Building for Another

Working at the lathe

This was my eighth go at rod building, and I really think this is the best one yet. Just before Christmas the brother of a fishing buddy of mine asked how much it'd cost to get a rod built. I was kinda in the middle of a couple of projects, and told him that, but he gave me the go ahead to build a rod for a gift even though he knew it wouldn't be ready for Christmas. Just so happened that Hook & Hackle had a sale on some green Matrix blanks that would fit the bill excellently. With free reign to build whatever I thought would be best I selected a 9 foot, 5 piece, 5 weight blank with reverse half wells grip, green wraps with silver trim, custom reel insert and silver hardware. The rod really came together and now I hate to see it go. Oh well, here are some pics from the build.

Ended up with some nice options

Think I picked the best one for this build

Sure is nice to see it coming together

First coat of Color Preserver, man it looks dark!

All five pieces

I'm getting better at my penmanship!

Did a decorative wrap at each ferrule 

Test casted her this morning and I think he'll get a lot of mileage out of this rod. Can't wait to get it delivered. Hope you can get out and enjoy the water.

- Kidder