I’ve finally gotten back into rod-building after roughly six months of doing very little. Things just got so busy around home that I had no time to devote to the craft, and I got rusty. I take pride in the job I do with my epoxy finish. The last few rods I did in the previous year had a very smooth finish with nice even overruns. I guess I expected to pick right up where I left off, but my hand wasn’t as steady after the layoff. Still, the rod turned out fairly nice. It’s a 9′ 8wt 2-piece fly rod on a Batson Rainshadow blank. I built it as a bass bugging rod for my brother. I used Japanese silk thread in medium brown with chestnut tipping. I mustn’t fail to mention the snake guides I used on this rod. They’re from Snake Brand, and they are excellent! There is no need to prep the feet on these guides. It’s already done for you. Check out photos of the rod below.

Hook keeper and winding check. I moved the hook keeper well up the rod, both because my brother will be using big flies and so he can use a 10' leader and wrap the leader around his reel to keep his fly line out the end of the rod while still using the keeper.

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My no-name bamboo bass rod ready for work to begin.

Remember last week when I said something about it not being spring yet? Well, maybe I was wrong. It sure feels like spring, and nothing on the 10-day forecast is below 40 with daytime highs between 50 and 80! That’s too bad because these late winter days are when I get a lot of my fly tying and rod-building work done. I guess it’s the anticipation of spring trips that gets me going. This year I might be fighting the urge to hit the stream early when I should be inside tying up this year’s flies or finishing up those rod projects.

This weekend I successfully fought the urge to go fishing and began work on my next big project. I plan to refinish a bamboo rod. I bought the rod for next to nothing from a gentleman on Clark’s forum. He claimed it was far from a club and would make a nice bass rod. One look at it, and you’d think it a prime candidate for staking the peas in the garden this spring, but it does cast a surprisingly nice line. It’s definitely a heavier bass rod. It’s 8.5′, and I’ve been using an 8 wt line on it. I figured it’d make a good project rod for a first refinishing job since it’s a no-name deal, and no one’s going to shed tears if I bungle it. The cork on the handle is the poorest I’ve ever seen, and I can’t imagine the builder seriously thought the reel seat would be functional.

Guide removal in progress.

I’m going to replace all the components, assuming I can get them all off. The reel seat is plastic, so I’m not entirely sure I’ll be able to break the glue without melting the plastic first. Could get tricky. My plan is to heat it with a hair dryer and try to break the glue. Anyone with a good tip for removing an old cork grip and a plastic reel seat? The ferrules needed work when I bought the rod, so I’m going to replace them, too. In fact, I’m stripping this baby down to a bare blank and replacing everything else. I’m not going to use top notch components, but I hope to make it somewhat attractive at the least. Then I’m going to put it through its paces targeting big largemouth bass on Lake Guntersville.

Today I started removing guides. I could be fooling myself here, but I think the job will be a lot of fun. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

Take care,
Nathan

Moss agate stripping guide on a Rainshadow blank.

Things have been slow here on the TVangler site lately. We’ve failed to post anything on a few recent fishing trips, but it’s not for lack of trying. We’re gearing up for our Yellowstone pilgrimage, and I had two rods to finish up before heading out. That’s on top of all the standard pre-trip madness like last minute fly tying (I apparently didn’t use winter wisely), building leaders, organizing gear, mortgaging the house to pay for gas, worrying over stream flow data, etc. Priority number one, though, was finishing my wife Jacqulyn’s 9′ 6wt rod so she could use it while in Yellowstone. You can see the stripping guide to the right. The rod is a 2 piece 9′ 6wt Rainshadow blank. The blank is a deep green, the stripping guide is moss agate, the thread spring green and antique gold silk. I’ve included several more photos below. The reel seat is by REC with a buckeye burl insert. I think it turned out very classy. I included a feather inlay of brown ringneck pheasant and jungle cock nails. We took it out to cast on Sunday, and it performed very well. I was able to cast all the Cortland 444 line off the reel except for one last loop at my feet, probably a record for me. It wasn’t necessarily pretty, text book casting (read “huge tailing loops”), but I got it out there. And I might have been able to cast it all if I had had space. I kept snagging the power line, trees, and fence behind me. I apologize for the quality of the photos. I took them quickly between rounds of manic fly tying. Before we head out, I have at least one more article to post, and then I’ll be leaving the site in Insane’s questionable hands. Take care,
Nathan

Feather inlay of ringneck pheasant and jungle cock.

