During January I am planning on building my first fly rod. I have competed 3 bait casting rods for myself and my son and will probably work on a 2 piece spinning rod in December. So far I feel pretty confident that I can pull this off. So as usual I have a few questions.

The rod blank (Sage Method 890) is red! I mean RED! I think Sage refers to it as magma. I'll be using this rod for large mouth bass and inshore saltwater. I'm not in to flashy. Yeah I know a red blank is kind of flashy. So I want to tone the wraps down a bit. I'm trying to come up with some complimentary colors that do not create too much of a contrast. I'll probably put a trim wrap in for each guide that is offset in color but again does not contrast too much. Thoughts?

Sage calls for size 2 guides for the top half of the rod. Should I go with an over sized tip top? I'm currently planning on using Snake brand guides and Fuji striping guides. For the striping guides any recommendation of the Fuji guides that are higher quality? All guides will be silver.

For the reel seat I think I'm going with the REC RFTS in aluminum. This has the flat reel seat surface. I'm also thinking about the removable butt so I can change it out if I want. I am planning on using a 7" full wells grip FLOR grade. I'm not sure what winding check to use, rubber or metal.

Any suggestions on wrapping the last few guides on the top section? I'm using the CRB hand wrapper. When I build my conventional rods the top sections are stout enough to be supported on one side. I was thinking of using a small piece of 1/2" PVC to support the top side of the blank when wrapping the last 2 guides. Kind of like a blank extender.

Thanks
Mike

I have always found that Gray and Black always work very well with Red. I have wrapped Red rods with the eyes with a light Gray and put accent bands on either end of the Gray in Black to separate the Gray from the Red rod. If you want to see how these colors go together, check out the Ohio State Buckeyes logo, these three colors work unless you're not a Buckeyes fan!

Looking forward to seeing your build!

Tony Boschi
Banana River Rods
Merritt Island, Florida
321~525~1063

* Rapid Prototyping Services
* Custom Beach Rods
* Custom Inshore Rods

[bananariverrods.com]

Tony - My son goes to IU so having a Buckeye rod may create family issues! :)


Seriously I do like the gray black combination. I'll do a few test wraps with that.

Mike,
Your email is hidden.

email me - or un-hide your email so we can "talk"
Herb

Herb Ladenheim Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mike,
> Your email is hidden.
>
> email me - or un-hide your email so we can "talk"
> Herb


Sorry.... you should see it now.

Make test wraps, make test wraps, make test wraps. Seriously. the only way to know with certainty if a color combination will be pleasing to your eye is to make test wraps in the reel seat and grip area. You might try a few hues of light red that is not color preserved. Every once in a while you can find a hue that when it darkens and becomes translucent matches the blank color.

Nothing wrong with #2 snakes, but I'd use #1 snakes to a large loop tip top.

I'd use REC titanium strippers (not attractive but they cannot rust) and I'd avoid a removable fighting butt like the plague as it is the odds on favorite to be lost by the time of its second desired use. Just cut the butt to compensate for the fighting butt's net length and permanently affix the fighting butt. All rod sections will be the same length and you'll have a much easier time finding an appropriately sized rod tube.

Since you plan to use in the salt, consider REC snake guides. They can't rust. For stripping guides, the Fuji titanium guides (TKWSG) work very well and also can't rust. I'd probably use size 3 snakes but 2s will work fine.

Color is personal, but last summer I built a metallic red 9wt with matching thread color so the whole rod is red with titanium guides. It honestly looks great and I'm not the flashy type either.

For a rod tube, I use 2" ABS black pipe. Then every one can be a custom length and it's a tough, light material.

Drew

Drew - I think I'll switch from the Snake guides to the REC #2's and Fuji TKWSG. Sage calls for #2's so I'll stick with their advice for now. I plan on doing a series of test wraps with a variety of colors that everyone is recommending.

