Thread: Texoma

Fishing was not as good today. I only kept 10. The new Garmin was great though. I thought about firing the guide but I was the guide

I fished with the Lone Stranger today. It was hot with intermittent periods of hot in between . We caught 30 only keeping 9 with most of those being over 13". Mrs Stranger wanted fish dinner so Mr Stranger got fish cleaning duty. We did find at least 6 new brush piles. Another successful trip.

While I am retired as a Rod Builder I have decided to make the Lone Stranger a custom rod as a gift. He spends a lot of time on the water with me and does more than his share of the work being as I am a little more crippled up every day so I guess he deserves it. I am kind of tired of watching him fish handicapped with those store bought rods anyway.

I am still waiting on some of the parts to arrive. it will be built from a 9' 4 wt 2 piece fly rod bland. I was unable to find any blanks of those specifications on the internet but fortunately I still had one left on the shelf from when I made rods regularly. He wants a standard fly rod reel seat on it because his preference is not to have any handle behind the reel. I figure on putting a 10" fore grip on it. The 10" fore grip is for measuring fish as there is a 10" size limit on most lakes in Oklahoma and I thought it would be kind of slick to be able to just hold it against the fore grip and know if the fish meets minimum standards. I am also going to make the rod castable which means starting out with larger guides on the first two guides next to the reel seat. That will make a standard spinning reel cast efficiently on a fly rod blank. The Lone Stranger is going to provide me with the reel before I put the guides on because as is common knowledge, if you have the reel the guides closest to the reel seat can be tuned for maximum casting distance for a specific reel. (Tricks learned from Dale Clements). I learned to build rods by reading his books when I was a young man.

I have always designed a rod so that the fore grip would cover the rough edge of the decorative wrap on the reel seat end of it. That just makes for one less trim band to cover the end of a decorative wrap. I usually cover the tip end of the decorative wrap by weaving the customers name into the wrap and using the name weave to terminate the tip end of the decorative wrap.

So the question is, do you guys want me to document the rod construction here where I usually post or do you want me to post it on the new rod building thread or both?

I would say in the rod building thread for sure. It would be fine here also, however I think it might really help those just learning under the build thread.
Just my .02 cents.
I’m just glad your going to show us!!


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My process is extremely old school. There are a lot of faster and easier ways but goal is most sensitive not fast. I agree on wher to post. Thanks for the input.

I seldom stop fishing long enough to take a pic while on the water but I made an exception yesterday. This was not the biggest but just one the one I took a pic of. I also found a couple of new brush piles and placed one.