Handle area of the rod. The reel seat is nickel silver by REC. Insert is buckeye burl.

Close up of the hook keeper. The hook keeper is a British style tender in antique gold. Winding check is nickel silver by Struble.

Red-banded agate stripping guide on Lamiglas Spring Creek blank. The reflections on the epoxy make it look wavy. It's not. Nice smooth finish for a change.

Finished work on my Lamiglas Spring Creek 7′ 6″ 4wt a couple weeks ago. I tried it out for the first time over the weekend in the Smokies. Jacqulyn and I backpacked to a stream on the North Carolina side for three nights. More on that later. I tried the rod with both my Thebault silk line and a Cortland Peach. This was my first experience with silk. A real pleasure to cast. The rod cast like a dream at the shorter distances I was working. Silk line and a dry fly. Never cast much further than 20 feet or so. The next day I strung up the Cortland Peach. I rigged a dry fly with a soft hackle dropper. Didn’t much like how it cast with this set up. I couldn’t get the rig to turn over well with the stiff breeze coming straight downstream. Just didn’t feel right. I removed the dropper and all was well. I kept the colors simple on this rod. I used a rust red YLI silk for the main wraps with antique gold YLI for trim. I added a gold British hook tender which I’ll rarely use but liked how it looked. I usually wrap my leader around my reel frame and hook the fly to a guide. I wrapped on a red-banded agate from Arcane for the stripping guide. I didn’t add a signature wrap or feather inlay to this rod. I wanted to give it a simple, classic look. Probably the best finish work I’ve done. All the wraps had a good smooth finish over them with pretty even over runs. I think the rod is beautiful and had a great time fishing it. It’s battle-tested now with a good many browns and rainbows to its credit.

British style hook tender. Also a nice shot of the Thebault silk line.

After arriving home, I tested the rod at longer distances out in the yard using the silk line. With more line out, I could really feel the rod load. I was easily punching out as much distance as I normally get from my much faster St. Croix 4 wt with a plastic line. Just a real pleasure to cast. I think this Spring Creek blank must be faster than the honey line. It really didn’t seem as slow as I expected. I’d rate it close to one or two of my medium graphite blanks in action, but I could feel what the fiberglass was doing a little better. The rod doesn’t exactly feel like bamboo, but it has some of that same character. Some more photos of the rod below.

Shot of the handle area includes Pflueger Medalist reel spooled with silk line. All reel seat hardware and winding check are nickel silver by Struble. Cocobolo insert.

Ferrule area. It looks like my ferrule wrap on the female side is uneven. It's not. The tip of the female ferrule actually came a little uneven.

Take care,
Nathan

Insane has taken up the ol’ ball and chain. I advised him to run away to Montana and be a fly-fishing guide, but he’d have none of it. Apparently he’s “in love” with Katie. And so, on Saturday, May 17 the two were wed at Oak Park Baptist Church in Huntsville, AL. Pondering Insane’s personality traits might lead one to question whether Katie should not be the one carrying the nickname “Insane,” but we’ll just try to think about more pleasant things. I was suckered into being a groomsman. TVangler contributor Jason Kelley showed up in a suit! I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t actually shaken his hand. He and I both agreed that our outfits weren’t suitable for fishing, but we’d be willing to try it if given half a chance (we weren’t). It was quite a day. We’ll try to post a few photos later. The newly weds should be in Jamaica by now.

Feather inlay on the 6 wt rod I built for my father. Ring-neck pheasant and brown rooster hackle.

