So the other night I spent dicking around with my rod blanks, trying to figure out what I was going to do. In said dicking – I decided upon some non-scientific test (a more scientific way would’ve been to use the Common Cents System to test these blanks, but where’d be the fun in that?). What I did was take 3 reels, with 3 different weight WF tapered fly lines – and tape them to the butt of the fully assembled rod blanks. Both the “5 weight” and “3 weight” blanks. Then I stripped off the official AFTMA 30′ of line, plus an extra 11′ (rod length) and taped it to the tip of the rod, where the tip top would be. This gave me a 30′ static cast with which to determine how the rod would perform.
First I tested the 5 weight blank, starting with a 5 weight line. It actually cast pretty well, with a slow, graceful rolling and unrolling of the line. I actually liked it a lot more than I thought I would just assembling and wiggling the rod in the house (yea yeah, that whole scientific thing again.). Then I tried a #4 line – and it worked well also. The #6 line was way too heavy. So I decided to build the 5 weight up to the full 11′ length and mark it as a 4/5 line size. Can’t wait to finish this build and get some blood on it (that’s not my own!).
The other blank, the “3 weight” blank – simply was not. Neither the #4 or 5 line loaded this rod properly, and it took some effort to get decent cast with those lines. The #6 started to load it properly. I probably should’ve grabbed the new 8 weight line and reel off the new Cabela’s rod, but I was too lazy. I have a good idea about this blank though – and I’d say it’s easily a 7 weight, when fully assembled. Not being terribly interested in a 7 weight rod now, since I just purchased my 8 weight – I was less than thrilled.
So I pulled the butt section off and retested. As an 8′ 3″ rod, it seemed to still be in that 6/7 weight range. I’ve already got an 8’6″ fiberglass 6 weight rod – having another 8+ foot 6 weight also doesn’t terribly interest me. So I pulled another section off, giving me a 5’4″ rod blank. That sounds kinda short for a fly rod, right? Well, sort of. It’s actually a perfect rod length for some of the small streams I fish – and I’ve been itching to buy or build a short, light rod for such tight streams (where with even my shortest rod – an 8′ 4 wt – it’s all I can do to cast by flicking my wrist and casting a leader, or just resort to dapping). I taped up the #6 line/reel first. I was giddy as a school girl with how similar in action this super shorty was to the 11′ 4/5 rod. A 30′ length of line curled and uncurled beautifully. So my next step, logically, was to try the #5 and 4 lines. Of the 3 – the #5 line seemed the sweet spot, and so I’ve decided that I shall build myself a 5’4″ #5 rod along with the 11′ 4/5.
I wasn’t really thinking about such a heavy line for such a short rod before, but I couldn’t help but laugh and smile when casting my jury rigged setup with the #5 and 6 lines. I guess I don’t really *need* my light rod to be a 2 or 3 weight anyway – right? And the #5 will have more punch, and I can fish heavier flies or bushier dry flies (or even small poppers, as some of my small streams have a resident population of small bass and sunfish).
For that build, I’m going to have to turn my own grip and reel seat (well, at least the grip) since that blank will be narrower at the butt than the 1/4 inch hole most pre-made grips come with. But I’ve got a mini lathe to use for turning such grips, so no problemo there.
After all that playing with blanks and lines – I began the build process.
Using two part epoxies, I began by attaching the fighting butt, reel seat, and grip to the butt section of the #5 blank.
Being very tight on cash right now, I wasn’t going to buy a new set of cork reamers (which I hear dont last more than a few builds usually anyway) – I cheaped out and cheated. I tapered some wooden dowels on the mini lathe and chucked the raw dowel into my power drill – threw it into reverse, and went to reaming. Took 10, maybe 15 minutes to accomplish the ream job. When I was done, the dry fit was TIGHT, which is what I was going for.
I decided also, that instead of maroon wraps with silver highlights – to use purple wraps and white highlights. Looks good on the dark blue blank.
I also threw my idea of having wraps at 12, 15, 18, and 20 inches out the window. The completed grip is 12 1/2 inches long. A 15 inch wrap would be pointless, as it would be smack dab in the middle of where the writing on the blank will be. So I opted to drop all that mess, and just put a single 20 inch measuring wrap on. Since I know how long the grip is, and where the 20″ mark is, it’ll be easy to eyeball measure the length of a fish, right?
In the interest of saving some money, I also elected to use a pair of spinning rod guides for my stripping guides. They were the same size as I was going to use, and these are free, since they came off a rod tip that I salvaged.
I need to obtain a drying motor, a set of snake guides, and some thread epoxy before I can complete the build. I’ve got everything else, and most of the work is already done. If I can get the parts I need relatively soon, I can have this rod completed by the end of the month and actually get some good fishing in with it before the season ends.
