Report on my 2wt homebuilt

[Sean Grier]

Well, I promised to report back on the progress of my 2wt project, so here 'tis.   As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I've been wanting a 7-1/2' 2wt for the local streams and beaverponds around the west side, so I got some great input from folks on the board, and went with Jeff at Platt River Rods in Colorado.  He set me up with the St. Croix SCIII 2 wt blank, a nice Struble D2 seat in teak, custom lathed cork grip and single foot chrome guides.  $180 with a tube and sock.  It took me a day to build it and lace it up, and another day to complete the wrap coatings.  Well it turned out just great.  The seat is a slip ring downlock which keeps the overall weight down, and I ended up going to (gasp!) Bass Pro Shops and picked up their Hobbs Creek large arbor reel.  About 3.8 oz and only $60 with an extra spool.   So I went out early this morning to our local beaverpond up off of Sultan Basin Rd to blood the rod.  It was a nice drizzly morning and I figured all the gearslingers would be on the Sky with their jetboats and their salmon rods, so I was more than a little disappointed to see 2 beatup old pickups at the parking area.  Oh well, I figured I'll just have to fish the back 9 and leave the main section to the mouthbreathers.   It quit raining as I launched the pontoon and laced up the rod.  Green Humpy with a brown bloodworm chronie hanging 3' below, and I'm off in search of rising fish.  Not too long after getting to my favorite location on the pond, I spotted what I was looking for:  A splashy rise between the bank and the lilypads.  I dropped the combo right where I wanted it (the rod casts great with a slight overweighting to a 3wt line - Thanks for the tip, Ryan) and no sooner did the chronie drop to it's hanging point, then the humpy went underwater and fish on!  But not for long, as I LDR'd what looked like a 12" cuttie.  Off to search for more.   An hour later with 3 more hits and 3 more LDRs I was getting a little worried that my rod might be a bit jinxed, but then the humpy went under again, and I could see the fish flash.  NICE fish, I'm thinking.  But the fish hadn't figured out he'd been hooked yet.  As I put a little heat to him, I could see it was at least a 14" cutt, then he got the point and the fight was on.  I'm looking at my rod doubled over and thinking, man if this was my 5 wt., this would be a 24" fish at least.  With 6x and a noodle of a rod, this fish proceeds to tow me around for a good 5 minutes before I can finally bring him to hand.  On the apron, he measured 15+" and was just gorgeous.  Big bright spots and long scarlet slashes under his gill plates.  So set him back in the water, busted the wrap on my last Cohiba and headed back to the launch, as the sun was starting to shine on the pond, and my caveman desires were satisfied.  As it turned out, I was able to blood both the rod AND my new long-handled boat C&R net.  BTW, JD Hills has these very nice Broden knockoffs for $25.  Though they're made in India, or Pakistan or some other 3rd world hellhole, their quality is quite sufficient for my needs.  I know I should be supporting my local flyshop, and not be buying from a company that supports jobs going overseas, but dang, I just can't justify $80-$100 for something that isn't CRITICAL to my fishing experience, ya know?   Anyway, the one question I had for you rod makers on the board is:  How do I keep the bubbles from forming on the wrap coating.  I mixed it carefully so as not to introduce bubbles into it, but I think when I brushed it on the wraps, the bubbles formed from the trapped air in the wrapping.  Short of sanding it down and putting a new coat on (which I'm SURE will damage the fine threads), is there anything I can do in the future to keep this from happening?  I used a 30rpm rod lathe to dry the coats.  Other than the bumpies on my guidewraps, the rod turned out GREAT.   Sean