Thank you for the opinions, and advice. Building a rod is very intriguing to me right now. I load my own ammo (some of my guns have never shot a factory round since I've owned it), fletch arrows, and am fuddling my way through tying flies (but I'm improving), so building a rod seems a natural progression. I am also a perfectionist, so that's my concern. I still need to find one that feels right. Problem is the nearest fly shop is a minimum of 100 miles away. Luckily I have to go to the BIG city for training in the near future, and I'll have plenty of opportunity for "browsing". Then the decision part comes in to play. I have 116 days until the streams reopen, so to be safe I have 90 days to figure it out. Thanks again, and keep the opinions coming if you feel like parting with it.