I call this rod the “Aspen” since it is finished to look like aspen bark. The rod itself is a 9′ 5wt, 4 piece St Croix SCII blank. The single foot guides, strippers, hook keeper and reel seat are all black. The seat insert, grip, and all of the wraps are hand painted to look like aspen bark. I blogged about this technique for my “Birch” rod.  Here are a couple of other photos:

The rod will be on display this weekend at the Denver Fly Fishing Show and the TU chapter will be selling raffle tickets for it. The drawing will take place in April I believe.

Here is a short overview from the blog to describe what we are doing and who we are:

Hello!

This blog has been put up to track the work of the Van Buren Boys, a crack team of fishing nuts who have been charged with creating a historically accurate ca. 1850s fishing kit that would have been used by President Martin van Buren. In the following weeks we will have photos, commentary, and articles from the Van Buren Boys updating everyone on the progress of the work.

Trust me when I say you will all be blown away by this project!

– Dr. Todd
–
Dr. Todd Larson who heads the group and will be writing the history of Van Buren and Fishing.

Dr. John Elder is an accomplished rod maker and woodworker extraordinaire. John will be charged with constructing an 1850s-period Porter General rod and a period tackle box.

Philip Allen is a metalsmith genius. Philip will be in charge of constructing period 1850s metal spinners and flights, which Van Buren used for muscky fishing on the St. Lawrence.

Royce Stearns is a fly tier so good you think the flies will fly off his vise. Royce will be tying period 1850s flies.

Dr. Michael Hackney is a renaissance man who can make just about anything. Michael will be reproducing a period 1850s fishing reel in brass and constructing a horsehair line.

Follow the blog to watch as we create an exhibit worthy of a President!

To date, I’ve made several wooden fly rods (primarily using the beautifully lettered and illustrated book “Making Strip-Built Fly Rods from Various Woods on a Lathe” by John Betts) with handmade guides and reel seat hardware, hooks and flies, and several small brass reels. The final item to complete my early fishing equipment was the fly line itself. Many of the early accounts go in to detail about procuring and making horse-hair fly lines. Darrel Martin describes and illustrates several methods to make these lines in his excellent “The Fly-Fisher’s Craft, The Art and History“. I’ve made short (6′-9′) lines using these methods using both Mr. Martin’s descriptions and interpretation as well as the original citation. These include:

1. The “Treatyse Jig” as it is called to furl short lengths of hair in to snoods that are knotted together
2. A Walton’s Engine (twisting machine) that I designed and built of brass – again to furl snoods that are knotted together
3. The Williamson Quill Twister to furl snoods that are knotted together
4. Plaiting (braiding) to create a knotless, tapered line

While all of these lines are functional I was not quite satisfied with the final product. Lines constructed using the techniques in 1 and 2 are the best of these but suffer from having a knot every 30″ or so that can hang up in the rod’s guides. They are quick and easy to construct though and wrapping the knot with silk thread helps somewhat. The Quill Twister does not twist the individual strands as tightly as the above methods so the furled snood is looser and prone to unwinding. It does, however, excel at twisting 3 single strands of horse-hair together to make leaders. Finally, the plaited line is very time consuming to construct but does result in a knotless, tapered line. The texture of the braid is very rough though and the line itself is flat – more like a ribbon than a line. This can be somewhat corrected by reducing the hair count in one of the 3 strands.

Then, several weeks ago I found an old book in the Google collection that I had not seen referenced previously. “British Rural Sports: Comprising Shooting, Hunting, Coursing, Fishing, Hawking, Racing, Boating, Pedestrianism, and the Various Rural Games and Amusements of Great Britain” by Stonehenge, published in 1867. A woodcut on page 265 shows a new device for creating continuously tapered, furled, knotless fly lines from horse-hair! The description on page 265 (for some reason the Plate and text pages are numbered the same) is quoted here:

“Reel-Lines are made of horse-hair (from the tail), of silk, or silk and hair mixed, of Indian-weed, and of silkworm gut. It is usual for the amateur fisherman to purchase these lines, which are made by a small machine, but sometimes the angler prefers making them himself, and if at all handy, he may do this with great advantage by the following mode, which is much superior to the twisting-machine, because it admits of the introduction of fresh hair with much greater facility.

