Sorry fellas, but I wanted to share this with the members here...
I had some conversations in the chatroom and some of the guys wanted to see this rod when it was finished. I bought a 5 piece Winston LT 8 weight (yikes!) blank back in Feb and just got it finished 2 weeks ago. It took me longer to decide how I wanted to build it than it did to complete it but I am very happy with the finished product. (I even removed a seat and grip from it in the process)
I ended up building a 4 piece (omitted the butt section) 7'3" (plus fighting butt) 8/9 weight. I built this rod for a specific purpose in mind, to fish big bugs and poppers in some very specific places for Big Bass.
My first trip out with it I caught a nice 12" bass and it actually surprised me how fun the fight was, the rod is very sensitive and relatively light with a mid flex, springy feel to it. It weighed 3.0 ouces before I put the fighting butt on and now it's 3.5 ounces....pretty good for the line it can throw. I think shortening it might have sped it up a bit, but with a large wind resistant popper and a bass taper line it likes to slow down. I'm still getting used to that part. It is as accurate as my 6'6" WT 3 weight when I do my part.
Sunday I took it to my "secret summer hot spot" in my canoe.....(the place this rod was built for) and ended up beating my personal best bass by a full pound! I was shocked. It was almost too easy.
I made a good cast, around a slight point in the bushes lining the edge, and began to strip and pause. Just as the fly came back to the surface, this big white and green pair of lips came up and swiped it off the top, it was like someone flushed a toilet! lol It left a whirl pool and I firmly strip/struck and held on...the bass immediately felt heavy and burst to the surface, I got a look at the head and back and knew I could have a personal best on the line....the fish tried to run to a submerged branch, and back into the weeds, Shake, Jump, each time I held the line firm and kept the rod steady. This fish really pulled, but the 20 pound tippet and the rod held...for a moment I wondered if the rod might snap...
It ended up weighing 5.25+ pounds. I didn't get a length.. I have fished really hard the past 3 years and had only a few 4 pounders and less to show for it....All with conventional bass gear, now first trip out in big bass territory with this fly rod and a personal best. It was almost too easy. Not a monster, but a GOOD quality fish for my part of NJ.
Best of all, I can say I caught my largest bass on a fly rod I built myself. If not for this forum I probably wouldn't have started building at all, and I wouldn't have seen Jerry's post about those blanks being on sale, so I wouldn't even own this rod. Thank You! To everyone for the motivation that made this possible! I hope this is just the beginning of a great summer bass season.
Oh, and don't worry, I am working on acquiring a 1 wt blank!
Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 5:29 pm • 
