Ellison's Christmas Present

Here is a rod that I completed for a local lawyer that I have met through work. He is an accomplished fly angler and I was excited when he asked me to build him a rod. The moment he test cast my Dan Craft FT 8wt he said he had to have one. Here are the particulars:

Blank: Dan Craft 9' 8wt 4 piece
Guides: Fuji Titanium Sics
Reel Seat: Batson ALPS Triangular Saltwater Reel Seat
Grip: combination of regular, burnt and green burl cork
Feathers: combination of turkey, pheasant tail and jungle cock
Threads: Olive with accents of dark brown and pale gold

If you like a fast action rod, I don't believe there is one out there faster than the Dan Craft FT. It is an absolute cannon!!! I over-line mine with a 9wt line and you could easily use a 10wt if you wanted.

As in the previous post, the Fuji Titanium Sics are just awesome. They are very light (not that it would matter much on this blank) and very slick. The fly line just glides through them. The ALPS triangular is one of my favorite reel seats for two reasons. 1) it has two o-rings to lock the reel in place & 2) they look very different and very cool. Not something you will see everyday....which is the whole point of a custom rod!

Turning the grip is one of my favorite aspects of rod building. I used the green burl to help tie in the other colors of the rod. I plan to detail how I turn my grips in a future post. I also had a fun time with the feather inlay and I was happy with the way it came out. There is a guy in California name Terry Henson who is the man when it comes to feather inlays...here is his site http://hensonrods.org/ . I love looking at his work.

I am getting ready to start a couple of new rods and I plan to post updates of these rods as I build them so that the future owners can see the process.