel seat?
That could move the balance point back a bit

i got sick of looking at the crummy thread hosel and grip. last night it came undone. i sliced off the grip and unwound the hosel and stared a blank canvas, again. i dug out a few reel seat and some cork and got to tinkering in a new direction. So the journey continues -- destination unknown...

A pair of rods the Betts (really a St Croix as they had bought Betts and built some rods using the name) came to me along with what was supposed to be some flyrod blanks which weren't, but in with the blanks was the butt section of a 7'6" Betts but the two tips with it were from some other fly rods one too short and one too long. They were yellow but I'm guessing they were Berkeleys given the wraps on them. After pulling the incompatible ferrules I shortened the butt a few inches and cut the long tip down several inches till I figured I would come out with a 7'8" finished rod (I altered the printed length changing the 6 to an 8) . Dug through my scrap pile and found a ferrule that would fit the butt, epoxied in place then built it up to fit the tip which was still a little too large to fit the ferrule. There were phony tipping wraps painted onto the raw blank then clear finish applied over the top along with a bunch of hash marks to place guides that simply wouldn't come off so I was locked into using the guide locations when placing guides so ended up with a few more than I would have liked but they all seem to fit well with the flex of the rod so I'm hoping it fishes well. The spaced out red tipping is hiding the painted on tipping. There was no line wt rating on the Betts but using the common cents method it comes out dead on as 6wt.

My intention was to sell my nearly identical 7'8" St Croix Pacemaker 900 once I got the Betts finished, but after completing the Betts I loved the look so much I just had to keep it and rewrap it. This rod has caught nearly all the big fish I've caught on a fly rod, plus while they both measure out as 6 wts they flex differently, Betts flexing in the tip while the St Croix flexes much deeper into the butt. Not wanting two identical rods I tipped this one with purple metallic, the label was beyond saving so I made another as the rod just didn't look right to me without the white label, never like the Pacemaker name so renamed it to Bumble Bee.