In Making the horse-hair line, first procure a quantity of good hair, which may be bought at the shops ; but if it can be obtained from a good young chestnut horse with a flaxen-tail so much the better. When such a horse is docked, a considerable portion of his tail with the hair attached is removed, and that is the very best for the present purpose. A grey horse with a silver mane will give white hair, which requires staining, but the colour of the flaxen mane is as good as any art can give. Young hair is twice as string as the milk-white hair, which is peculiar to old horses. Next procure three pieces of strong goose-quill, each about half an inch long, and fit loosely into them three pieces of deal three or four inches long ; then divide your hair intended for your line into three equal portions ; thus, if your line is to be of eighteen hairs altogether, then let each of your quills receive six, leaving about four inches projecting ; then push in the sticks gently, and ties the loose ends together, as shown in the annexed woodcut (fig. 1). The knot formed by the union of the three divisions is to be attached to some fixed object by a pin ; then take out each stick, one after the other, and pass the quill up to within an inch of the knot, replace the stick, and take two of them in the left hand. The remaining stick is to be gently twisted from right to left, and when sufficiently so, passed over the other two also from right to left, when it should be grasped by the left hand, gently keeping up a slight strain upon the knot. At this time the three are in the position shown in the woodcut ; then let the angler take hold of a d, draw it towards him about a quarter of an inch, allowing the hair to slip through the space between quill and wood ; twist it as before, and pass it over to the left. Repeat this with b e, and then with c f, when a b will again occupy the same position as at first. By carrying on this process a line may soon be turned out of great strength, and of any degree of tightness of twist ; but if too tight, it will be liable to be entangled, or to kink, as it is generally called. As soon as the angler has mastered this part of the process, and has twisted a few inches of line, he must divide the remaining length of his hair into the same number of portions as he has hairs in his line and cut off one hair at each of these lengths, so that he may spice his line regularly throughout its whole length. As soon as one of these cut ends appears loose above the head of the quill, the stick must be removed, and another hair of full length inserted and twisted in with the rest, and so on with every succeeding break. In this way the line appears, when finished, to be furnished with a series of projecting hairs, but these may be removed without danger with a knife, or scissors, or a taper, previously soaking the whole line for twenty-four hours in water. The line may also be gradually reduced in size at the pleasure of the maker, by omitting to insert fresh hairs. By this mode all links and joints are avoided, and the line is everywhere within one hair of the full strength with which it would be furnished if joined in links in the ordinary way.”

Now, let me interpret that for you! I had to read this passage many times, refer to the woodcut and try out each step before I got the true meaning. First, obtain your horse-hair. Contrary to this recommendation, I use white hair (not from an old horse) from a stallion. The woodcut and description of the goose-quill sections is straight forward. Finding goose quills in New England is pretty easy! Cut off the tips of the quill, back to the point where the shaft is fairly straight. Then cut off a 1/2″ section. These quills have a white foam-like material in them that must be removed. I used a 1/8″ drill bit and simply pushed it through the quill section with my fingers. Then spin the drill with your fingers to clean out the material. I used goose quills for my first line but used small pieces of plastic tubing (soda straws) for my second. I am working on a “high tech” version of this idea using aluminum tubes split lengthwise so a hair can be easily introduced and a foam plug to hold the hair and provide just the right amount of friction… but read on.

It took a little googling to determine what “three pieces of deal three or four inches long” meant. Deal, as it turns out, is an old term for for or pine wood. So, this means to use 3 pine sticks about 3″ long. The stick needs to fit into the quill snugly in order to hold the hair, but not too snugly. These sticks should be round and the last 1″ or so tapered to fit the quill. Here is a photo of the sticks fitted in to the quills:

I wanted a line that contained 18 hairs at the butt end and tapered to 3 hairs, approximately 25′ long. That means that each of the 3 strands will start with 6 hairs and taper down to 1. To make this taper, you need to remove 5 hairs over 25′ on each strand. That calculates to 5′ of 6 hairs, 5′ of 5 hairs, 5′ of 4 hairs, … down to 5′ of 1 hair. My tail hair is about 34″ long but after trimming the tips to remove frays and weak areas, comes out to about 30″ long. So, 2 hair lengths will make 5′. I love it when things work out like this.

One thing this account did not mention is to align 1/2 of the hairs in each strand the opposite direction – so, if there are 6 hairs in the strand take 3 of them and turn them end-for-end so their tip ends align with the butt ends of the other 3 hairs. Horse tail hair tapers significantly from the butt to tip – the thin tip section being the weakest. By realigning 1/2 the hairs in this way, you even out the final diameter of the section as well as redistribute the weaker tip sections so they lie next to butt hair sections. Almost every other horse-hair line making description points this out, so maybe it was considered “known art” in this description.

