Thursday, February 26, 2015

Orvis Superfine 8' #4

Here is a recently finished Orvis Superfine rod built for a fine gentleman in Utah. Dan wanted this special spiral finished graphite blank to be built in the Dave Lewis style with visible yellow signature wraps. One of my favorite builders that were around and a great inspiration to me so I couldn't agree more. He wanted this rod to have one of my signature reel seats, despite the fact that these were actually designed for the fiberglass builds given their bigger diameter. I think it actually turned out to look great in the end. The sharp looking darkened hardware matches the blank and a gorgeous piece of buckeye burl wood to match the dark olive wraps. Dan is eager to put his hands on this beauty and I can't wait to see some fish caught on it. I heard rumours that Orvis is redesigning (again) these beautiful Superfines this year. This might just be the last one but I'm looking forward to building a Helios later this year. Thanks for looking everyone!





   



"I'm a detailer. You can see it in my thread and epoxy work. I believe epoxy should be sculptured, not ever too thick. ", Dave Lewis.


Sunday, February 15, 2015

Tom Morgan 8 1/2' #6

I recently finished the first Tom Morgan Rodsmiths six weight fiberglass rod. This is another very special "presentation grade" build I did for a returning customer. I am extremely happy with this rod and how it came out. It took quite some time to get it done, but I hope the long wait will soon be forgotten once this rod arrives to its new owner. 
 
Tom offers two special six weight fiberglass rod designs. The first one is the so called "Streamer special" in 8'3" #6 in two piece that Tom actually designed when he was at Winston for the so called "Morgan twitch" streamer technique, a very unique and very effective way to fish a streamer actually. The second is the recent 8 1/2' #6 offered in four pieces. This is the smoothest six weight rod I've yet seen. Of course, the longer length and slightly more weight than a two or three piece rod will make you think twice. But once you feel the buttery smooth action of this rod it's hard to go back and cast anything else any time soon. I think this fine rod will make a beautiful big river trout rod and besides the Morgan streamer twitch fishing technique, my guess is that it will even make a good dry fly rod due to its very smooth action and sensitive tip. Thank you for looking and hope you'll enjoy the pictures!