Ugly Duckling
This is the first trout, a 14" South Fork brown, taken on my first rod build - a Forecast RX6 7'6" for 3 wt that I just finished yesterday. He put a real bend in the rod.
I bought the Forecast kit from Hook & Hackle a couple years ago but just didn't get around to building it. I guess there is a silver lining to the weather, the run off, and the gas prices this year. With not many places to fish right now, I decided to build the rod. I was into it for the learning experience and decided to concentrate on what was involved and not be concerned about the appearance of the finished rod. Thus the name - Ugly Duckling.
I started the rod late last week and applied the finish to the wraps yesterday morning. The kit included the two part epoxy for gluing the reel seat and attaching it and the cork to the blank, and two part one coat Flex Coat for finishing the wraps, along with everything else needed except the few "tools" required to do the job. The thread supplied with the kit was kind of a "girly" blue ( no offense intended, Betty ) so I changed to a claret which turned a bit dark when finished. I didn't care for the style of the hook holder provided and dispensed with it.
Used alcohol for the clean up since I really don't like acetone. Used elastic thread to hold the guides in place after spacing and aligning them and before wrapping. Borrowed a rod turner from the Snake River Cutthroat Club, courtesy of Jimmy's All Seasons Angler. Dispensed with any kind of wrapping work station and did the wrapping by hand. Held the rod and turned it with my left hand and applied the thread from a fly tying bobbin with my right.
Read and reread the FAOL / Al Campbell series on Graphite Rod Building each step of the way ( for the umpteenth time ). It really went easier than I thought it would. I had to rewrap a couple guides because I was dissatisfied with the original wrapping, and one guide because I lost alignment somewhere along the line.
The one coat finish on the wraps was easy to use and covered a lot of the "irregularities" from the hand wrapping process. But it tended to build too much on the guides toward the tip of the rod, making a somewhat bulbous effect. That may well have resulted from the finish material cooling down and thickening up as I worked from the butt end to the tip end.
But it did catch fish today - had another, smaller brown, a medium size cutthroat, and a smallish whitefish, fishing a size 16 r.l. copper john under a size 16 Humpy.
Taken this morning at Warm River before I hit the South Fork later in the day.
Close ups taken after I finished for the day on the South Fork. When the claret thread darkened, it complemented the reel seat insert very nicely.
This one shows the "oversized" guide wraps at the tip end.
NOTE 1 - I decided to call this thread Ugly Duckling BEFORE I saw the photos of his newly built Z Axis that Jack Hise posted today.
NOTE 2 - Thanks to all the folks on the Rod Building Forum for the many discussions that have taken place here over the past six months. Without the collective encouragement of you guys and gals to everyone who has started their first build, and the many tips given in the various threads, I probably never would have undertaken this project. There will be a second, and a ......
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