Refinished Montague Clear Lake Boo

Since this was the Boo that Castwell wrote an article on a while back, I thought I’d share my rebuild on it. I had sold the rod to Castwell a few years back and purchased it from Deanna not long ago. The boo on the rod was in such great shape that I wanted to refinish it. I had to replace the male ferule on the first section, add a stripping guide and replace the old guides with new. I finished the rod with 5 coats of spray polyuerethane. It worked pretty well. Didn’t get too fancy with the wraps cause I wanted it to look as it might have years ago. I believe the Clear Lake was built around 1939. Correct me if I’m wrong and you have info on these. The rod is very smooth casting. I hope Castwell would be happy with what I’ve done.

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r53/John31670/IMG_0890.jpg
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r53/John31670/IMG_0891.jpg
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r53/John31670/IMG_0896.jpg
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r53/John31670/IMG_0893.jpg

Nicely done. I think JC would be pleased.

Good job!

Here’s a link to some info on the Montague Rod Co. from fishnbanjos (Sante Guilliani) website

http://home.myfairpoint.net/and96jac/fishnbanjossliceoflifeincyberspacecopy/id23.html

Bob

Thanks Betty and thanks bobbyq for the info.

Great looking rod! Basic question: How do you spray the rod, but not get anything on the guides?
Thanks!

You don’t. The guides get the poly as well. It would happen in a dip tube, too.

The rod looks nice. Very traditional.

Great job! You gotta love the old boo’s.

Wow, 70+ plus years old. I betcha she has seen a lot of action in all that time. Nice refinish job.

Chusha - I used the blue painters masking tape to cover most of the parts that I did not want to spray. Afterwards just use thinner or mineral spririts to clean up excess. I didn’t have much excess though.

TyroneFly - When I first bought this rod the butt section had trout scales dried on it. I thought about leaving those and spraying finish over them just to show the action it had seen.

Thanks for all the great comments. This is the first Boo that I’ve ever refinished and the first I’ve ever cast. Maybe one day I’ll be able to afford one of the nicer hand made boo rods. Until then, I’ll just have to see what this rod can do. God Bless!

purty darned cool.

refinishing old cane rods is very satisfying. enjoy!