The description of getting started makes sense if you’ve ever furled a rope, line or leader. After inserting the strands (6 hairs each) in to the quills and locking them in place with the wooden pegs, you tie their ends together. This knot is then held so it does not spin as you furl the line. I used my fly tying vise and gently clamped the knot in its jaws – but a nail or push pin works well too. Next, hold 2 sticks in your left hand and the other in your right hand. The instructions call for twisting the stick in your right hand from right to left to impart a twist on the hair. However, right to left clockwise or counterclockwise? Looking up from the bottom of the stick, the rotation should be clockwise. This imparts the standard “rotate, counter rotate” twists required to furl. It is also important to twist enough to give a good furl but not so much as to “entangle or kink” the strand. I find that 3 twists per 1/4″ length of hair is about right. You’ll know when you’ve twisted too much. Follow the recipe of twisting the stick in your right hand, then pass it over the top of the other 2 sticks in your left hand. (Looking from the bottom, this would be a counterclockwise rotation.) Hold the left most 2 in your left hand and  the other in your right. Repeat. You’ll find that it goes pretty quickly. Each time you place a new stick in your right hand, you pull it towards yourself (away from the knot) to let about 1/4″ of hair come out of the top of the quill – that is why the sticks need to be a loose fit. If they are too tight in the quill, you will not be able to pull the hair out without breaking it.

The next challenge comes after you’ve furled about 4″ of line. Just when you get the hang of it, you need to stop and stagger-cut the hair. The description takes a little explanation;

“he must divide the remaining length of his hair into the same number of portions as he has hairs in his line and cut off one hair at each of these lengths, so that he may spice his line regularly throughout its whole length. As soon as one of these cut ends appears loose above the head of the quill, the stick must be removed, and another hair of full length inserted and twisted in with the rest, and so on with every succeeding break.”

The intent is to stagger the ends of each hair in each strand so that when you need to “introduce” new hair, you add 1 hair at a time. This eliminates any weak points in the line if 2 or more hairs needed to be spliced in at the same place. Assume the hair is 30″ long and there are 6 hairs per strand – 18 hairs total – and that you’ve furled 6″. Simply divide 24″ by 18 hairs to get 1 1/3″. Now, you need to leave 1 hair full length, cut 1 1/3″ off all of the remaining hairs. Leave one of those at the new length and cut 1 1/3″ off all of the remaining hairs. Continue this process until you have 18 hairs progressively shorter by 1 1/3″. In practice, I think you need to also stagger the cuts across the strands to help distribute the splices within a strand. Here’s how I do it:

I lay the 3 sticks and quills out side by side in front of me with the hair draping over the edge of a table. Starting with the strand on the left, I leave one hair alone and cut all of the others 4″ shorter (3 * 1 1/3″ = 4″). I pull out one of these and cut the remainder 4″ shorter. Continue this process on this single strand until all 6 hairs are progressively 4″ shorter than their neighbor. Now, move to the middle strand. On this one, you cut 1 1/3″ off ALL hairs. Then, leave one of these alone and cut 4″ off all of the remainders. Pull one of these out and cut the remaining hairs 4″ shorter. Repeat this on the middle strand until all 6 hairs have been cut and are progressively 4″ shorter than their neighbor. Now, take the right-most strand and cut 2 2/3″ off all the hairs. Pull one out and cut 4″ off all of the remaining hairs. Pull one of these aside and cut 4″ off the remainders. Repeat until all 6 hairs have been cut and each hair is progressively 4″ shorter than its neighbor.

Now, look at the mess you created! The cut off sections of hair can be thrown away. What remains are 18 hairs divided into 3 strands and no 2 are the same length. Also, you will notice that within a strand, the hairs lengths are evenly cut at 4″ intervals. Here is a graphic to illustrate:

From this point it is pretty straightforward. You need to introduce a new hair when the end of a hair comes out of the quill. Except, remember, you want to taper the line from 18 to 3 hairs. Since we already know that we need to furl 5′ of length for each set of hairs (18, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3), simply continue replacing hairs until you have completed 5′. At this point, when the end of a hair in a strand appears, do not add a new hair. When the second end emerges later, that’s when you add the new hair (the strand will now have 5 hairs in it). You need to skip adding a single hair on each of the 3 strands. You could simply skip the first hair end that appears in each of the 3 strands. I did that for my first line and it looks fine. But if you think about it, doing so results in the line dropping from one increment (18 hairs) to the next (15 hairs) over a distance of 2 2/3″. I thought it would be better to smooth this transition out so the line transitions from 18 hairs to 17 hairs for 1′ to 16 hairs for another foot to 15 hairs. To do this, simply skip 2 ends on one of the 2 remaining strands and 4 on the other. You could get carried away and create even a smoother transition, but from a strength standpoint, I think about a foot is good. Once you get down to 1 hair per strand, it is harder to twist and furl the line. Be persistent but do not over twist.

