Sale Pending - thanks!
This is a bamboo fly rod!
Mark Ruhe (of Spokane, WA) custom-built the blanks for this rod for me in 1999. It is an 8.5' 3/2 5-weight rod with the taper coming from one of Mark's Phillipson rods. It exhibits Marks perfect cane work, spiral node spacing, and light flaming with a pleasant carmel color. The Super-Z style ferrules were made, oxidized and installed by Mark, and the machined aluminum ferrule plugs were also made my Mark. I finished out the blank by hand-turning the 6" cork grip from fluor-grade cork rings, installing a Robert Venneri screw downlock oxidized reel seat with a burl cherry spacer, and installing Snake Brand tiptops, snake guides, and an agate stripping guide. I used Persall's Gossamer Java Brown silk wraps tipped black at all wraps, and three coats of dipped Varmor R-10 urathane varnish. The bag and tube also came from Mark. This rod weighs 4.9 ounces on my postal scale, and casts a DT-5 line with a wonderful medium action. While I did the finish work on this rod almost 10 years ago, it has only been fished maybe a dozen times, and is in excellent condition. The ferrules fit perfectly with a distinct "pop" when separated, and all sections are arrow-straight (no sets). The finish work is very nice and shouldn't disappoint anyone. The rod does have my name written on one of the flats just above the grip. I'm selling it for $395, plus $20 shipping/insurance. Please contact me at: castafly@sbcglobal.net