The Spey Rod Continues

I have been slowly working on my first spey rod. I have always liked the idea of alternative material ferrules. So I am going to make my first spey rod with fiberglass ferrules. Right now the design is an overlapping style. After I test this method if it holds up I will go with that or insert a spigot and try that method. I know of at least one other builder that does this so I will give it a try. I have went with a natural fiberglass color. I thought it would be interesting to hold it up to light and be able to tell if you have it securely in place.

With all of that being said I might still change my mind and go with Carbon Fiber. It looks better with the darker flamed rod, but it makes the rod so dang fast. Right now the blank weight of this rod with the fiberglass ferrules is 8.1 oz. I am not sure what a good weight of a Spey rod should be, but hopefully this is in the bottom tier.

I "HOPE" to have a ferrule system that I am happy with by this summer. I can use that on my trout rods and be able to produce longer and very light rods. My goal is still to produce a 5 weight rod that is at least 8' 6" and weigh under 3 oz.

I am also nearly done with a demo rod for my 8' 2 weight rod. I have had several questions about it being a true 2 weight. I wanted to get a demo complete so I could give people a chance to try it out and see what they think. I know that a lot of builders don't build 2 weight rods, but I really like this taper and think there is a future for it. I should have it ready in about 2 weeks if anyone wants to try it out.

Introducing the 8' 2 weight

After several prototype rods I have finally come up with a taper that I really like. In the pics below you will see an 8' 2 weight rod. With the cork grip it comes in right at 3 oz. One is able to cast 50-60 ft easily with this rod. It has a bigger tip size (.062) so that you can fish close in as well and keep control of the line with the tip of the rod. Right now I am working on a 8'3" 2 weight version. This rod is based off the 8'4" 3 weight taper platform.

I am still working on my first spey rod. I hope to have an update soon. I can see why builders charge so much for spey/salmon rods! On the next few orders I have I will be returning to dipping the rods. I believe that bigger rods = bigger flies should probably be dipped in order to preserve the cane against wear and tear. I stopped dipping some time ago because it added weight to the fly rod. However, in the case of bigger rods I think that longevity trumps saving a few tenths of an ounce.

New Year's Day fishing

I just got back from a trip to Colorado. I was anxious to do some winter fishing while taking the family on a ski trip. I was probably a little too anxious! The only real place to fish this time of year in the Taylor River area was at the DNR or what others call "The Hog Trough". The morning that we arrived to fish the temp was -5 degrees, by the time we left it had made it all the way up to 10 degrees. Talk about feeling warm.

In summer time you can sight fish to very large fish at this location. However, this time of year produces very low water flow so most of the fish move up into the area just below the tailwater and you are not allowed to fish to them. I was still able to catch some nice browns ranging from 16" to 20".

I got to test out my rod that I had recently built for myself in some pretty harsh conditions. As the eyelets froze up I would have to dip my rod in the water to get the line through. So my rod spent a lot of time submerged in the water. I had left my rod in the car for the three previous days with temps around -25 in Crested Butte. The rod held up fine and looks great. The guy I went fishing with kept asking me if I was sure I wanted to fish with bamboo. He really thought that I was going to break my rod.