Once you reach the final length, tie a knot in the end and clip the hairs to even them up. Starting from the thin end, carefully let the line coil around your hand as you coil it up in to about a 4″ diameter. Don’t stretch it or pull on the loose hairs that appear every 1 1/3″ or so. Place the coil in a bowl or jar filled with water and let it soak over night. The next day, remove it. Starting with the fat end, carefully uncoil the line and use a fine pointed scissors or single edge razor blade to carefully clip the protruding hairs that jut out every 1 1/3″. Do not stretch the line. When the protruding hairs have all been clipped, you need to let the line air dry. I found that coiling it loosely in a 4″ coil and simply laying it on a clean plate in my shop does the trick.

The last step is to make a loop at each end of the line. I like to simply make a bend in the line and bind it down with fine silk thread. Here is the end result:

25′ tapered (18 hairs to 3 hairs), knotless, furled horse-hair fly line

Close-up of furled horse tail hair fly line

You can modify the above to create any length, taper, and thickness of line you need. It doesn’t take a long time to make a horse-hair line in this way and the results are quite pleasing.

Click to see larger diagram.

I finally decided that I build enough rods to justify making a small investment in building a jig to hold the rod at a 45 degree angle while the guides are adjusted for optimum placement. A great reference on the process can be found here. The process is simple enough but firmly holding the rod without marring its finish can be a challenge! This jig solves that problem, holds the rod securely, and is attached to my workbench leg about  foot above the floor so it is not in the way.

Here is a photo of the prototype.

I made this grip for a personal rod several years ago. The reel seat and tips of the grip are olive wood. The decorative bands are 3/16″ burnt cork surrounding burl cork. The main body of the grip is birch bark. Here is how I make them:

Collecting Birch Bark

Almost everyone is familiar with the white papery bark of the birch tree – that is not the stuff you want to use to make fly rod grips! Underneath the white papery bark, is the actual bark – typically 1/8″ or so thick. It can be peeled from the log in strips – I peel strips 6-8″ wide. One really important comment though – Please Do Not take the bark from living trees – it will kill the tree. Windblown birch trees are a perfect source and the bark is usable even on trees that have been downed for many years.

Use a sharp knife (a box cutter is perfect for this) and cut a slit about 6″ along the length of the log. Peel off the paper bark from around the log. Then, working at the slit you cut, slide the knife under that inner bark layer – it is easy to find where it separates from the wood underneath. Once you have started peeling the inner bark up, you can grip it with both hands and peel the bark off the tree. The bark will curl in to a roll. Collect a lot of bark! 

Processing the Birch Bark

After collection, I stack the bark between 2 pieces of 1 by 8 pine and clamp them to keep them flat while they dry for a few weeks. A 12″ diameter tree will yield a strip about 37″ long so I cut these in half to make 18″ strips. My 1 by 8s are 20″ long. Use 4 clamps – 1 at each end and 2 spaced evenly between them. You don’t need to put the death squeeze on them, they just need to be held reasonably flat!

Once the strips are dry, I use a 1 1/2″ hole saw that has a 1/4″ pilot drill bit to make as many birch bark rings as I can get! I then quickly sand both sides of each ring on 220 grit sand paper glued to a sheet of glass (with spray contact cement).  This helps remove any bumps and imperfections and provides a good glue surface for the next step.

Gluing Birch Bark Stacks

I like to glue up stacks of bark rings about 1 to 1 1/2″ tall and then glue these shorter stacks together to make the grip. You can also use these short stacks as accents on regular cork grips. These short stacks are glued up on 1/4″ by 2 1/2″ long bolts (with a hex head so you can get a wrench on it) so you can really get a lot of clamping pressure on them. You’ll also need 2 fender washers (1 1/2″ diameter) and a 1/4″ nut. You can use 2 disks of 1/2″ plywood instead of the fender washers if you prefer. I have 10 of these (bolt, 2 washers, nut) “clamps” so I can glue up enough stacks for a grip at one time. For glue, I’ve used Gorilla Glue and epoxy but lately I’ve been using Titebond 3 – it is a lot easier to use and is waterproof and works great.

