Howdy All!

So as I mentioned in a previous thread I'm building my first fly rod.  It is a 7' 3wt fiberglass rod that I picked up as a "blem" on ebay.  The blem is that the tip isn't quite perfectly straight.  I'm pretty sure it's still going to work just fine   The blank only cost me $15 so how can I complain?  I chose fiberglass as the material due to it's slower action.  Since this is going to be a brook trout rod I wanted something short and with some bend to it.  This fulfills both of those and also gives me some increased durability over graphite since I'll be bushwacking through the woods chasing brookies with it 

So I've got all components on order including a nice powder coated aluminum rod tube to protect my build.  I just recently recieved the reel seat which I also picked up on ebay.  It's not name brand, but have a look at the pictures, I think it looks awesome.  I actually ordered the hardware and for $10 the seller would add a wood insert.  He was very pleasant and e-mailed me some pictures of seats he had available.  I chose the tiger maple and thought the light color would go wonderful with the yellow blank.

All I've done so far is reamed out the cork to fit the blank and dry fit the cigar grip and reel seat.  This week I'll epoxy these in place.   I've got thead in, it's called "spring green" and is a light yellow/green.  It should once epoxied be a light green that will pair nice with the blank.  I'm going to try some wraps on the butt of the rod and epoxy them to see what they lok like.  Then I can just cover my experiment with the reel seat and nobody will be the wiser .  I'll post some pictures of the wraps once I've had the time to test them out and you can let me know what you think.

Stil waiting on the guides to come in, should be in next week. I'm going with snake brand double foot chrome snake guides. Hoping to tip the ends of the green wraps with a dark gold thread.

Enjoy and I'll keep updating as the build progresses!

-Nic

Sounds like the finished product will be a very nice and affordable rod.  I like the sounds of it and your ideas.

Can't wait to see it completed.

Theron

Looks good Nic. Nice job so far can't wait to see it finished. 

Nic

Mine are 7 1/2 footers 2 pc tip over butt. Andy, a rod builder in CT did up a couple with low end components and they cast and fished well. Gray out in MI, another rod builder did a couple that everybody drooled over with black nickel silver hardware and exotic wood in the seat. Those were some beautiful rods and they cast like a dream. They've gone to Africa, Italy, UK, Finland, Norway, and Russia and the reviews have all been more than positive. Maxim in Russia said, and I quote, "At last! A glass rod with balls!" Tom Gould, owner of Fiberglass Fly Rod forum bought a set of blanks to make a switch rod with so he could murder kivers in his local ponds. There is in fact a post over there with dudes who built rods on the blanks and Andy has a pictorial and story on an entire build with the blanks.

The year Orvis came out with the 2 wt carbon rod I was one of the first to own one. They were priced somewhat sensible back then. It was a whipstick and a noodle and Lord but I grew to hate that rod. Many years later I sold it to a Lawyer in PA who went right over the edge when he got it and asked me if I ever even used it. I guess he was into the limp rods. It was really bad, at least in my hand. But hey, to each his own.

I thought I'd have a rough go of it with the cane rods when I finally got around to them as I used fast action carbon rods for most of my life. Man I took to them like a duck to water! If you think glass is a hoot wait until you get your crab crackers on a good bamboo rod. Good being anything vintage or above Zhu. His rods make great expensive tomato steaks IMHO, but, I'm not alone in those thoughts.