Making Strip -Built fly Rods from wood
My latest Flyfishing & Tying Journal magazine arrived with a article on John Betts rod saying "I can now produce a 6 strip 2 piece fly rod blank for a 3 or 4 weight line ready to finish in four hours" His new book will tell how to build a 7 or 8 foot out of maple fir birch hickory ash or oak. He built Frank Amato a steelhead rod--8 foot 8 inch weighs 4.6 ounces. BILL
While not making any statement about the long term durability of these rods (i.e. will they last as long as bamboo rod without sets etc.) I highly recommend this book. It will blow you away! I purchased a copy of the book directly from Mr. Betts a little over a year ago when he was self publishing it (prior to Frank Amato printed it). The book itself is a work of art! All the writing is hand written in beautiful script and all the artwork and diagrams were hand drawn by Mr. Betts himself. His subject matter is equally compelling. He starts by taking a look back in history at the materials and methods of building fly rods and fly lines, which is fascinating and well worth buying the book by itself. But then his historical, nonfiction piece turns into a fictional hypothetical discussion. Just for the sake of argument Mr Betts askes, what would have happened if cane would not have worked? Let's say the glue didn't stick to the cane, or something else came along that would have caused the use of cane to be short lived. What would builders have turned to then? Mr. Betts' contends that they would have turned back to wood, but would have used different techniques that could have resulted in shorter length, and lighter weight dry fly rods similar to those that developed through cane builders. He then proceeds to develop and demonstrate a method that he came up with that could have been used during that time to manufacture such rods from wood. It is a work of genious, and sounds like a blast to try. I do not have a lathe, so I haven't had a chance to give it a go yet, but it sounds like a lot of fun.
When I ordered the book from him, I called him directly and he could not have been kinder. We talked for almost an hour! He said he also builds his own reels and flylines, and said that he may work up a manuscript describing his method for building fly lines. I am the first in line to get that one!
Again, buy the book. It is worth every penny even if you do not build one of the rods.
I posted a little about this book over on the main fly fishing board. Sorry, didn't check here first. I want to give it a try. How cool would it be to use the wood from the natural forest of the area you are fishing? If you could make your own line, reel, rod, hook and fly, you would be pretty self-suficient. I would love to catch just one trout that way just to say I did it.
Wild Native -
This reminds me of a project / experiment that I have in mind for this year.
Might be an interesting challenge for others ??
Thought I would take a piece of wood I find somewhere that I am fishing that is long enough to act as a rod ( if nothing else, a 3-4-5' oak dowel would do ) maybe planed or sanded into a basic taper.
Then furl a couple 7' sections of even fly line from some backing and splice them together or loop to loop them, whatever.
Then furl a regular 7' 10-8-6 leader out of fly tying thread. Kind of stuck for a substitute for tippet, so will probably just go with some 4X, unless something else comes to hand before I get to that point.
No reel - just a tiptop and maybe a couple guides on the rod made from mono, and then handline it.
Fashion a light wire hook from a safety pin or staple or paperclip or whatever and tie a fly on it.
Go cast upon the waters and see what happens.
John
Last edited by JohnScott; 02-13-2008 at 06:31 PM.
The fish are always right.
Hello Folks -
Finished an oak rod today, built a fly line, attached a furled leader and about 5' of 4X tippet, added a fly, and went out and cast it on the lawn ( actually, a couple feet of snow ).
Hope to go fishing with it in the next week or so. Will provide additional information and photos when I catch a fish on it.
Later.
John
The fish are always right.
The fish may never come to hand, so how about a picture of your new rod right now??????Originally Posted by JohnScott
I'm surely not the only one interested in seeing it.
Joe
Joe Valencic
Life Member FFF
Rod Builder in Chains
Joe -
I don't have the technology to post photos - need to wait until my fishing partner can put it all together with his digital camera and his very modern, hi-tech computer set up.
No question about getting a fish in hand with this rig !!! ( Need to remind myself that pride goeth before a fall. ) If it all comes together as planned, I think you will find the wait worth it, and enjoy the final "presentation."
John
The fish are always right.
Fishing the Great Beyond
Hope this encourages you some!
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/cst/cst082602.php
Jim,
I just finished reading your article and it was a "hoot"!I would have loved to have been there to watch that plus watch and listen to what the others were saying! Thanks so much for posting that!!
Warren
Fly fishing and fly tying are two things that I do, and when I am doing them, they are the only 2 things I think about. They clear my mind.
What a HOOT!!!!!! Combat fishing is the rule of the day here on Steelhead Alley when the silver bullets are in, and if you aren't "in sync" with your fellow combatants, they'll give you what for in a minute. I would love to give that a try here and see if I live to tell about it when one of those chromers starts heading back to the lake with an O-Cedar attached to the fly line. LMAO
Joe
Joe Valencic
Life Member FFF
Rod Builder in Chains
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