Here’s how to glue up the stacks:

1. slide a large fender washer on the bolt
2. coat one side of a bark ring with Titebond 3 glue and slide it on the bolt with the dry side toward the washer
3. now, coat both sides of a bark ring and slide it on the bolt – rotating it so its grain line is oriented 90° to the ring below it. 
4. repeat this with 8 to 20 more rings (rotating each one 90°) to make a stack 1 to 1 1/2″ tall
5. coat one side of a bark ring and add that to the stack, glue side to glue
6. slide another fender washer on the stack and screw on the 1/4″ nut
7. use 2 wrenches to clamp the stack tightly

Once the glue is dry, release the nut and remove the washers and stack. You may have to screw the bolt out with a wrench – another reason to work with shorter stacks! Finally, ream the center hole with a 1/4″ drill to clean it up.

Gluing up the Birch Bark Grip

From this point, you basically glue up the grip just like you would glue up a cork grip. Just make sure to orient the grain lines on the ends of 2 stacks being glued together at 90° to each other. I use a 1/4″ threaded rod about 15″ long to glue up my cork and birch bark grips with a nut and fender washer at each end. Add enough birch bark stacks to create the length of grip you want (remember to glue them!) and tighten the nuts to apply clamping pressure. Once the glue is dry, you can remove the nuts, washers and birch bark cylinder. Again, you might have to back the threaded rod out with a wrench (and 2 nuts locked on it). If you want to add cork or wood accents – like the grip in the photo above – simply add those details as you glue up the stacks.

Tips on Turning the Birch Bark Grip on the Lathe

At this point, you can turn the grip on the lathe. I use a 1/4″ mandrel held between centers. Start with a sharp gouge to rough the grip in to a cylinder. If you have cork or wood accents, you need to be careful when you move from one material to another. Go slow and feel the tool cutting. I rough my grip to shape with the gouge until it is about 1/8″ over diameter from the final size. From this point I use sandpaper to complete the turning. Birch bark is harder than cork but not as hard as pine. It tears out easily so sandpaper is the way to go. I start with 60 grit and start to work down to final dimensions. Progress to 100 grit, 220 grit and finally 400 grit. Go slow and measure often. The completed grip should be smooth and silky feeling. Don’t worry if there are small imperfections in the bark – those little black “imperfections” sometimes pop out. We’ll fix those next. Here’s what the turned grip before applying the finish looks like:

Finishing the Birch Bark Grip

I finish my grips on the lathe starting with Tung Oil. I apply it with 600 grit sandpaper. This makes a slurry that fills in the birch bark  imperfections nicely. Let the Tung oil dry between coats – I apply 3 coats. Once the last coat is dry, I use Tru-Oil as the final finish. I apply 8 light coats with a clean cotton cloth – letting the TruOil dry between coats. Finish with a paste wax if desired.

Here’s the final product glued on to a St Croix SCIV blank:

The other day I posted about how to create the faux birch effect. Here is the completed fly rod ready for the auction. Hopefully the new owner will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed building it!

I also love building fly rods. I’ve made quite a few for myself but there are only so many rods one fisherman needs! So, I donate some of my rods to charity auctions and events. One of my more popular donation rods is a design I call “The Birch”. I got the idea fishing one day. I was in the middle of a very small stream surrounded by birch trees. I saw a branch hanging out over the water and immediately it hit me – “I should make a fly rod that looks like a birch tree!” Brilliant!

So, this is the story of how I do the birch-looking parts. There is lots of info on the Web on building fly (or any fishing) rod so I won’t cover everything – maybe I will in a future post. For now, take a look at what one of these rods looks like – at least the business end:

As you can see, the grip and reel seat look like birch bark, as do the guide wrappings. This post will show you how I achieve this effect.

First I start with all black hardware and a matte black rod blank:

In this case, I am making a 9′ 5wt 4 piece travel rod. The blank is a high quality, moderately fast IM6 graphite. The guides, tip-top, hook keeper and reel seat hardware are all made by Pacific Bay. All the hardware is anodized or painted black. I use white thread – color preserver on the thread saves a step.

I start with turning the grip from a 1 1/2″ square by 8″ long piece of basswood. I bore a 3/4″ diameter hole about 5/8″ deep with a forstner bit at one end. This recess will house the hardware for the reel seat. Once the recess is bored, I drill a 3/8″ hole through the middle of the block. This allows me to mount the blank on a 3/8″ steel mandrel for turning.

