Strip-built fly rod; Casting report

[Royce Meritt]

Got a chance to try the strip-built rod I built with a few different weights of lines this past weekend.

The good news is that my worst fear did not happen. It DID NOT break!! It seems to cast a 4 weight line quite nicely. It is a little slower action that I would have liked and requires a very soft touch. Can't really power the cast. I was able to lay out 40-50 feet of line pretty well.

My next one will, perhaps, be a different species of wood and I will tweak the taper a bit to see if I can speed up the action and give it a bit more power.

I'll keep you posted.

[Greg Cole]

Royce,
Very cool, I followed the other thread as I'm a fisherman who learned to cast a fly rod at a very young age from a very old man. He'd take me out to the end of his dock give a few instruction and watch me from his porch... we'd sit & shoot the breeze an awful lot. Oliver was much like a Grandfather to me. I could cast a fly rod better than the closed face reels at about 6.
Neat to see 2 hobbies cross linked if nothing else.
My parents used to bribe grades outta me with Orvis stuff as the proverbial carrot....

Cheers.

Greg

[Bob Rufener]

I saw a show on tv a while back that showed a fellow building strip built fly rods. Quite amazing what he did. I have enough trouble getting big projects to fit together much less the intracies of a fly rod.

I do some fly fishing (mainly in my pond) and enjoy it immensely.

Anyone who can make one of these rods deserves lots of compliments. I don't imagine it is an easy task.

[Narayan Nayar]

That's great. It'll be interesting to see how it fares when you get a fish on the line.

Someday I'll make my own fly rod. Someday...

[Ed Costello]

I posted this on your first post copied it and posted it here when I discoverd it


Looks great!! I know that green heart and lancewood were used before bamboo. I don't think I have seen a rod made from ash. When are you going to try bamboo? It looks like the action is going to be mighty fast. A good rod for those windy days. I hope you post a follow up to let us know how it casts, and hopefully how it handles a fish. I have used a brush to apply spar to a few rods it was quite tedious. I have switched to a dip tube with a valve on the bottom. It works quite well and is easily done.

Tight lines
Ed

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Congrats Royce!......40-50'........That would handle most of my fly fishing. A lot of the streams I fish are less than 30' across.....

[Greg Cole]

Congrats Royce!......40-50'........That would handle most of my fly fishing. A lot of the streams I fish are less than 30' across.....

Ken,
The streams where I used to live in Vermont you'd be lucky to get a cast 30' long... or if ya cast 30 feet across the stream... your fly would be about 20 feet in the woods on the other side!

Greg