As far as the quick build time goes, It felt more like a week, though it was only spread out over that time frame. Bits and pieces of time here and there and then bigger blocks after the kids were asleep. I did do some late nighters in my enthusiasm to complete it. Yawn!

Took that bad boy out yesterday after work in a post coldfront bright breezy afternoon. My window was only an hour or so and the wind was a bear at the pond I fished. No takers for the first hour and the sun set and the breeze died down. It got to the last cast countdown mode and still no fish. Right at dusk they started rising-panfish I presumed- but way out in the middle of the pond beyond reach. Right near quitting time a bass hit my spider- wham!- that felt good though he was only about 10 inches long. He had enough OOMPH to bend the rod some. Two casts later a second bass hammers the spider-WHAM! -alright, now we got a bigger fish on. This one is about 13 inches long and fatter. A nice fish! Right behind him, Bam! another smaller bass comes to hand. "hey, didn't I just release YOU five minutes ago?"

This all between 530 and 545 pm and it's getting darker by the second. Now I head back down the bank and cover a little more water and make the "very last cast" and Bam! one more fish on.......ony for a few seconds as it did a long distance release and I jerked the rod tip and fouled the tippet and leader in to the flyline and called it quits. Nice way to break in the new rod. Next week I'm taking a lantern and maybe the canoe. Got a Boy Scout campout this weekend and a Birthday gig to attend Sat nite-MINE. The H&H rod kit was an early gift. The bass helped me celebrate early too.



[This message has been edited by featherchucker (edited 11 November 2005).]