Zombie Rods

Fished my 'boo today...

I'm finally back to building. My rod table became a mess, piled up with stuff after several basement disasters & real world snafu's. I'm pretty well cleaned up & ready to start again. A quick bamboo repair is finished & I took some time during my clean up to sort thru some old stuff. I cut the handles and butts off a bunch of spinning rods & discovered what I'm going to do with "baby blue", the zombie I wanted to tackle before all of my problems. The checkered reel seat is out, it just didn't work, but I found a spinning rod butt that will be just right for my grip. I will also reuse the spinning guides instead of using traditional fly guides. I've done this before & they work just fine. I will still attempt a checker pattern inlay again. I did some research & got a circle cutter that does foam sheets perfectly...It is going to work. Here is a quick mock up...

The 2nd of three on that ol' Lamiglas beauty...this one's for you Dave Riley.

Today I fished with the very first fiberglass rod I ever built, a 7.5 ft 4wt Lamiglas. This is still one of my all-time favorites. I wish they still made this jet-black beauty. I built this just to see if I liked the whole rod building thing without spending a ton of $$ on a project I wouldn't stay with. I took a class through a local rod group, the "Tri-State Rod Builders". I learned a ton with them, but the guys running the group at the time were kinda weird & not very welcoming, so I only stayed with them for a few years. I liked rod building so much, I built 3 of these, 1 for me & 2 I gave away as gifts. One I gave to my fishin' buddy, who I still skulk around stream banks with & the other to another guy named Dave, who spun fishin' yarns for me while making coffee in the cafeteria of the facility where I worked. He was a dear friend who really mentored my fly fishing without ever hitting the stream with me. I miss him to this day...

My sad 1st attempts at this have been a learning experience. First, I learned that foam rubber sheets chemically react with U-40 & never set up, but remain forever tacky...after 2 days I chucked the tacky mess and started over. Second, there is a bit of figgerin' out to do to create the checker board. I had to measure & cut 4 circles, 2 black, 2 white, then epoxy them together. After they dry, I cut them in half. Here's where the figgerin' came in. Flip one half & glue the pieces back together. Then cut int 1/2 flip every other...glue. Keep it up and...voila! Easy as that(not!)

AARGH! Been workin' on the "baby blue" checker board thing...nothing but trouble. Here's what's happenin'. I've definitely decided on the checkerboard embroidery trim to cover this really ugly, scratched up butt section. I've also sold myself on cobbling together the cork handle. I've got a couple of pieces that work for the butt end & I've repaired the good tip section from a former rebuild (the butt end was damaged & got cut off). What I'm working on is a checkerboard pattern in black & white foam in the middle. This photo is my inspiration (props to Janetka Custom Fishing Rods, a true rod building artist).

BTW, I did get out & drag some double nymph rigs through my home stream waters the other day. I used a 6' 5wt colonon rod, converted from an ultra-light spin...

I haven't been here in a while...I've done a few experiments & found that I need to dump the checkerboard reel seat idea. No matter how I wrapped the tape, I always got same color checks meeting at the seam. I thought of leaving the reel foot area with the cork exposed, but that didn't work either. My finish just seemed to scuff up too fast & my sliding band didn't slide very smoothly on the finish. However, I AM going to stay with a checkerboard theme. I will do a check pattern using black & white sheet foam cut into wedges & inserted into the cork handle which I was piecing together anyway. I also got some embroidery trim in a checkerboard pattern & will use it as a butt wrap, I definitely need to hide the nasty butt area on this rod. A silver/black jasper thread will hold the black stripper & silver guides & I'm toying with incorporating the check pattern in the ferrule wrap, mirroring the butt. it might be a bit long, but it should look snazzy. Sorry, no pics (silly me). "Real life" has put the kabosh on getting much done.

Ya know...this whole fiberglass thing came about 'cause all the good bamboo was either too $$$ or taken. People were & are still paying too much for grass sticks. Well, whada ya know...my best fishin' buddy gets me a really nice flamed 6' 6" 2 tip 4 wt bamboo blank! Yikes! I'm not worthy!

Here is a dry-fit idea for a reel seat cobbled out of some misc. parts I've collected over the years. I think it might work. I just have to get a black sliding band (I think I've got one). I'll use some Permagloss over the checkered duct tape to protect it.

Welcome to "Baby Blue", coupled at 2 pieces, she is 78 inches of REALLY FAST fiberglass action. I'm a true believer in the "common cents" system of rod meaurement, so I'm not sure of the line rating for this rod right now, but my guess is the upper 5 wt range. If you like the Orvis tip-to-butt rating, this will definately be very tip flex. Any way, keep it touch to see how she progresseses. This is going to be a really nice rod (if you get past the "baby blue" color).