At this point in my fly fishing/casting life, I’m definitely not a glass or bamboo guy. Yet, I think I’m close to be sold to the glass cause just because for their cosmetics. Yeah. I love to admit it, but I’m in this game in good part because of the way it looks. I feel relatively safe in this confession, I’m in good company: Gierach wrote something along the line. The special effects you can get when building on glass are really beautiful.
Here’s a master of this trade, a true artist in rod building — when he’s not possessed by some Transylvanian demon and fucks up a build big time with a red marker, a tragedy indeed, but thankfully rare.
So, you begin with stuff like that
which admittedly is quite good as a start, and then some light and varnish magic operates and you end up with this
This is seriously good.
G0ne Fishin9 
yeah well, rare enough to fuck up mine. i hope Bella sucks him dry… 😆
funnily enough, yours is the only one he fucked up of all the builds I saw on his page. I can’t figure what happened to him. either you really have a bad mojo, or you somehow managed to piss him off.
yup, either or… 😆
i hope he gets trampled by wolves and shat on by bats after Bella sucks him dry.
hmm. he’s a rod builder, you can go specific. you could hope his finish will never level again or remain tacky forever, or that his wrap will always either release bubbles at the last moment or bleed horribly, or his guide alignment won’t ever be true again, etc.
rod building curses are mighty fun.
how weak. man, you need to watch more horror flicks…
yeah right.
you know what? first you go get some really beautiful blank, then you dream a while and design a grip, glue the hardware, then you spend the hours to make the wraps in 00 silk, then you do your finish just to find some horrible stains and it’s still tacky after a week.
then you come back and we’ll discuss how that compares to your gothic stuff. I’ll take the bats anyday.
alright, i hope he chokes on his own cock Sicilian-Style while his mother watches. beat that.
hmm. I don’t think I can match your depravation,
yet, let me remark that in our wonderful human zoo, there probably is somewhere a movie where someone does just that. and probably also a club of guys who define their sexual orientation as Sicilian-style-own-cock-choking-while-mother-watchists.
but nowhere you’ll find anyone enjoying a non curing finish. even the worse gimps have limits.
“but nowhere you’ll find anyone enjoying a non curing finish.”
maybe you could start a trend. this seems an obsession. 😆
it is for all rod builders (as it’s basically the only thing you really can screw up in the build), but not really for me. first because I rather use urethane which is fuckup-proof, second because my real obsession is with tails
(topics on sexyloops suggest it’s a rather common condition)
i’m obsessed with tails as well. what’s the problem ?
my problem would be: how to make them *only* on purpose.
following your advice, I’ve started to try to produce tails at will, and now with a short line (like 10m) I can fairly predictably make or not make them.
with longuer carries (>17m eg) they reappear from time to time, most often because of improper power application I think
ok, that’s good !
keep on w/ 10m
but also include 5M and 20m (or anywhere, the idea is to be good at this at any length)
leave the line hand in your pocket (or elsewhere)
what you need to figure out is the why it sometimes tail and the why it sometimes doesn’t.
btw, it’s no use if you go and do exaggerated movements to produce tails. this is a great problem instructors have when demonstrating them: the tails aren’t ‘real’ (because nobody casts like that in real)
it’s all very subtle. the challenge continues !
btw, it’s not a deprivation. it’s justice !
😆
the texas style.
yeah, I read the point on loops and I agree that most demo tails I’ve seen on vids were not really like mine.
in my case, here’s an explanation (don’t know how many there will be). it’s a muscle/cognition issue. for short distance, I’m confident the loop will do what I want and I focus on power, mainly by reducing it. then at some point in the lengthening of the carry, I start to doubt the line will reach where I want it to go, and if I’m not extra careful I’ll push too hard too early, and that’s my recipe for a tail.
at least it explains why it happens more with longuer carries.
oh goodness, well I was going to reply on the glass rod, but then I sort of got lost on all the comment banter. Sorry for your shitty luck….eeeek
Don’t worry M, I think Marc just got a karmic backfire. He’ll recover. But it’s true that the build the guy did for him was the only “ugly” in his whole published production (gross exageration, but look at those pics, you get to expect the best)
are you into glass rods?
I never knew there were glass rods honestly. Okay so my question- decoration or you use them- are they super fragile or ?