I am finally getting caught up on my rod-building work. Over the last two weeks I managed to finish up my father’s 9′ 6 wt fly rod and my own 7’6″ 4 wt fiberglass fly rod. I’m including photos of my father’s rod with this post. I’ll try to get some of my fiberglass rod for later in the week. You can see the feather inlay on Dad’s rod to the right. I used two feathers from a ring-neck pheasant and a brown rooster hackle feather. I didn’t quite get all the fibers sorted like I wanted, but I think it turned out nicely. I used a maroon silk thread for the windings with a beige silk trim band, which complimented the feathers well. The blank is a 9′ 2 piece Rainshadow RX6 blank. It’s deep blue with a nice medium fast action. I used chrome snake guides and a chrome stripper with ceramic insert. I wanted to use an agate stripping guide (because I think they’re cool), but Dad said he planned to use it for bass as well as trout. I reluctantly decided the ceramic insert would hold up better to a 6 lb bass running out all his line and backing. The reel seat is an REC nickel silver piece with black ash insert. Handle was bought pre-shaped from Angler’s Workshop. Dad’s planning to use this rod during our Yellowstone trip. In fact, every fisherperson going on that trip will be using one of my rods at least part of the time, so I’ll really begin to see how they perform in the real world. This rod was promised to Dad at Christmas. Only five months late. I’m mostly happy with how it turned out. I like the colors and feather inlay. The silk thread is really classy. My finish work is getting better, but I still had a wider overrun on a few of the wraps than what I’d like, and the line of the overrun on one of the guides wasn’t even. I wouldn’t have made much of a surgeon. The hands just aren’t steady enough. Overall though, I believe it’s my best work to date. You can see other photos of the rod below. Click them for larger images. (more…)

I’m posting a few photos from my latest rod work. I’ve been working on a 9′ 6wt fly rod for my sister-in-law, Gina. She needed a stronger rod for heading out West this year. The rod features a Struble nickel silver reel seat with burl madrone insert, nickel silver winding check, red-banded agate stripping guide, rose and silver silk windings, and a grizzly hackle and lady amherst pheasant feather inlay. You can see the feather inlay below. It’s my first one. Nothing fancy. I typically like the simpler ones anyway. I didn’t have any feathers to match the rose color scheme, so I reckoned a simple black and silver inlay pattern would look classy. I like it so far. Everything is color-preserved and ready for epoxy.

Feather inlay on Gina's rod. Grizzly and lady amherst feathers.

This is the entire handle area on Gina's rod.

The distress comes from the purchase of my first bamboo rod! Yes, I finally joined the dark side, figuring the nation’s economy was in trouble, and I might as well do my part. Hasta la vista, stimulus check (and I haven’t even got it yet)! You can see photos of the rod below. It’s a 9′ Granger Aristocrat, bought off a gentleman in Colorado. It being 9′ and therefore heavier, I was able to get it for a good price, and it’s in great shape. I’m going to call it a 6wt because that’s what I’m casting on it, a 6wt DT Cortland Peach. I went out for a first casting session in the yard today (Sunday). I wondered at first how it would feel. You know? The whole aura surrounding bamboo rods, and this would be my first time casting one. Well, once I took it out of the tube and put it together, I found I was just holding a fishing pole. A pretty one, a cool one, but still just a fishing pole. I’m more than a little puzzled, but I cast it better than most of my graphite rods. I thought I’d have to go through a learning curve to figure out the action. My loops were tight and controlled. The line landed softly on the ground with each cast, whereas with graphite I often punch the line into the ground (or water). Not only that, but I was getting great distance from it, just as much as with my normal 6 wt graphite. Maybe I was just on today, but the thing is, I’m never on. I’m not much of a caster. I think I tend to “jerk” faster graphite rods which translates into an ugly line path. With the bamboo today, the line traveled easily in graceful loops. Maybe I was made for slower rods. Up till now, I always cast best with an old, cheap graphite rod that’s slower than my more expensive rods. With the bamboo rod, I was even able to toss a few roll casts in the yard without the help of water resistance! Never could do that with my graphites. I can’t wait to get it out on the water. Why is this distressing? Because I’m liking it too much. I see myself and money parting ways far too often in my future.

Granger bamboo rod with practice fly.

Another shot of the rod.

Stripping guide on the Granger rod. This thing is tiny, probably meant for a silk line. I'll have to see if I can accommodate it.

Take care,
Nathan

The nearly-completed handle on my Lamiglas Spring Creek fiberglass fly rod.

