two more out the door

these two are on their way out too...

rod on the brighter pink sock - driggs river special

the other cattanach 7ft 4wt

the poore girl rods are finished...

fishing in the cathedral again

drove up to the ferry again friday afternoon

arriving about an hour and a half before sunset

we forsook unpacking our shit and setting up camp

to gear up and hit the water..two quick fish 

(and two misses) had me convinced that saturday would be great

and it was - just not as many fish as I'd like

it got rather windy - not unmanageable, just inconvenient

I had some issues w/ my shit

trouble rigging up led to trouble casting

led to trouble rerigging due to trouble w/ knots etc

seemed as I spent more time getting my shit together than fishing

I just might have been hungover

if the dead soldiers littering camp and the half empty bottle of bourbon

are considered evidence

nevertheless, a fine time was had

company was good and I did end up sticking a couple fish

mudbug hooked up...

again...

nice 'bow

when we got to the parking lot we ran into a couple guys from tucson
'bug asked if they posted on a local board...

marvin ( azmandella) and (not so) fat guy alex of fatguyflyfishing
he's hooked up...

admiring a pretty little 'bow

throwing a beast mode...

"the skinny" - chapter eight - dipsticks at work

part one is winding up here

took the rod up to congress to be dipped

mike uses some fancy pants european varnish

epiphanies or something like that

I call it epiphanies anyways

crazy expensive stuff

I've come around to using it myowndamnself

just ordered over a gallon of the stuff

lotsa guys hook they retrieval device to a rotisserie motor

for a slow and consistent withdrawal of the rod from the varnish

mike had an old pflueger reel hooked up to do so

we dipped the rod

I cranked the reel s - l - o - w - l - y

eyes wide as this rod I'd crafted from crooked burnt sticks emerged

as a thing of absolute beauty

we hung it in the drying cabinet

I went home feeling pretty pleased w/ myself

another dip was in order

I wasn't in a hurry

speed kills remember?

except I had a trip coming up to the mighty san juan 

I wanted to fish my brand new bamboo

on the way up there anita and I stopped by congress and picked up the rod

encased in a rod sock and tube provided courtesy of senor shay

I'd have to come back later 

for the second dip

that was neither here nor there

we met steve on the san juan the next day

our buddy chris martinez drove over the mountain and met us with his drift boat

we had a nice float

shortly after we started I blooded that got am rod 

somewhere around the texas hole

I had done it

the journey was underway

"the skinny" - chapter seven - fuggin' ferrules and wrot wram wrapping

this one's quite fuzzy in my memory

mostly because it wasn't much of a hands-on lesson

more a demo I guess...

I think we may have corked up the rod as well

though we also had to wait on this to set as well

so this chapter may well have occured of the course of a couple visits to congress

and mike mighta shown me how to turn a grip

again I likely had little to do with this

I do remember he kept having me check it for hand feel

mike chucked up the rod pieces into the lathe 

showed me how to cut ferrule stations

whizhittt whizhitt

it was done

a far cry faster and simpler than fitting them by hand w/ sandpaper

the type of thing that could take most of the afternoon

then he crowned the ferrule tabs

again I don't much remember much of this

cleaned the ferrules inside and out and glued them to the rod

down time waiting for glue to set was likely spent jrinking and shooting the shit

after which mike dressed the male to fit the female

and likely glued on the tip top

the next step remains fairly vivid

mike showed me how he wrapped

he wrapped above the grip - black red black red black

put a sig wrap at fourteen inches - red black red

I asked for another at sixteen inches as that was the bottom end of the slot limit at lees ferry

and my fishing buddy always wanted to keep a couple fish the last day to take home

and because of his ineptitude catching fish it was left up to me to catch them

it's now occurred to me I've missed a thing or two

at some point mike must have explained sizing the pieces and cutting them to size

which we did - surely before setting the ferrules I think

I also think the ferrules were blued

I think mike may have wrapped the stripper guide

and made the guide spacing reference marks

which remain on the rod to this day if you look closely enough

so anyways, I took the rod pieces home to finish wrapping

"whatever you do don't put those pieces together and wiggle or pretend cast that"

okay sez I  - I won't

because

we do build fishing poles hereabouts...

jewelry

tools of the trade pt II

nodemaster 5000 makes a breeze out of gruntwork

claro walnut reelseat

w/ blued rec n/s hardware

gorgeous eh?

slated to be fit to poore girls rod #2 this afternoon

*note the blood on the planing forms*

poore girls rods

two of three poore girls rods nearing completion

goodwin granger deluxe taper left

driggs river special right

jewelry shots

off the bench

and on to the table for wrapping

poore girl's rod

driggs river special

(from top to bottom)

7ft 4wt 3pc f.e. thomas

driggs river special

goodwin-granger deluxe

from the vault

rare and unusual pictures of "chile colorado"

first cane rod I ever built...

driggs river special 7ft 2in 5wt

whoopsie!

yes that's a pencil mark under the varnish

dipshit

reel or imagined problems

yesterday I mentioned a piece of shit hardy reel

today I proclaim myself the piece of shit

I struggled like a baby to joint the spool to the frame

I was inept and didn't deliver the goods

same deal w/ ross san miguel two shown below...

 I've also got an ongoing recurrent problem w/ the screws on either side of the spool release button

they keep coming undone

I've just tightened the bejeezus out of them

we'll see how long it lasts

remains a got am lovely reel

lined w/ sharkskin wf 5wt 

silent operation

three rods

these are beginning to look like fishing poles...

 step down ferrule station

damned near arty...

 (from top to bottom)

goodwin-granger deluxe

driggs river special

f.e. thomas 7ft 3pc 4wt

finally starting to feel like I've accomplished something this season

we'll see...

reeking of zee skunk

visited a couple beautiful places

only to find the waters running w/ mud

and no fish to hand or sight

shit

a lovley day to be out and about nevertheless

not again

unfortunately postponed due to cold rain and high water

and candyass anglers

the arsenal

the first string or starting five...

from top to bottom (right to left below)

7'2" 5wt - phy driggs river special (first bamboo rod I built)

7'6" 4wt - cattanach sir d - schliske  (first owned)

7'0" fe thomas 7032 (second build and remains current favorite)

6'8" 2wt - degere ice cream parlor hole special (latest finished rod)

6'0" 1 wt - degere flea

tribute

the original dump

a nice rainbow from the au sable

nature's cooler on the au sable

finally a suitably sloppy usual

rod tube jewerly

courtesy of my #1 fishing buddy and partner

thanks again steve

holidaze

yep you guessed it

ye olde rod shoppe that wrocks is closed until further notice

bitchin' bentrod shots to follow

stay tuned

are you ready to wrock?

yes I am

three flamed 5wts finished

making magic happen

in congress

with this guy

it was a little scary