They are made of fiberglass, a compound of glass mesh and resins. Fiberglass was the dominant material in the 60s 70s, before carbon took over. it yields blanks that tend to be on the heavy side (even though the recent designs are much better), somewhat slow in action and virtually unbreakable. like really tough. A guy was fighting 15lb salmons on a Swift Epic 5wt.
for short : I wouldn’t fish them because the good ones are expensive and I prefer carbon for a light and fast rod, but they have die-hard supporters who I totally understand.
look at that
http://thefiberglassmanifesto.blogspot.fr/2013/05/a-featherlight-in-exmouth-gulf.html
Thanks. I am going to check it out. I honestly have never heard of it
try to cast one, it’s a very interesting experience, and a very fun one too.
and to get a feeling of the world of glass rods, here’s a great place to hang out:
http://fiberglassflyrodders.com/forum/
Thanks
wait a minute. finish on the whole rod ?! what a stupid thing to do. apart from bamboo that needs it what’s the point of varnishing something (at least in the case of carbon rods) that will take millions of years (estimated. no-one has been long enough to verify this) to degrade ???
it adds unnecessary weight, fucks up a rod’s action, adds shine, removes all the sexyness of natural carbon, makes people like you cry and is completely pointless. it’s stupidity incarnate ! 😛
btw M, i will NOT get over this… 😆
marc
I don’t know who you’re yelling at Marc, I wholeheartedly agree, and can’t for my life figure out where this rant comes from. maybe there was something fishy in your drink? but why O why would someone think about finishing the whole blank? (I mean, except because Sage does, or every other big name brand for that matter)
although, I must say I’m currently building a Quickline 5wt cannon that will totally quick ass, and is all finished in glossy black, and is so cute it looks like a sex toy. so to go completely overboard, I even did a glossy black finished grip.
I kid you not.
i’l yelling at you !
well, you’re barking up the wrong tree then.
now that I think of it, it was a bit of an overstatement: Sage, Hardy, T&T and Winston do use painted/finished blanks, and St Croix too I think. Not Loomis, at least not always — not the NRX anyway, a sweeeet 8wt
(in the old days when Gary was in charge he knew better than that)
a safe bet would be more than 90% of all factory and ‘custom’ builds are. funny (sad actually) is that it’s the customers who want all that shiny shit, glit and glam, not the makers.
go figure…
yeah well, people don’t buy primarily a fishing tool, much less a casting tool. they buy visual pleasure, a ticket for boasting and a penile substitute.
at least in our modest mancave at rodhouse, pinnacle of French rodbuilding, the official doctrine is orthodox and painted blanks are scorned. Eric (the guy who built the Epic I tried) will go far to gain weight. He builds a 9′ 5wt at 74g.
We ordered the Quicklines together: first thing he did was to sand his.
I was tempted, but succumbed to the appeal of glossy black. since I know that fly casting is kung-fu, I’ve been striving to get lacquered weapons.
I’m gonna go all Tarantino on them trouts.
I’m very curious about the red marker story now. 😉
I love what’s happening in glass rods, I’ve got a lime Epic 580 coming from a builder in the states. Only a few more long, long weeks….
-Oliver
ah, it’s a sad story, the results of which can be seen there:
http://tightloopflyrods.blogspot.fr/2013/04/swift-epic-476.html
not really a disaster, but far from the classy understatement of the rest of the production. The reel seat is mediocre and unsightly on this blank. I don’t care much for nationalist pride, and the blank comes from NZ anyway.
congrats for your choice. I don’t know if you understand French, I’ve tested the 480, and wrote a long review here. I’m a fast carbon guy, at least at this stage of my fly casting development, but I must say I had no problem understanding what’s the glass revival is all about. The whole experience left me craving for more. I don’t have the budget for an Epic now, so I’m gonna make me a tadpole instead…
oh, and hi!
very cool blog you’ve got there.
Hi and thank you!
Unfortunately no I don’t read french, otherwise I’d love to read the review. I cast the 686 but I couldn’t pass up a deal on a completed 580 so I sure hope I like it as much. Plus it’s too nice of a blank, I’m scared of fucking it up.
As far as the tadpole, as an alternative, and if you’re interested, there’s a retired rodbuilder in the UK selling off his old sportex and fibatube glass blanks for less than £20, I bought a 7.5 foot 4 and an 8 foot 5 weight plus some hardware to work on over the winter..
hmm, that’s quite interesting, thanks for the tip!
I sent him a mail, we’ll see what happens.
I’ve a good source for Batson stuff in France, so I’m thinking I’ll experiment a litlle with their SPG blanks. I’ve read good things about them. They’re quite cheap, and I never did a spigot, so I guess it’ll be a good opportunity to learn something.