Batson 9' 4wt 4pc

[Midwest Custom Fly Rods]

This one is a 9' 4wt 4pc on a Batson blank for a customer that wanted something custom yet somewhat subtle (not too flashy/bingy) looking. Sometimes that can be a bit hard to do on a blue blank since your somewhat limited to the blues and blacks for thread colors. But on this one I choose a Gudebrod Teal for the main wraps (CP'ed) and then rather than the normal silver metallic I went with a Auqamarine metallic blue for the trim wraps which blends nicely with the main wraps&blank from a distance, yet is noticeable once you get closer to the rod.

Hardware is Nickle silver BUL5 and insert is Amboyna which I re-sanded and applied a few coats of Threadmaster to get the desired finish I was looking for. Grip is a Reversed halfwells with matching wood accent ends and SF guides finish out the build.









Steve

[okflyfisher]

simply beautiful

[lastchance]

Very nice and I like the color and trim.

[rayhill190]

Steve,
Wow,at this point,i would recognize your builds any where

[fishdog54]

Steve,

Looks to me like you pulled this one off perfectly, your client should be very happy! From your perspective - how's the quality of cork these days?

Best regards, Dave S.

[Midwest Custom Fly Rods]

Dave cork quality is all over the place anymore to be honest. The quality has gone downhill over the past 5-6 years quite a bit. One of the big problems is that there is no actual accepted chart for grading it. So one seller of cork that advertises their cork as "Flor grade" may actually be the same as the next sellers idea of "select grade". So you never really know what your gonna get. Really good grade cork rings now will normally cost you between $2-$3 for 1/2" for the top end stuff. There are still a few dealers out there with direct lines to Portugal where you can get some pretty decent grade stuff for around $1.25 per ring. But they are getting harder to come by lately.

Steve