I also picked up a neat little Diawa SF706 I’d intended to pair with this rod – but then i decided to put that Cortland Fairplay #4 line I had sitting around on it (gives the Fairplay one more fair chance to change my mind about it, right?) – and I might just wind up putting one of my other reels on this rod. I’ll make the final call when the rod is done, and it’s time to fish!
Here’s a few pix of the current state of the rod:
I’m enjoying the hell out of this – I think it *could* be another addicting facet of fishing – if I can afford it. It’s like fly tying – in theory it saves money per fly – but then again, I keep buying new materials and I’ve got hundreds of dollars locked up literally in a shoe box full of materials and tools. This rod building stuff could very well turn out the same way.
To Howard (Cofisher) and John Montana (John Montana) – your blogs are consistently topping the lists of referral sites to my Blog – only Google comes close to you guys. I feel the love.
I also noticed today that I’ve topped 4500 hits – they’re coming quickly! My plan remains afoot, and I shall slowly and surely creep into the minds of every angler, eventually every outdoorsman, and the quiet take over of the world by me, through this Blog, will be complete. Eat yer heart out Mr. Jones! Muwahahaha. *ahem*
In all honesty – it’s killer to have the traffic I get. I don’t pimp my blog much myself – a link is in my sig line on a couple forums I visit, and it’s listed in the OBN – but the majority of my visitors (non-google referred) come from other bloggers, and that kicks butt. Thanks guys, and please keep it up. One of these days I might see 10,000 visitors. Maybe, just maybe, someone in a place to do such a thing, might even ask me to write for money (a dream of mine I’ve long held) – and do it by writing about fishing. Might be a long shot, but I bet the odds are better than winning a 220 million dollar jack pot. That’d be neat. Of course a Blog and a book are different. There’s no formality here, other than what I want. I can write one megalithic run on sentence, with no punctuation. If I want. Paragraphs have only the meaning and necessity in which I see fit (and I do see fit, of course.) But I can write in chapters and verses and paragraphs just as well. I wonder what the chances of someone in the Lyons family seeing this and taking it seriously?
So I simply ask you all, spread the word, if the word is good. And a big thanks for those who already do, even if simply by putting me on your Blog roll.
Anyone who’s spent much time reading my Blog, or even just my Gear page, will know that I’m a big Okuma fan. Okuma, in my opinion, offers some of the best value to the angling public – offering good quality rods and reels for prices that don’t make your wallet whimper when you reach for it. That might sound like the pitch from some paid lackey of Okuma’s – it’s not. I’ve never received so much as a coupon from them – I’ve just been using their rods for the better part of a decade now. I still own, and fish regularly with, my original 7’6″ Celilo light action spinning rod.
Last spring, while on a quest to obtain one of their mythical 8’6″ ultra light spinning rods, I discovered they’d released a new line of rods – called Reflexion – for trout and bass anglers. These rods are one-piece rods with split grips (a cork butt cap, with exposed blank section, and two small cork sections on either side of the reel seat – a grip which I really like aesthetically and practically as it shaves a bit of weight off the finished product) and light weight, strong guides. I couldn’t find any rods in the series longer than 6’6″ at my local retailer. The rods I did find came in a few basic flavors:
Ultra light and light spinning rods for trout/panfish
Medium power fast action spinning rods for bass/large trout
And fast action, medium-heavy power bass bait casting rods.
Each rod uses what now seems to be the standard burned olive colored graphite blanks that the newer Celilo rods feature, with graphite reel seats that expose part of the blank for better sensitivity. The thread wraps are nicely subdued and semi transparent, which appeals to me.
I bought my rod, a 6’6″ medium heavy power fast action rod, rated for 17-25lb line, because I wanted a stout bait casting rod for pitching top water rubber frogs and spinnerbaits into really nasty, snag-filled messes for bass. Of course, the only bait casting reel I had that was up to the task was my Abu Garcia Revo SL, that I had recently respooled with 50lb braided line. I could pull stumps with this combo (and I have, actually pulled up large limbs and large clumps of weeds out by their roots with it).
I haven’t fished this rod as much as I should have earlier in the season. I took it on a few early season bass outings – but got shut out and wound up flinging flies and micro jigs at their smaller sunfish cousins.
First Blood for this rod came on the Willamette River, smack dab in the heart of downtown Portland, while night fishing for catfish. I caught a few nice bullheads, and some weirdass looking neolithic sculpins of some sort with it. Not the bass I’d intended, but fun despite that fact.
My outing yesterday was the first time I’d actually landed a *bass* with this rod (though it certainly wasn’t the first time fishing for them with it). My skills with a bait casting reel have improved quite a bit over the last year – and I was able to toss a 3″ senko with just 1/16th oz of weight ahead of it a good 40-45 feet – and managed to land this guy:
and this guy:
With such a rig. It also handles heavier jigs
with aplomb. Tossing spinner baits, buzz baits, and Carolina rigs is also easily handled. The rod itself has plenty of power – as I mentioned before, I’ve pulled up a few rafts of weeds, along with the odd errant tree limb, with this rod. Never once did I fear it would snap.
