I bought the little tiger eye. Weight the same, tip the same; butt size is a little smaller on the tiger eye; so.......Also, Just a heads up but Black Dog Tackle has the 6 foot 2/3 weight in a 4 piece-p-

I'm building it for a guy to fish the high country for them pretty little spotted fish!!!

yeah; and I have heard its a 3/4, not a 2/3 but I've found that to be irrevelant since most rods are not what they say they are anyway. You can make a 3 a 2 by using a 4 weight line. HA! The main thing is for it to have some nice flex in the tip. I heard these rod blanks had a big butt but the st coix sc3 shows to be larger at the butt than the tiger eye. That is wierd since the sc3 is a very slim little rod. Anyway, we'll see. I also ordered the 4 piece 6 foot 2 weight blank just to see how it performs-p-

Gene,

What colors are you going to use for the thread wraps on your Tiger Eye blank?

I just bought one of their 7'6" blanks with the idea of using just the top three sections to make a short rod. Now that the blank has arrived, I see it has a lot more red in the finish than the golden brown that Siever's website shows. That makes me question my original plan to use tan thread for the single foot wraps and black trim rings.

Also, how the rod looks right now under artificial light will probably be very different than tomorrow morning outside in the sunshine. My guides, reel seat, and reel will be black. So that theme should probably be repeated in the thread, either in the main wrap or the trim. But I'm not sure which direction I want to go with a second color.

Any suggestions? TIA, Charlie

It wasn't my idea in the sense that I was the first to think of it. I saw the idea in one of the rod-building forums and was intrigued. I was going to try doing it a year ago to a 4pc Batson blank. But the counter guy at Angler's Workshop talked me out of it, and I went with a 4pc 6'6" 2wt instead, the same blank you just built. I love the rod as a 2wt. It has plenty of muscle. But it's still too long for some of the creeks I'm fishing. (In fact, I fished another new one today on which my 7'6", 3wt was too much rod). Meanwhile, I've ordered a Tiger Eye 3/4wt blank (which I now have in hand) and another Batson 6'6" 2wt blank (still on its way), with the intention to truncate both of them.

Much thanks for your discussion of color options for threads. It helps me narrow down my choices. Charlie

Don, Much thanks for the heads up. I'll explore doing things just as you shrewdly suggest. Charlie

Yep, just tried doing the floor bend. The third section (of my 4pc, 7'6", 3/4 wt Tiger eye blank) was straight. I'm thinking once I align the spines and get some guides wrapped on, the upper section --right now pretty flimsy- will stiffen up a bit.

OK, the blank came with alignment hash marks. At least I'm assuming that's what they are. The rod felt a whole lot better when they were aligned and the male-female fits snugged up a bit (but not too much, because they aren't wrapped yet). I'm also thinking to bypass a detachable handle. Just build with the top three sections. And there's no way the result will be the 3/4 designation of the whole. 2wt is closer to it, which would suit me just fine, because that's the size of creeks I'm fishing, the bugs I'm throwing (#12 hopper patterns), and trout I'm catching (nothing bigger than a hand span).

I ordered a Cortland DT 2wt Sylk line that I'm hoping will work with the rod, spooled onto my Okuma Magnitude 4/5. That's a bit heavy (at 3.7 oz), and I will probably have to buy one of Bob Dennison's Ultra Lights to get rid of some weight and size. But I love the one directional drag on that Okuma.

ARRGH. I didn't know that. From reading the product specs on his website, I assumed there was a click drag and that it functioned in both directions. I've got a Martin Caddis Creel 61 reel like that, and I don't like to use the reel, even though it offers a fairly large arbor and a fairly low (3.1 oz) weight. The only time I put a fish on the reel is if I've unintentionally hooked into a bass and he's headed for the bottom. (Or a squaw fish, if I'm bored and hammering on them for casting practice.) Anything smaller gets handled the clumsy, awkward, two-handed way with coils of retrieved line falling on the deck or floating downstream.

Okuma has discontinued the Magnitude series, and the 4/5 (the smallest and lightest) is getting impossible to find, or being priced ridiculously high ($65 compared to the $40 or so I bought mine at). But compared to prices for higher-end reels, even $65 for a 3.7 oz reel wouldn't be bad, as the chart from Cabelas suggests. So, eventually, I am going to have to buy one of Bob's reels, just so I can see one and try it out. But, meanwhile, I'm sticking to what I know, which is Okuma, and I found a 5/6 (at 3.9 oz) for $44 with shipping. I'll put that reel into service with my 7'6" 3wt and use the 4/5 (at 3.7 oz) for my smaller rods.

The reason I'm hesitant to spring for one of Bob's reels is their small arbor. I don't need to put a lot of line on the reel. Typically, I'm using just half of a DT line, 20 feet of backing, and enough 1/8" foam wrapping material to increase the OD of the arbor shaft, so that the reel is full and line memory is decreased to the extent it can be on a reel with a standard-sized arbor.

What has been your experience with line memory on Bob's reels? Does their tiny size turn line into a screen-door spring?

http://www.cabelas.com/ca...urrent&columnIndex=7

Thanks. That's good to know. The nexrt time I'm in the mood to spend money on more fishing gear, I'll get a Dennison reel.

Charlie, to fill a small arbor spool you are better off using some #30 lb dacron. No issues with rigged foam arbors. The Dennison is pretty wide, so the upper part of the spooled line has little memory. Don