I currently have five fly rods in various stages of birth scattered across my rod working area. Most of these are to be gifts. One is for me, a 7’6″ 4wt Lamiglas fiberglass fly rod. It was about a year ago when I decided to delve into rod-building, and I’ve seen my philosophy on the subject go through a rapid evolution. I started out interested in doing custom thread art. The allure of that quickly faded once I realized that, although there are lots of folks who like it, I just don’t much care for it. I don’t like how it looks, and I don’t like doing it. My tastes quickly gravitated toward a more traditional bamboo fly rod-inspired aesthetic. I like agate stripping guides, even on graphite rods. I like nickel silver reel seats with nicely figured wooden inserts. I like using silk thread. My tastes were further refined after seeing Russ Gooding’s (of Golden Witch Technologies) work. This was what I’d been shooting for without realizing it. I also greatly admire Dave Lewis’ graphite and fiberglass fly rod work, especially his very nice epoxy and varnish application. Lately, I’ve pretty much settled on the aesthetic aspects that I want to incorporate into my graphite and fiberglass rods. My trout fly rods will include those details mentioned above: agate strippers, silk thread wraps, dark snakes, nickel silver hardware. Heavier fly rods for large fish and/or saltwater will use materials more appropriate to the venue, but will still maintain as much of my trout rod aesthetic as possible. Casting and spinning rods will use a similar design, but with nylon thread and guides with ceramic inserts. My thread wraps will use elegant and traditional color schemes, or as elegant as I can manage any way. Nothing gaudy. I’m intrigued by feather inlays and may try to add a few to my rods. Right now I’ve been doing most rods with a signature wrap of my own design, similar to how some of the old bamboo makers “signed” their rods. I’d like to start adding my actual signature to the rods, but my hand-writing needs a lot of improvement first.

Agate stripping guide taped and ready to wrap on a St. Croix fly rod I'm building for my sister-in-law.

I believe I jumped the gun a little on trying to sell rods. I do believe that I build a nice, functional rod that will last a long time and perform better than many off-the-shelf rods. However, I have a lot left to learn. My finish application needs a lot of improvement. My thread wrapping still needs some work, and I’d like to start custom building some of the hardware. Until I’m totally happy with the job I’m doing, I don’t want to put myself out there as a “Rod Builder.” Until that time comes, I’m taking my rod-building ads off the site, and I’m going to postpone the business start-up. I will consider myself a student of the craft. Hopefully some day I will break into bamboo building as well. I will still do a rod for someone for only the cost of materials, but it’s with the understanding that the rod will be built by a “student” and not a “master.” I’ll occasionally post an article to demonstrate my progress.

This post applies to me, Nathan Kennedy, and not to Dewayne (aka Insane). He may still offer his services for whatever price he chooses. Take care and thanks to those who have helped me along to this point.

Nathan

I’m fresh from signing up for my three blocks of green power, thanks in no small part to our discussion from the last post. I’ll be short an extra $12/month, but according to the TVA site, I will have taken action equivalent to planting 1.5 acres of trees. I found one site which calls BS on this claim, but nonetheless it seems like a hugely beneficial program, and I encourage others who are financially capable to sign up. The TVA claims are based purely on emissions impacts, while that site covers other benefits of trees as well as getting picky with some numbers (like the methane burning, which is being burned anyway – so why not use it for power, I say).

The DayTripper blog ran a program on several fly fishing blogs to test the reading levels of the various sites. You’ll be proud to know that TVangler achieved an astonishing “Junior High School” reading level! It seems our plan has worked. As you who know us personally can attest, we are uber geniuses. Our challenge, and a tough one it has proven to be, has been to bring our writing level down so as to make our wisdom available to the masses. It’s excruciating work. I took an hour just to perfect that last sentence. It took weeks to get Matt’s first article in shape. You’re welcome, and no need to thank us. Check it out to see how your other favorite blogs fared.

