I'm late posting this winter build, I wanted to wait until I fished this rod hard. I bought this Yellow Fenwick FL102 7 last winter for $19.00 at a 2nd hand store. it appeared to have had a really hard previous life. The butt was short by about 4"+ and had a small crack in the blank at the spigot ferrule end. The tip also had a small crack about 1/2" long at the female end. it had no cork grip and someone had re-wrapped all the guides with what appeared to be green diamond braid covered with epoxy. Where the grip used to be was also green diamond braid, (2 layers) and that held in place with epoxy. I had some pictures but somehow accidentally deleted them. The rod was pretty ugly IMHO!
Besides the original price of $19.00, i only spent $18.00 on a full wells grip from Proof, and kept the original guides, and reelseat. The rod was stripped, i was able to get the reelseat off and underneath was more green diamond braid! I added a stent to the butt section to bring it close to the original length. Guides were wrapped with green nylon thread, no color preserver. Grip and reelseat mounted.
I finally was able to fish this rod in early May for Lahontan Cutthroat. I fished it hard for 3 days landing many nice Lahontan Cutts in the upper teens and several over 20". I used full sinking WF 7 and was using #8-10 beadhead buggers. I thought the rod cast very well and held up well despites its issues, didnt feel clunky at all. I didnt double wrap the cracks at the ferrules, probably should have,, time will tell. Bruce