"the skinny" - chapter twelve - number four (five six and seven too)

as a wisconsin born and bred kid number four means one thing to me

and I ain't talking about that traitor

I went to a lie and tie event in tempe

ate some damn fine brisket and mighta demo'd a copper john

met a buncha good guys learning to tie flies and few who knew how

it was fun

anyways I brought chueco the rod along with me and showed it off

as I was rightly proud (did this again at another event in the catskills)

the next day I got an email or pm or something

from a guy who said he couldn't get that rod out of his head and asked me to build him a rod

a two weight of all things

so I did

I didn't really like how that rod cast so I beefed it up a bit and built a three weight

also was working on another three weight

both of which were my first blonde rods

one a leonard catskill fairy the other a winston 6032

somehow or another while cooking the pcs I got the rods mixed up

so the tint of the cooked cane was a mite different

I picked up some brown toner chemical from jeff fultz

did my best to match the sections and proceeded as planned

the leonard cast like a fuggin dream

the winston gave me fits

I had to make four tips for that rod before i got it right (right?  I never got it right)

I decided to give the leonard to a fishing buddy

he broke it up in colorado

I fixed it and he broke it again on canyon creek

the cursed wee winnie is as shay calls it a true parabolic as one pc is set one way the other the opposite

it also has an awkward goofy grip as a result of my inexperience turning them - rod casts nicely though 

it is much more whippy than I'd prefer

the night I showed off that rod at the lie and tie a guy commissioned me for a rod as well

it was the next one on the bench

same taper as chueco - I named it sun devil

I'd never really even considered building rods for other people yet here I was doing just that

I think I'm done now typing about those early rods...