The latest from Barelyatall

I am taking the advice of some wiser-than-me fishermen and am heading out to trout tomorrow on a day off, but I figured some readers may want to see what life has produced in Barelyatall as of late. Here are some simple and, honestly, pretty poor photos of my baby. After it's done, I'll post photos of the rest of it; for now I'll just highlight the wraps.

Here's the bench that has been re-purposed into a rod-building metropolis. I love getting this thing messy and covered in thread bits, tape, and whatever else I'm doing that particular day.

Hook keep and cheap winding check. One thing I did not do on this first rod was drop a lot of cash. I figured I'd screw up at every turn and I was basically right; this is the Professor Rod since it's taught me so much. Very fun. It's a Sevier Salt 9' 8wt that I will use a bunch in the surf and for freshwater carping next year. I'll miss the 'glass 8wt in my heart, but my arm won't miss it one bit.

The wrapping was probably my favorite part, especially sprinkling the trims around on the hook keep, first stripper (this has two, a 16 and a 12), ferrule and tiptop.

The rod is complete, but as you can see I haven't applied the finish to the wraps. I hope to tackle that tonight. I'm opting to fore go CP, so we'll see how that turns out. I definitely think the "dark brown" thread needs to be darker (much darker) and it seems the skipping of CP is the way to get there. Plus, I have always liked the look of the guidefeet being visible.

My next rod, which is on its way to my abode now, will be a Batson Forecast 6'6" 2wt. I'm still not comfy dropping mad cash on any component, and I've heard amazing reviews about Batson IM6 blanks. I just wish it weren't blue! Photos on that after some time in Catching.