When crawling a senko or soft plastic crawfish along the bottom, I could feel every rock, every clump of weeds, and every tell tale taptaptap. How much of that is because of the combo of the sensitive rod and the low stretch line? I bet it’s quite a bit, actually. But that really is where this rod shines – crawling plastics on or near the bottom.
It’s a fine rod for tossing hardware, for sure, but I can do that with a softer casting rod just fine too. No, the real place this rod shines is with soft plastics. It’s a great worm rod. Paired with a light weight low profile bait caster – it’s a winning combo. The best part about it though – is the price. I paid less than $50 for the rod. $50 – that’s nothing when you look at high end sticks by G. Loomis, Lamiglas, St. Croix, or Wright & McGill. This rod is easily as sensitive as my G. Loomis GL2, although it’s heavier in both actual weight, and in action (the GL2 caster I have is a medium action, medium power rod, whereas this Okuma is a medium-heavy fast action rod.) The difference in weight isn’t enough to complain about. I could make rapid fire casts for hours with this rod, and not get worn out.
As sensitive as it is, I’ve even entertained thoughts of using this for low water steelhead drift fishing. That’d get lots of sneers from the guys using high dollar, very long drift rods. That might be worth it in and of itself.
Okuma did well by anglers in developing these rods, and selling them at their price point. For the bass angler or trout angler that really takes their fishing seriously, but doesn’t have a big budget – they’re a must-have lineup. Pair these with an Abu Garcia or Shimano reel (or one of Okuma’s own excellent reels) and you can’t go wrong.
Today was the relaxing day I’ve needed for a long time. It wasn’t perfect – perfect would’ve been me with my ass hanging down in the 70 degree water with a pair of kick fins on, cruising in my tube. I had to settle for man handling the canoe myself today. I *tried* to keep the float tube model of efficiency and pair down my gear, but as soon as I was set on taking the big boat – I threw in a bunch more gear I didn’t need, or use. The big box of crank baits – the tackle bag full of jig boxes and trout flies, and my little Grigg trout rod. I knew I wasn’t going to use this crap, but I guess it’s like a security blanket. I could’ve gone without it, and probably had better boat speed. Ohwell.
I also only used a single anchor on the boat, instead of the fore & aft anchors I normally use. Only took one paddle (that was ALMOST a mistake. Glad I was still over shallow water and semi-firm bottom when the paddle blade got stuck in the mud, and I lost my grip on it.)
I started off by rigging up the flyrod with one of my new bass fly experiments – a hybrid (cheater) fly – a 2.5″ Berkley Power Trout Worm cemented over kevlar thread, with a collar of rabbit fur ‘hackle’. I made pink/pink, pink/yellow, chartreuse/pink, and chartreuse/yellow combos. I started with pink/pink. Some of my other experiments were rabbit fur tails with cactus chenille bodies, rabbit & marabou and lead eyes (which were way too heavy, in hind sight. Could’ve gone with Large instead of XL eyes). I also tied up a couple nifty sliders and divers, but the top water bite never materialized tonight, so those were just casting practice.
I kept getting short strikes with the hybrid flies – and after a few missed strikes, the tail on my pink/pink fly was getting rather stubby, so I switched up to a pink/yellow and finally hooked a fish. It was not a bass. And given I was fishing a stout 8 weight rod, it wasn’t much of a fight.
But by god, it was a fish, on my new rod, and the first fish of the day. And the only fish caught on the fly rod today.
The poor perch was a goner, #4 Kahle hook impaled right through his brain (how the hell such a small fish ate such a big hook is beyond me). That’s okay though, they’re over populated in the lake, and it became seagull food.
I switched over to my bait casting setup not long after that one – after the tail on the pink/yellow got eaten clean off (had to be perch, not a bass). I rigged up with the lightest setup I dared – a 1/16th oz bullet weight with a 1/0 Mustad live-bait hook, and a 3″ red metalflake Senko worm – Wacky Rigged. I was hesitant, as that’s really light for my bait caster, but it worked, and worked well. Only bass of the day fell to this combo (after the damn perch ripped one of the senkos clean off the hook with their plucking).
I didn’t have a tape measure or scale with me, hence the pic of my feet w/ the fish. I’m putting this guy in the 16″ – 17″ ball park – my personal best bass for the year. He hit much like the perch were, taptaptap, but there was something just different enough, and when the hook point sunk, he went nuts, tried wrapping the line around the anchor, and did a good job of taking line from the reel – impressive since I had it cranked almost all the way down (this reel is spooled up with 50lb Tuff Line braid, and since I wasn’t using a mono leader, there was no point in setting it light).
