Others jumped, so I did too. Geronimo!!!

Lately, a whole school of fishers, took the plunge. Allow me to first say that this is both my first post here and my first rod building project. Like so many of you, I had the interest stirred up enough to give it a go and ordered a Hook and Hackle rod kit at the advice of another forum's fellow fisher and came here through a web search to get tips on rod building. Found Al's build section and am into my kit already. Found the spine easy enough on the H&H 8ft , 4wt, 2 pc, IM6 charcoal blank. I had wanted a bass and panfish rod this long but with a full wells grip instead of the half wells and came to the realization that I would have to comission it or build it myself. After spining it-and I chose to have the weak side down for more bend in playing fish and the strong side on top for more power in the cast. Easy enough. Over the weekend I assembled and epoxied the reel seat and grip and winding check and have taped on the guides according to the spacing specs I found online for an 8 ft rod. I'm excited about this project and can see sending Bob and the folks at H& H all my business from now on. The Batson blank is tops and the fact that the owner/CEO frequents here and posts as well as stands behind quality products with quality service make me a present and future customer. Thanks guys and gals for the site, here and looking forward to getting to know you folks.

Steve

Steve,
Welcome home!!

Rods are sort of like Lays potato chips, where they say "bet you can't eat just one!" One will lead to two, two to three, and it's straight downhill from there! H&H, and Bob, are total enablers!!

I'm on rods 11-17 right now! Have two built of that bunch, and working on the next. They're not all for me! Two of my flytying friends each got one, and I've got 2 long (7'6"4&5#) and 2 short (5'2#) still to go. After that ...!!

Bob and Batson stand behind all their rods and components.

Remember, you can never have too many!! And again, welcome home!
Betty

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Trouts don't live in ugly places

Featherchucker:
Welcome to one fine site filled with great people.
There seems to be more and more members taking up rod building.
Betty's right you can't build just one. I'm finishing my 4th and have to build 2 for Cristmas presents and then a SteelHead rod for myself.

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I feel more like I do now than I did when I got here!

Cactus AKA "Lucky Dog (Pirate Name)"

Thanks, Betty and Jack! Good to be aboard the FAOL forum. Better yet is the amount of foresight I've already gotten for pre-reading before attempting to build.

For Example: the rat-tail file chucked into my Dewalt Cordless then (get this!) standing with it over the toilet and reaming the grip out while the cork dust-most of it anyway goes into the water. I get the grip fitted extry-quick and the potty gets cleaned up too-after I mess it up with fly away dust! LOL! it worked great. Rod building just seems intimidating up front, but with Al's breakdown in sections, just a breeze. Shoot, If I can rebuild an old air cooled VW engine on a bench then carry it over to the car- then rodbuilding should be a cinch! Not too disimilar from model car building or putting together the kid's Christmas toys-some assembly required.

and Jack you just had to mention Steelhead rod dintcha! I go to Southeast Alaska each fall (6 trips)for silver Salmon and just bought two months back a GLoomis STR 1024 spinning rod for hardware slinging when not flycasting. Dang now I'll have to build both a new spinning salmon rod and a new 8 weight for my AK trip next Sept. Thanks for the inspiration!

Featherchucker;
GOTCHA!!