Earlier in the fall I purchased a 6'10" 3wt Thomas and Thomas Lotic from MB Custom Rods in Germany. I've heard a lot of good things about the 4 and 5 wt Lotics that I hope and assume will also be true of this 3 wt. Since the blanks aren't readily available, I figured it was worth the international shipping, plus $700 to get one directly from T&T is a bit beyond my budget (though I have no doubt they are worth it).

Anyway... here are some pics. Still deciding on the color way. I have a nice struble reel seat and insert with a custom shaped flor grade grip that I plan to use. Tested out some colors on the butt section as seen in the pics. Starting with the butt, the colors are CP tan tipping and almond, Light blue and metallic silver, pea soup and metallic red, gold fish and CP tan tipping.

I'm always amazed at how the thread colors transform depending on the blank color. I tried to see if I could match the T&T styling with the blue and silver, but the light blue darkened to essentially become the same color as the blank - not much contrast there. The green and red are a colorway that T&T used on some of their other rod models. But I think I ultimately might go with a combination of the almond, gold fish, and tan.

that's certainly in line with what I hear about them too. I've honestly never even had the chance to lay my hands on a T&T rods. I'll have to seek out a fly shop that carry their rods. At any rate, I'm glad to have gotten a blank and look forward to seeing how it fishes.

Two of the graphite rods I held onto after going glass are my custom 5 and 6wt T and T Helix’s
They are wrapped with the color scheme you have there on the butt section with sort of a maroon with gold trim. They look amazing and I think that’s one reason I kept them. Very nice color combo. For what it’s worth those are some of my favorite casting graphite rods of all time. I never see them for sale anywhere either so maybe others dig them too?

of the color combos presented, I like the "Goldfish/Tan" combo best on that blank;
but none really excite me.
Blue is a tough blank color to work with.
I wouldn't discount trying a straight Black on that blank, either. Could be nice, maybe....

didn't notice when these last few replies came in a while back. My bad. I still haven't been able to commit myself yet one this rod.

Corlay... I agree that none of these colors are exciting me. Maybe straight black. Here's a build that has always caught my eye by Leiderman - he says it's blue nylon but it looks almost black to my eye.... viewtopic.php?f=8&t=66229&p=351126&hilit=lotic#p351126

csmielke... I like the idea of the blue/red/green. I may strip the test wrap section and try that combo to see what it's like.

Anyway... we'll see where it ends up

Looks great! I have cast the 4wt of the series and I'm jealous I don't own one.

Nice build! The blue wraps and tan trim look great with the reel seat you used. I’m not sure I would have thought to use tan trim on a blue blank, but the tan reminds me of the color of leather matched with blue/navy clothes - very classy.

Man that is sharp. I have a T&T heirloom glass built by Kancho. Was featured in a blog post by Cameron on TFM: http://thefiberglassmanifesto.blogspot. ... -rods.html

It is probably my most beautiful rod but also a casting and fishing machine.

Kudos.