Building a 7wt.

[MontanaMoose]

Well I waited and waited for just the right blank and
now I've gathered together everything I need to build
my 2pc. 7wt. I wanted a green blank and read about the
American Tackle blanks so I thought I'd give
one a try. There's a whole bunch more to the
story that I'll relate during the build but for
starters here are the goodies. The blank is
called 'Green Matrix', the reel seat and fighting
butt are by Struble. Of course the thread is Gudebrod
and the rest is Pac Bay.



In a day or two I'll have a pic of the glued up cork rings and another
of some tools and the wrapper I've been using for going on 30 years.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

[Eric-WD]

If you added some gold yellow thread to it, that rod would make a duck fan salivate.

Make sure to post pictures of the build

Eric

[ET custom flyrods]

Familiar with all the goodies MM......this ought to be interesting to see the progress and final product..........keep em comin!.............Ed

[MontanaMoose]

Eric, you'll like this...I was going for
the whole 'Ducks' theme with this build
only I don't want to put anything yellow
on the blank. Wait till you see pics of the
reel, backing and flyline I already have for
it though...yer gonna salivate for sure !

Smernsky, so you've used the AmTack Matrix
blanks already? Din't know anyone had here
'cept that one builder that doesn't come around
anymore. He's the one got me interested in
them in the first place.

Should have glued up cork and wrapper pics
posted sometime today.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

[ET custom flyrods]

MM....yep, have used both the black and the green..........nice blanks.

[MontanaMoose]

Thanks Smernsky, it's encouraging knowing
a builder of your calibre has built on these
blanks. I'm looking forward to using it on the
local fish in this neck of the woods.

Ok, here's a pic of the corks:



Here's a couple of my wrapper...been using this
since about 1980...it replaced the coat hanger
wrapper I used before deciding I'd keep building:





Story about why I'm making two corks to follow...kinda interesting what all took place.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

[JohnScott]

George -

Looks like you're having some fun with this build. No doubt, you'll have some fun with the rod after it is done !!

Looking forward to some more pics as you go along, and the story on the two grips ??

John

[Beaver]

MonanaMoose,

The real test will be next St. Paddy's day. That green blank looks really cool. Looking forward to your posts. Have fun.

Beaver

[MontanaMoose]

You bet I will John, supposedly it's a 'mod fast'
blank so I think it should work well for tossing
some of the big stuff I tye. I'm also having fun
with the new camera...everything so far has
been taken offhand and there were dozens and
in some cases 50 or so pics behind one good one.
I may go to the tripod or make one of those 'fits
in your pocket' stabilizer set-ups.

Story about the two grips right after this. Thanks John.

Hello Beaver, how's things down in some of my
old stompin' grounds? There used to be a creek
out Ojai way that held a lot of trout at times.

Yep, St. Paddy's Day will tell because the wife's bday
is then and she doesn't know it but if this blank is as
good as I'm hoping it is, I might whip up a nice 4 wt.
for her...maybe a 7.5 2pc. Thanks Beaver, you have fun too.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

[MontanaMoose]

Well, it started with opening the shipping that
contained the goodies, including the AmTack
Matrix blank. I started spreading everything out,
looking it over then turned to the blank and noticed
something funny about the tip. I tried to talk myself into
keeping it even though it was tip-broke. It came out of
the shipping down about an inch and a half.

Closer inspection told me that it had been broken at the
AmTack factory and inadvertantly shipped that way to Florida,
then to Hook & Hackle. Yep, called Ron and Ron called AmTack,
AmTack called me and after a great talk with a nice guy, I was
told a new blank would be on it's way that day.

Asked if that gentleman was going to send a call tag for the broken
one and 'no' he said, 'go ahead and keep it, should make a nice rod anyway'
or words close to that. Later, I felt a little guilty and even though I'd searched
all the packing and my front room for a broken tip, I couldn't find one shred of
evidence that it had happened on this end.

So now I need to make two grips and I'm mostly done with that and
I have extra time while waiting for the replacement blank so I'm
going to look for another 'green' reelseat and some exotic
guides for the blank that's on the way.

Thanks go out to Hook & Hackle and American Tackle
for the kind of service I appreciate from USA companies.
I won't hesitate for a minute to
continue buying from each.
So there you go.

Next up will be pics of the cork lathe and a little
info on how easy it is to glue up cork and shape
it for anyone that would like to give that a try.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose