Wednesday, October 10, 2018

TMR "Japan special"

A Tom Morgan rod I've been dreaming about to build for myself for so long. The "Japan special" or so called "light 3wt." is a touchy ultralight trout rod that literally paints the fly on the water. This rod has a special feel to it, no wonder why Tom described it as "the thought rod". I have one more 6'9" blank in stock that's already promised to someone. 

I appointed this little blank in a classic Morgan style. The dark red-rust wraps with dark hardware complement the reddish-brown blank perfectly. A short snub-nose grip works perfect with these deeper loading little rods. The Bellinger stabilized black ash wood insert is amazing and the Goldenwitch agate guide is a class act. Agate was blued then coated and winding check as well. All wrapped in a perfect lustrous finish that my rods are known for.

Tom Morgan talked about his recent fiberglass rod designs in this article:

"In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in fiberglass rods, primarily in lighter line sizes, for two reasons: anglers have discovered that typical graphite fly rods are so stiff that they aren't effective fishing rods at the normal distances where they are fished and many fiberglass rods have the traditional action of great fly rods from past eras. A number of knowledgeable anglers have discovered that fiberglass can make wonderful fishing rods covering many situations extremely well. 

Because of the delicate touch and "feel" they provide along with their fish playing attributes, I've always been a fan of fiberglass rods for fishing in the short to medium distances where most trout are caught. For a long time, I've thought that I could design fiberglass rods with even more effective attributes and sweeter actions than my originals. 

My fiberglass rod designs have been very popular in Japan since I first introduced the Winston Stalkers almost 40 years ago.


 Light 3-Weight. In addition to the standard weight blanks and rods, I have added two 3-weights in 6'9" and 7'3" lengths with a slightly lighter action designed especially for Japanese anglers who generally fish shorter distances than American anglers. I worked with a very knowledgeable Japanese angler to get these rods just right. When he cast the final design he thought it was absolutely perfect. These rods are designed to fish in the 12 to 35-foot range. However, this is not to say that my normal 3-weight rods are stiff because they are not. 













Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Sage TXL-F

Despite the fact that I'm a bit out of date with the current Sage small stream blank offerings, I had the pleasure to build this sweet TXL-F 1wt. for a good friend who supplied the blank. He was kind enough to sell me another blank ("the double ought") that I built and fished all summer on my gin clear trout streams. Hands down, some of the best small stream rods Sage has ever produced. Sweet to the touch, with just enough flex and power for casting close or long. I even fished it on my annual alpine lake trip and it was amazing.

Both blanks were wrapped in classic chestnut Pearsall silk (discontinued) wich complemented the color of the blanks beautiful. I kept mine plain and simple with a "standard" but ultralight Bellinger aluminum uplocking seat and imbuya wood, but for the one weight I had a very special piece of maple burl wood that is just amazing.

The handles are two short western shapes that I love to put on light trout rods. I have three types of western shape handles actually.

Happy to share some pictures of both builds. Ok, I didn't take close up pictures of mine but I have a ton of fishy pics from this summer's fishing and guiding. Thanks for looking!