Slick as Glass

After following The Fiberglass Manifesto for over a year now. Seeing how hard Cam works to get people to try fly fishing with a fiberglass rod, it became apparent that the glass revolution is growing by leaps and bounds and I might be missing something cool. Not being able to hold out any longer, I was able to order two white fiberglass blanks from Kabuto Rods in Japan. Yasuyuki Kabuto is considered by many to be one of the premier glass rod builders around today, so when the opportunity to get a few of these hand crafted blanks came up I pounced on it.

After looking at pictures of rods that other custom builders have done with these blanks, I have decided on taking a classic glass blank and making it a little more modern. It's just what I do.
I will probably not use the traditional cork western grip and instead put a carbon fiber wrapped foam grip on it instead.

In lieu of the traditional snake guides, I am leaning towards putting on Black Pearl Recoil guides.

The hardest decision for me has to do with the reel seat. It has to be spot on to make the whole build come together. I am leaning towards a blued nickel Struble reel seat and just need to decide on what the spacer will look like.

The good thing is i'll have plenty of time to decide since the blanks won't ship until late August.
Can't wait to get these in and get started so I can see what glass is all about.

Other Fly Rods

These are some of the rods that i've built for customers.

 

Another 5wt

I built this one for myself. It is built on a 9ft 4pc MHX high modulus blank. This rod shoots out line fast and precise. Added carbon fiber wrapped grip and a rattlesnake skin inlay. Wraps were done in dark blue with a copper trim.