I was a very good boy this year, so for Christmas Santa brought me a pretty little honey colored blank to make a new 6'6" fiberglass 3wt. I was a bit unsure as to whether or not I needed another 3wt, as I already have a lovely Orvis Superfine Trout Bum 7'6" graphite 3wt.  Although I love my Superfine, it is a bit stiff and a bit long for my new favorite river, the Little Sur. The Little Sur was burned rather badly in the 2008 wildfires, but the trout population has rebounded and it is now full of eager little wild coastal rainbows, averaging in size from 3-6 inches. 

These little guys get almost no fishing pressure and will rise readily to an attractor dry fly. My superfine can place a humpy as delicately as any rod, but risks catapulting these litte fish into the brush when you set the hook. My hope is that the "softness" of the fiberglass will make it more fun to catch small fish, and protect them from becoming unintentional aeronauts.  

In order to keep the rod as light as possible I chose to use a cork reel seat, and because I am cheap, I didn't want to invest in any of the lovely reel seat hardware on the market. Based on this post on the Fiberglass Flyrodders message board, I decided to try to use stone rings as bands to hold the reel seat. 

I wanted the wraps to really "pop" agains the honey colored blank, so I decided to use scarlet colored silk thread. The this was the first time I had ever wrapped with silk, and I must admit that it was a challenge. The silk was considerably thiner than the nylon I have used on my previous rods, and it had a nasty tendency to pick up the oils on my hands. On the other hand, because the wraps were so much narrower, they blended together much better under varnish than the nylon. I used helmsman spar varnish, as on my previous rods, but I thinned it to only 40% concentration. I think this is finally the concentration I have been looking for. After four coats it had a nice low-build epoxy look. The guides and tip tops are all English bronze light wire, which also give a nice contrast. The butt cap and winding check are nickel-silver, from Golden Witch, and I think they finish the rod off nicely.

I wont get to take this out to the Little Sur until it opens at the end of may, but it is nice enough here in Santa Cruz that I took it lawn casting (something that always draws an audience of neighbors and embarrasses the heck out of me). The action was slow and sweet, bending down almost all the way to the butt, and it was able to throw tight loops with only the leader and six or seven inches of line. In any event, I am very pleased with it.

--Posted by Eben