A surprising discovery...

Bought an old fiberglass rod at a garage sale that I am starting to refinish and use to practice wrapping guides. When I bought the rod I noticed that the guide wraps on the tip section (those that were still original that is) were red and gold, while the remaining original wraps on the butt section were blue and gold. The reel seat was also a matching blue aluminum, so I just thought that the tip and butt sections were from different rods, even though they seemed to fit together perfectly. Was removing some newer rewrapping thread that someone had attempted to put at the base of the female ferrule on the butt section. When I got it off the original ferrule wrap thread was underneath. Amazingly, the original ferrule wraps were RED, an exact match with the thread used on the tip section wraps (which explains why the pieces fit so well together)! The rod is a Conolon Live Fiber Cardinal 408.

Has anyone ever heard of a company wrapping a rod with two totally different primary colors? Not in an organized sort of way, but just stopping part way through a rod and wrapping the rest of it with a totally different color? Why on earth would Conolon have wrapped a rod in such a way? I have the rod all stripped down and ready to rewrap. If this practice was common for Conolon, I might go ahead and rewrap it that way. Maybe not though, I think it sort of looks goofy!

I once found an cheap import bamboo rod 'project rod' at a thrift store. Each guide and ferrule was in a different color pattern! I couldn't figure out why anyone would take the time to produce such an ugly result.

The answer became clear when I stripped the components. The thread used for wrapping was a cont. single strand that was dyed a different color every foot or so. As a result the wraps changed color in an almost random pattern.

I recently purchased some vintage Gouberod thread of that type,From an older gentlman who had a fly shop down state...And it matches a few of the old Monties I own perfectly...Gives them that old bumble bee look .... I love being able to take them back to specs!

------------------
"I've often wondered why it is that so many anglers spend so much money on,and pay so much attention to.the details on the wrong end of the fly line.If they took as much care in selecting or tying their flies as they did in the selection of the reel and rod,They might be able to gain the real extra edge that makes it possible to fool a fish that has,in fact,seen it all before" A.K.Best

Everyone wants to excel in this sport but at the same time we let traditionalists place restrictions on our tactics, methods, and ideas. I always assumed that fly fishing was a sport that allowed imagination, creation, adaptation, investigation, dedication, education, revelation? : Fox Statler, On Spinners (Not the dainty Dry Fly kind) "Spinner'd Minner Fly"

"Wish ya great fishing"

Bill