Beavers Bend Fly Shop

Nice report Jason, that was one fun weekend! Never caught more fish in a day up there. And that 2 weight rod you built is AWESOME! You forced me to order a new TFO 3 Wt that will hopefully be broken in this weekend... Hope to see you on the water soon. Tight Lines!

-Brad

Sounds like a great time! Can you tell me about your 2 weight? I'm wondering about how it casts with say an indicator and nymph rig and the length. Any recommendations on kits to build a rod? Thanks for the report!

Thanks Brad! Glad we could meet up and congrats on the new rod.


Hey Hoss,
I would be glad to tell ya about it! It is a 6'6" 2wt Tiger Eye blank from Sevier Manufacturing. When I first got into this one thing I didnt know or expect is there are many companies out there that just make blanks for builders. They don't actually make built out rods. So when I saw I had many other options besides "name brand" blanks, I decided I would like to try them for a couple of reasons. One, I like the though of not having a name brand blank. It would be difficult to tell a factory one from a custom built. Two, you can get a LOT of rod for a fraction of the cost. For example I am thinking of building an Allen Myth. I can buy the blank for around $100 and it should sell for $200+.

Anyway, back to Tiger Eye, I have now built on 3 and about to be 4 of Dave's blanks and really like them. ESPECIALLY for the price. After taxed and shipping you can get one blank for $50. The smart thing to do is order a few at a time.

I use a company called J. Stockard for most everything else. Guides, tip top, real seat, grip (if using cork), epoxy and finish epoxy.

The rod casts great. The first time I took it out was to the Lower Illinois River, started casting indicator, split, nymph rig, and did that most of the day. It was very fun. I was able to swing that rig with a little extra effort, but trout, no matter the size, are a whole new ball game on these things, so its worth it. Now, is the short light rod best for this no, but it was by no means annoying. The lighter the rig, the better it casts. I guess what I am trying to say is the rod casts great with lighter rigs, but I made it work without a lot of extra effort because its so fun! I know now, once you go light you won't go back!

PS I cast WF3 as everyone recommends to line up one on his blanks.

I have also built a 7'6" 3/4wt and am working now on a 8'6" 3/4wt and another 7'6" 3/4wt from Sevier. The 7'6" is money! I built that for my dad and am building the 8'6" for myself. It will become my go to rod. Not my 5wt, not my 4wt, but the 3/4wt. It is designed to cast WF3 or DT4, hence 3/4wt. This rod casts nymph rigs great but is still light enough to be fun.

If I were you, I would steer clear of kits. Its just the ones I've seen don't include the greatest hardware in the world. That's all there is to it. I would be happy to help you figure out which parts you would need from J. Stockard if you wanted to try it at some point.

If you wanted to get into building grips, I would say go for it, but learn the process with cork. I LOVE the birch bark grips I have been making, but they are a pain! Birch is way harder than cork and therefore it takes literals about 4 times the time and effort to build one out of birch. I can help you with that process as well if you want.

To wrap the rod, I just built a homemade rod wrapping station out of pine planks I cut up from Lowe's. Easy, cheap, and is every bit as good as the $80 ones you can buy elsewhere. Only it cost me $15 ;)


Wow. That's a lot, but not nearly everything. It really is a blast and I highly recommend diving in and trying it out. I am serious about helping out to. If you decide you want to try it, feel free to let the questions begin!

It might be good to do it via PM or start another thread though. Here is a pic of the grip from the LIR.

-Jason

Great photo. And cool story on the rod. I have to agree with Jason on the ultra light rods... I broke in my TFO "Fly Rod Chronicles" 8'9" 3 Wt last weekend and had a BLAST! The thing still can chuck a heavy nymph rig a mile, and it really makes playing any fish fun. 5 weights seem to be the norm there, and I had every eye on the river trained on me when I had fish on the line because my rod literally doubled over playing these 12-16" fish. It definitely made for a more rewarding day, and I now find myself wondering if I will ever want to pull out my 5 again...

I will be there this weekend again, so look for the guy who looks like he is bringing in a Redfish.

Haha, is that a Trout or Tarpon?

Ya, I think I willl hold onto my 9ft 5wt just for the sake of having one, but the past 3 times I've been to the river, I left it at the barn. Never once missed it. Actually forgot about it.

Going to the LIR this weekend. Fishing has been killer there lately!

Let me know how it is!

You have to be careful chunking weight, especially when you’re asking a rod to do what it wasn’t made for. In particular if your weight hits the rod due to a poor cast or a wind direction change you could end up nicking the rod. That in turn could end up with the rod busting apart in two. Gee how do I know about this possibility………..
The other thing I want to point out is when you are casting any kind of weight you always want to cast with a very open loop. This contradicts what we all have learned is that you always want a tight loop for speed and distance casting. But when casting weight the tight loop has a tendency to cross. This causes pile ups at the end of the cast. (By the way I do this on purpose when I fish fast water. This causes the weight to sink faster and get right in the fishes mouth every time) as oppose to straighten out like you would expect it to. Or worst yet a nice big wind knot. This are always a pain to untangle with weight and an indicator.
So yes you can cast over size rigs weather it is a fly or a weight rig with a lighter weight rod but why when you have want you need to do the job with out the extra effort.


Kit

Perhaps I should have said that I can eloquently cast a heavy nymph rig a mile with it ;)

Jason,

Thanks, great information on building a fly rod! Much appreciated. By the way, the handle looks really cool. If that is birch, I'd spend the extra effort to get those kind of results. I'm not quite ready to dive into making a rod yet but I'll do more research on this. I'll give you an email when I get ready to take the plunge. I'm thinking a 9' 3 weight but haven't made up my mind yet. I want to go lighter than my stander 8.5' 5 weight, and tend to fish a lot of nymph / indicator rigs, this is why I'm thinking 9'. I'll be contacting you on this, thanks again.

Bob

Bradbessett
The rod is absolutly great nice workmanship...
Kit

BradBessett said:

Great photo. And cool story on the rod. I have to agree with Jason on the ultra light rods... I broke in my TFO "Fly Rod Chronicles" 8'9" 3 Wt last weekend and had a BLAST! The thing still can chuck a heavy nymph rig a mile, and it really makes playing any fish fun. 5 weights seem to be the norm there, and I had every eye on the river trained on me when I had fish on the line because my rod literally doubled over playing these 12-16" fish. It definitely made for a more rewarding day, and I now find myself wondering if I will ever want to pull out my 5 again...

I will be there this weekend again, so look for the guy who looks like he is bringing in a Redfish.

My only beef with it is lack of lifting power. Lost four 20"+ fish yesterday because they ran all over me. Very frustrating.

3 Wt is now for open water fun.
5 Wt is for lost creek and tighter waters.

Which is the opposite of my thinking when purchasing the rod.

I don't use the 3wt much anymore, got a 4