I recently completed a rod build for my friend Ned. He has been fishing with us on-and-off  for the las year, and it was time for him to get his own rod. He picked himself out a nice 8.5 Foot Orvis Hydros blank, yellow whipping thread, a reverse half-wells grip and Struble up-locking reel seat with a zebra maple spacer. 

He got a chance to take it out for a spin this weekend at the Little Sur trout opener, which I hope to write more about later in the week. I don't love graphite rods, but I have to say that this hydros is a true mid-flex, and loads quite nicely. Ned was able to make the short delicate casts necessary to catch these little trout on a dry-fly.

Recently, I have been finishing my rods with thinned spar varnish, but for this more modern rod,  I thought I would use light build epoxy. Epoxy definitely saves a lot of time drying, especially on a four piece rod, but I think I get a cleaner, smoother result with varnish. One advantage of epoxy was that I was to make transparent ferrule wraps by mixing epoxy with acetone. This saved trying to find a thread color to match the blank. 

I have to say I really enjoyed making a rod for a friend. It let me branch out with style and materials, and gave me an excuse to keep building, even when I don't necessarily need another rod for myself.

--Posted by Eben

It has been pretty busy here project-wise. I've just rounded up work on a series of fiberglass rods and I think I am going to be switching gears for a few weeks to some new projects. 

Eclectic Angler Bi-Metal Reel

For Christmas I received a kit to build a this neat little brass and aluminum reel. The kit is manufactured by fellow Massachusetts-er  Michael Hackney at Eclectic Angler. In addition to making ands selling classic fly reels and kits, Michael is the author of The Reelsmith's Primer, and  administers an online forum for reelsmiths. 

The kit itself includes pre-cut reel pieces, and other components to finish and assemble. I have not done a lot of metal working, but I think I should be able to handle the polishing and filing required.

Orvis Hydros Graphite Fly Rod

One of my personal projects of the last couple of years is getting my friends involved in fly fishing. One of my recent success stories has been my friend Ned, who has come on more than one fishing excursion, including last year's excellent trip to the Tuolumne river in Yosemite. He has enjoyed it enough that it is time that he had his own rod. I am honored that he is trusting me to build it for him. I am not a lover of graphite, but as a former Orvis retail associate I can say that they make some pretty rods, especially for a beginner. Therefore, I am going to build him a 8.5 ft, 5wt Orvis Hydros. Orvis finishes these out with a a lovely blue thread and aluminum reel seat, but at Ned's request, I think we will be using a more traditional wooden reel seat, and a contrasting thread.

Unknown Bamboo Production Rod Restoration

My Dad picked up this bamboo rod last year at an antique store, and fished it for a couple of months before the stripping guide came off and it was clear that the rod was in need of some serious TLC. After consulting some knowledgable folks, I have determined that it is a post WWII Japanese rod, and probably has little collector's value. Therefore I am going to modernize it for fishing, upping the number of guides from 6 to 8, and replacing the bent chrome ferrules with nickel-silver.