Great fight from that fish – and she didn’t take long to recover before bolting away from the boat with a splash.
The follow up fish to that one was not nearly as impressive, another damn stunted yellow perch.
Again, how the hell can such a small fish eat such a big hook? That was a 1/0 – bigger than the #4 Kahle from the bass flies I was fishing.
I had a few more strikes, lost more senkos to weeds and fish (they really are not the most robust bait, but damned if they’re not deadly) and moved up into the creek arm, trying around the little island, before heading for the flooded brush where I landed another good bass last week. That whole field of timber shut me out today – not a worm, not a fly, nor a spinner bait or buzz bait (gotta try off the wall stunts when nothing else is working, right?) could bring any fish to hand.
It wasn’t until I got further up the creek that I even realized the lake was another foot lower this week – the creek channel was narrower, and a sand bar was exposed that wasn’t there last week. No fish to be seen up in the creek proper, but I got some photos of the place anyway.
I had a good paddle back toward the ramp, where I ran into another fly flinger who was bobbing about in his float tube. We struck up a conversation which lasted for a while, then he headed for the island to fish it. I hung out back where I caught the big bass, in hopes of hitting a good late afternoon early evening top water bite, which never materialized. As I was about to bag it, the fellow in teh tube hollered. He had a BIG fish break him off right after a hook set (he was tossing a bugger). I’m guessing it was a good sized bass, then again, the DFW does stock “brooder” trout (recycled steelhead and big hatchery beasts) in the lake, so maybe. I doubt it was a trout though – the surface water temp was easily in the 70’s, and with a few good hot days in a row, it can hit 80 degrees. The trout are hiding in deeper, cooler haunts right now.
On the way back, I did note a bobber hanging from a tree – someone had to work to get it way up there:
It was a good day out on the water, even if I didn’t get many fish. The trip home sucked more though – my jeep died again on the way home. Hazarding a guess, I’m thinking fuel pump, or my gas tank is really filled with crap and I plugged up the brand new fuel filter again. I had to be towed home.
When I got home, I was pleased to find out that my new rod blanks had arrived. I’m a bit perplexed with how to build these rods now – like any kid with an new toy, I had to take them out of the package and play with them. In this case, I spend half an hour while my wife was making dinner locating and marking the spine of each rod section, then double checking each marking to ensure it was right. Then I assemebled the blanks and wiggled them. I wasn’t overly thrilled with how either one felt with all 4 sections assembled. Don’t get me wrong here – I like moderate or slower action rods – but these blanks, when assembled to their full legnth, just feel a bit overly noodly. Far from “fast” action as one was advertised as.
Now here’s the kicker, when I pop the butt section of each rod off, they take on drastically different characteristics. When each blank is assembled as an 8’3″ rod – they feel great to wiggle, with nice moderate to moderate-fast actions. The “5 weight” blank doesn’t feel like there’s an ounce of 5 weight in it – either as an 11′ rod or an 8’3″ rod – it really feels more like a 3 or 4 weight rod. In comparison, the “3 weight” rod blank, when assembled as the 8 footer feels a lot more like a fast 5 weight or a 6 weight rod. The taper is a little odd on the so-called 3 weight too – it’s got a thicker tip than the #5 blank, and a slightly, ever so slightly thinner butt. The fully assembled 11 foot “3 weight” feels like it *could* be a 3, but probably more like a 4 or slow 5 weight.
And it gets even more fun – when I take just the top two tip sections of the “5 weight” blank – I could make a sweet little 5’4″ 2 piece rod that feels like it’d be perfect with a 2 or 3 weight line. The top two sections of the “3 weight” are stiffer, and would be good as a short 4 or 5 weight.
So now I’m torn – do I build either of these blanks as a full on 11′ rod, do I make a pair of 8’3″ rods, do I make one of them a mini-rod?
I am a bit disheartened that the so-called 5 weight is as soft as it is – I already got the grip and reel seat for that one.
A full wells grip and fighting butt, with a double locking reel seat would look a bit…odd on a 3 or 4 weight rod. And because I got the reel seat partly because it has that nifty blue cloud anodizing (and because it was only $19.99, vs $40 or 50 as I’ve seen them in the catalogs) that goes so well with the blue blank of the “5 weight” rod. The other blank is an forest green color – similar to what TFO and Pfleuger have used on their blanks. For that reason alone, I’m seriously tempted to just build up the “5 weight” as the full 11 foot rod, and build the other blank as an 8’3″ rod. Damn decisions.
And I’ve got a Diawa 706 coming to match up with one of these rods. $9.99 from eBay. Good price, decent reel, and it’s all the reel I’ll need for a 4, 5, or 6 weight rod. And I saved $90 from buying a Loomis Venture for one of them. Sweet.
Floggin' Water 