Don - I keep going back and forth on the fixed vs removable fighting butt. My thought with the removable was to use a light LockTite on it and maybe a rubber O-ring to keep from turning. But maybe the fixed is the way to go.

Mike,
Been a while since I've been around a Method, but don't they have grey wraps, with black trim? I now I don't think it outlandish. Another person not a fan of removable butts, don't know why someone would not want a fighting butt on an eight weight and I know of lot of lost removable butts. Me for one.
I would't cut the butt to match the other pieces, Lefty Kreh wrote years ago about the advantages of having the tip slightly shorter than the rest of his rod pieces to protect the tip during transport.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2019 12:15PM by Spencer Phipps.

One other question... What size thread should I use for an 8wt? I was thinking A but would I be better off with B?

Mr Mike,

You could possible use White to wrap the eyes with Black trim bands, that might give you a IU color scheme to avoid family conflicts! LOL!

You might also consider using a "Silver Metallic" in place of the Gray or just tell people the "Gray" is a "Pewter" ! ... They do use the Silver with the black on the trim bands in the photo on the Sage website, check it here ... [www.sageflyfish.com]

... go with the A size, nothing looks SWEETER than A thread!

Tony Boschi
Banana River Rods
Merritt Island, Florida
321~525~1063

* Rapid Prototyping Services
* Custom Beach Rods
* Custom Inshore Rods

[bananariverrods.com]

On the removable vs permanently affixed fighting butt, ask yourself how many times, if any, you would want to fish the rod without the fighting butt. If the fighting butt is removable, where will it be stored so it will not be lost?

In my view, adding another color with the wraps will more often than not make the red flashier. I would try to match the hue as close as possible (testing to see how it looks after.coating, there's always a difference, usually darker)

_______________________________________________
If I'm not going to catch anything, then I'd rather not catch anything on flies.

Prostaff Rodhouse
[www.rodhouse.fr]

Mike,
It's certainly not unheard of to use "B" thread, G Loomis used it all the time, have no idea what they use now.

Try out an orange, rust and different shades of red.thread. Size A is plenty strong.

Black wraps with a black/silver trim, black furniture all the way.

Red with same.

Gray with red 3+/- wrap accents, silver/aluminum furniture.

Method is a great blank.

Consider single foot REC guides and Ti frame strippers. That’s my go to.

D

A quick update. I ordered several spools of reds, rust, burnt orange, and a couple of grays to try out.

Tony - thanks for the link to the Sage site. I was looking for that. I like the color combination that they used so I might try that. While I don't necessarily want to copy the manufacturer color scheme it does not look too flashy.

Hey Mike,

On another note, sometimes when my brain is all "a' twisted" on a color pattern, I'll go to Wallymart and pick up some thread. They have just about every hue of color thread in the "sewing department".

I'll pull the colors right up on my phone and stand there and compare the color to what they have and 99% of the time, its pretty darn spot on.

The spools of thread are considerably less than what you probably spent for the threads you bought, but you can try your patterns with the Wallymart thread, and you're not CRINGING when you cut all the thread off! LOL!!

They also have all the metallic threads, silver, copper, gold and you can use those for your test patterns as well.

I also mention this because you can probably have the thread, all depending on where your Wallymart is, and be able to play with patterns sooner than waiting for the thread to arrive by mail.

I have 2 sets of threads at home on my table, one is the "good stuff" and the other has all my Wallymart colors.

Sometimes, even when I am putting a wrap on the rod, I think to myself, "I wonder what this would look like if I added "this" color to the wrap". If it turned out that it doesn't work, I can cut it off and not even think about re-wrapping it on the spool it came from.

By the way, we'll all be awaiting your final product now ... No Pressure ... LOL!!!

I am not sure if this was mentioned to you but wet the threads on the blank with water to get an idea how it darkens with epoxy. Gun metal gray regular will go clear with a dark tint without color preserver.

DNA works very well for the test an dry's extremely fast , you might think about for the test instead of water

William Sidney
AK