Turn the grip to 7″ long, 1 1/8″ diameter at the butt and 7/16″ diameter at the tip using first a roughing gouge and then a skew chisel. When I am within 1/32″ of the final dimensions I switch to sandpaper on a block – starting with 80 grit and working up to 600 grit. Here is the final shape sanded to 600 grit:

Once the shape is complete, I like to turn a small groove using a small (1/8′) gouge 3/4″ from each end. I then burn the wood by pressing a steel wire into the groove while the handle spins in the lathe. It helps to rough up the wire with sandpaper to provide lots of friction.

I put a couple of coats of Minwax water-based polyurethane (satin) on the handle to seal it while it spins in the lathe. Once the polyurethane is dry, paint the center section with several coats of White acrylic paint.

I like to use Delta Ceramcoat paints thinned with just a bit of water. Once the White acrylic is dry, sand lightly with 600 grit sandpaper. Now the handle is ready for the faux birch bark painting.

I start by mixing a little Maple Sugar Tan with white and some water. Using a 3/8″ flat brush, streak the paint to create blotchy stripes around the grip – the key is to keep it subtle. Here is the result – along with the matching reel seat.

The next step is to dry brush short (1/4″ or so) stripes of Maple Sugar Tan to start to simulate birch bark.

Using the same dry brushing technique, brush small stripes of Mudstone. Keep these light and don’t paint as many as you did with the Maple Sugar Tan.

Finally, dry brush a few streaks of Rain Grey.

That takes care of the basic birch bark design. The final step is to paint the dark semi-circular “scars” frequently seen on birch trees. I mix Black and Burnt Umber starting with a thin layer of very dark brown using a fan brush dapped on using a semi-circular stroke. I apply 2 more lighter brown coats over this. The final result should look like this:

I usually put 2 of these on the grip and reel seat, one at the base and the other on the opposite side at the tip.

Apply several coats of clear polyurethane while the grip spins in the lathe. Here is the final result with the reel seat hardware installed on the rod blank:

Painting the guide wraps is even easier. First wrap the guides with a white thread. If the thread is NCP (no color preserver) apply a color preserver before painting. Using the same White and Maple Sugar Tan paint the thread and apply the blotchy Maple Sugar Tan streaks. Finish up with dry brushing just a few Maple Sugar Tan, Mudstone and Rain Grey streaks on each wrap. There is no need to apply the dark scars since the wraps are so small. Apply wrap finish like normal. Here is a close-up of a painted wrap:

This is my entry in to the RodBuildingForum.com‘s 50-80 rod swap. I turned the handle from basswood and painted it to look like birch bark. The wraps were done in white Gudebrod, painted off white and also painted like birch bark. 

The blank is a 7’ 9” 3 wt. 2 piece from Janns Netcraft. Black double foot snakes and stripping guide, black PacBay uplocking reel seat. Overall, it is a really interesting rod! I am going to build another for myself.

Here it is, ready to ship to its new owner Tom. This is a Batson RX8 blank – rated as  “Extra Fast”. Here are the build details:

Strubel U-20 reel seat with a custom turned Amboyna burl seat insert. Custom fitted Half Wells cork grip with Amboyna burl tip and butt sections. A TiC plated winding check finishes off the business end. All of the guides are TiCH with single foot snakes. Striper (12), tamer (10) 2 size 4, 3 size 3 and 3 size 2 wit a TiCH tip-top.

The wraps are Gudebrod Garnet with no color preserver for a translucent look. The accents tips are 3 turns of Gudebrod Metallic Gold. The signature wrap is a single thread spiral over wrap of metallic gold over the garnet. There are fish length markers at 12”, 16” and 20”.

I can’t wait to see what Tom catches with it on the Green River, Utah in 10 days!

I’ve been working on a 7wt 9’ 4 piece Forecast rod for my upcoming trip to the Green River in Utah.

After doing the original wraps and feather inlay, I accidently turned off the motor on my dryer and all of the epoxy ran in to a big blob! I had to carefully cut it all off. I ended up having to sand the blank, which removed some of the blue finish on the first 6” of the rod. After thinking about alternative fixes, I chose to do a full feather inlay/wrap using 57 Silver Doctor Blue dyed grizzly hackles. Used Teal Gudebrod and black and white accent wraps. Here is a bigger photo.