Latest Rod Build

I am still building more rods than I am fishing these days, which is mostly OK with me. The nice thing about building is: 1) it's above freezing in my "shop" and 2) I can do it 5 mins at a time if needed. I finished this order a couple of weeks ago and snapped a few quick photos before delivery.

My friend ordered a 6wt that he wanted to be nimble, but a solid-performer on bigger trout waters and the occasional trip to some salt. He gave me a few ideas on what he wanted the overall look and feel to be, and I immediately settled on a blank and design: Batson RX7 8'6" 6wt with an R7 aluminum seat inletted to a full-wells grip and framed by a little 1" fighting butt I turned and mounted on the blank. To compliment the sleek look of the matte black blank, I chose black chrome guides from PacBay, using two strippers (16, 12) and wrapping them with black thread and no color preserver. The thread blacked-out as planned and the silver trims really pop sharply from the FlexCoat. It's nice when things go as planned!

The third guide fell dead-on the ferrule after load testing. I did a full underwrap for the ferrule and overwraps for the guide feet. I wrapped the 3-turn trim integrally with the ferrule wrap and started my guide wrap just shy of it inside the underwrap. When I applied finish to the wrap, it melded together well.