Below I have included some photos of the latest rod I completed, for a customer in Tennessee. It was a 7’6″ 5 wt. medium-fast fly rod built on a Batson Rainshadow blank. I’d like to take credit for hand-shaping the nice handle, but it came almost completely assembled and pre-shaped by American Tackle. Just ream it (giggle) and glue it on. I added a signature wrap that I thought turned out pretty cool. I may start adding something similar to all my fly rods. On the photo of the stripping guide, you can see the results of a new trim wrap technique I learned from the Dale Clemens book Advanced Custom Rod Building. It allows me to do extremely narrow trim bands, even just one thread wide if I wanted. The pictured one is three wraps wide. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

hawgdaddy

The handle and reel seat of the new rod.

The signature wrap featuring alternating bands of green and gold on the ends.

The stripping guide. Green wraps trimmed in gold.

Here at the TVangler, we haven’t fished much lately. Insane went insane and ripped half his house apart. He calls it “remodeling.” Last I heard, Matt was in Colorado (unfortunately not to fish). I’ve been busy with some custom rod orders, and I’ve been working with my father-in-law to design some photo fly plates to display some of my photography. I figured I’d post a few pics of the progress during this slow week.

Here's a closeup of a guide wrap on a bass rod I finished last week. If you remember some pics of the first wraps I did, you'll notice a marked improvement. This bass rod featured conservative fly rod-style guide wraps (limited number of trim wraps).

This is the decorative wrap included on the bass rod mentioned above. It's very simple, but I thought it looked pretty cool with the understated guide wraps.

This is the decorative wrap Matt is getting on his new fly rod. It is basically the same as the bass rod shown above but this photo is pre-finish. I was not sure how this would look on a fly rod, but it turned out nice and not too gaudy. I plan to start a more traditional fly rod next week with some very classic wraps. We'll see how that turns out.

I thought this was very cool. This is the first real photo fly plate that my father-in-law and I have put together. He handles pretty much all of the framing work while I provide the photography and flies. Not a master fly tyer by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought the whole thing turned out very cool. We gave this one to my mother for her birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom! Thanks to Reed Curry at The Contemplative Angler for the idea and encouragement to start this project. We eventually hope to offer these through the site. The idea is to offer our photography framed with or without flies, your trophy photo with your successful fly mounted under it, and several other options. For starters, if anyone is interested, we will do five of these things right now for cost. Just email me (contact info on the Contact Us page), and I will talk with you about options. I'll type up a post specifically for this current special later in the week. Reed, if you read this, let me know and I will get with you about that Insane Versus Cataloochee shadow box I wanted to send you.

This is another example of the types of shadow boxes we can do. This one features a big bass Jacqulyn caught a few years ago with a lure mounted below it. If you catch a big one and want the memory preserved in a tasteful shadow box, get with me and we'll be glad to do you one.

My father-in-law is into trains. He has several toy replicas of real trains. He framed several of these with photos of the real thing. There are almost limitless ideas for this shadow box thing. He'd be glad to talk with you if you have something you'd like framed. Just contact me for options. By the way, this particular train shadow box is not for sale. Mr. Meeks found the photo on a free photo website, so it isn't ours. It was just for his practice. Thanks to whoever originally took the photo. The photographer was not noted.

Take care,
hawgdaddy

Sorry, I don’t have any images to go along with this one. No bamboo rod to take a picture of.

Bamboo rods are all the rage in fly fishing right now. Fly fishing magazines are chock full of advertisements from bamboo rod makers. Several of the most popular fly fishing authors promote bamboo rods over the more modern graphite. Stories of graphite fly fishers being ridiculed by their bamboo-casting colleagues are becoming more common. What’s it all about? For someone like me, too financially depraved to purchase one, bamboo rods are something of a mystery. I have never cast one, never even held one. One reads that graphite is “better” in almost all categories. It’s lighter, faster, stronger, cheaper, able to cook your breakfast before an early fishing trip, etc. Bamboo is a piece of wood, well actually a piece of grass. For crying out loud people! A piece of grass! Have we come to this? We are so caught up in the whole elitist fly fishing image that we refuse to use what amounts to a modern miracle? We would rather lift up our noses and cast with a piece of freaking grass!??! Bamboo fly rods, humphh! Given all that, why is it that I want one so badly? (more…)