I forgot to add that I personally have found the TroutHunter fluorocarbon to be the strongest for the knots that I tie and fish on 7x; your mileage may vary. I mention the brand because I have tried some brands that don't seem strong enough to cinch knots in the 7x flavors, while the same brands 4x seems decent...
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My fish fighting ability went up exponentially after two years of fixed line fishing on 7x; I prefer Keiryu rods for weighted nymphs... Here are a couple of videos that helped me learn more about fighting a fish: In practice, I pull the hook on at least 95% of the trout I loose over 20"; and have never broken off a fish on 7x using an appropriate power fixed line rod. I mention ap
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I forgot to mention that Herb was great to deal with and got me the blank much faster than expected..
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I love my Euro X 2wt so far. I have only fished a couple of the rods you mention, so my experience isn't complete and I havent weighed any of those rods on a scale. Having said that, I have at least wiggled most of them in fly shops and I havent felt any rods that are lighter in hand the the Euro X I built... I have built and fished a NFC FANY1102 quite a bit now. While both rods are 2wts,
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Is their a reason Counterbores are not more popular for inletting grips? I had good success using a spade bit to inlet a single cork ring on my drill press before gluing the rings together for the grip, but in my research for solutions I stumbled onto the Counterbores. Flyrodcrafters sells a brand of counterbores for this purpose, but I hesitate to post a link because they are not a sponsor..
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Ed, I would love to hear/see what you come up with using the NFC grip/butt. I wanted to try those NFC grips, but didn't see an easy way to integrate with a downlocking reel seat and fighting butt...
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I should add that I am inverting the uplocking seats and inletting the fighting butt into the reel seat so that I have a Downlocking seat with fighting butt. I found it easiest to drill the inlet into the cork ring first. Then I glued on a piece of rubberized cork. Once the rubberized ring was glued in place, I inserted the reel seat hood and then turned to shape on my homemade flexcoat style la
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I’m really happy with how the rod turned out. My design goal was to keep the rod as light as possible and I think I did a good job on that front. Durability has been good so far, with several inadvertent branch strikes and drops. Because keeping the rod light was my primary focus, I couldn’t justify snake guides on the tip section; the two extra wraps seemed contrary to what I wanted to accom
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To follow up since I saw another thread about inletting. I am happy with the results of the "flex coat" method I linked above, of using a spade bit, cork ring holder and drill press to inlet a single cork ring. I did drill a couple off center holes before I managed a keeper. Although I think the reject cork rings were close enough to be turned round. I looked thru the sponsors web
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I really appreciate this discussion and especially the Q&A video. Thanks Aleks... Being new to rodbuilding, I did an extensive amount of research and decided straightest axis would be the best way to go for me. I didn't even bother to spine the first two rods I built, I was so confident in my research. In hindsight, I should have found the spine if for nothing else other than data of kno
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Thanks Ben, that's good to know... I just weighed some and came up with .041g each. I actually weighed ten at 0.41g and divided to get the weight; my scale read .04g for a single guide...
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How does this method stack up against the competition? I need to inlet some cork and am planning on trying out this method; I’ll report back my results later this afternoon unless I can come up with a better way this morning… Harry
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Ben, Would you by chance have the weight of a size 1 RSFX guide? It’s too soon to tell about durability for me, but so far so good… my biggest concern is breaking them off trying to remove ice… I’m definitely not against building a stronger rod, but light weight has been my primary design goal so far. I think it would be informative to add weight to the tip of the rod to simulate h
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Hey Mike, I used a size 10 double foot casting guide and then the size 1 REC ultralight singe foot guides all of the way to the tip. In hindsight I will use a size 10 single foot, instead of the double. I easily pass the needle nail knot connecting .013" leader to .022" fly line in all situations with ease. I am able to shake off any line wrapped on the tip pretty much every time
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I hope this isn't a stupid question, but how much variance in straightness is acceptable? Would this be best measured in deviation from a straight edge in millimeters or is their a better way? I recently had a tip section that looked too crooked to use, but I placed guides on the straightest axis with O-rings and couldn't really see the bends; so I wrapped it and enjoy how the rod fishes..
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If I am only nymphing, I have been using the Micro (.007”) Umpqua butt section with 3’ of same sized sighter. If I think I will have a chance at throwing size 20 midge dries at rising trout, I will run the Heavy (.013”) butt section which gives me a little more distance and accuracy... I am still experimenting with which butt section I like with heavy jig streamers. I almost exclusively fish
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I've been fishing the FANY 1102 quite a bit the past few months; I'm using the Diamondback reel with one 10gram weight... I built it with the REC ultralight single foot size 1 guides. I am generally fishing for 12-20" trout, in 1-6' deep water, in rivers around 50' wide with this rod. I've had a couple of "oh crap" moments either dropping the rod or hitting a branch without any e
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Good on you Herb, I had been meaning to post a reply in the CTS Euro blank thread about this option being available, but this deserves its own topic... Now if I could get one delivered to me... The REC website says 21 day lead time. I imagine Christmas doesn't help that, so I'm trying to be patient... Really good basic rod building lesson in this for me, from now on I am ordering components
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I thought about just getting another dryer motor, but I would like a power wrapper, even if I don’t need one… I plan to buy the flexcoat soon and then the CRB pro stands for my track down the road as needed…
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I wasn’t thrilled with the new RBS pro being out of stock back in August when I decided to take the plunge. I didn’t like the idea of having to spend more to build it later; I especially wanted the pro rod stands… In hindsight, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I think my path of buying the RBS tracks, cheap stands, thread carriage, and variable speed dryer w/slip clutch was a better option fo
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I’m new to rod building and maybe I don’t know what I’m missing, but I have had good service from NFC. I ordered 10 blanks from NFC at the end of June with a lead time of 6-8 weeks. I received half of the blanks within two weeks and the rest within about a month. I did not pay for shipping and received the rods in three shipments/tubes. I expected to wait the 6-8weeks and receive everything
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I think the biggest mistake on my first couple builds was not weighing the individual parts before hand... I will most certainly be weighing all of the components; I will report back with weights when I get all the stuff. I have a feeling the Struble full body aluminum seat will be a touch lighter than the REC insert seat, but I could be way off having never held a REC seat...
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I think those measurements will work for the smaller reel seat, just realized I should have included an extra inch for the fighting butt…
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I measure the tip as a 3.5 via the tip top sizing tool and .052" with calipers. The butt is around .360"ish; I say ish because they have a sticker on the butt which I peeled off but haven't removed the residue yet... I'm still not certain which reel seat I will use, but just ordered a REC AUSL. Depending on the actual length of the seat I use(Strobel 4")(REC 3.4", but this
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copy on the wrinkles, I hate those. I'll monitor how long my butt sections last... The Six Lakes Mini here in Utah last month was my first comp; super fun and I learned a ton. I wish I could have stayed for the second day with better conditions, but I had a lot of fun none the less. It was impressive to see what good casting looks like in person.. I'm with you on feel being overrated. I hav
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Ben, That is great info about the lighter guides wearing out line faster. I only have about 40hrs of fishing time on the NFC Euro rod I just built using those guides. So far I haven't had any leader breakages, but I haven't landed anything big on this rod yet. I will monitor the guide situation closely for line wear. Would going with micro ceramics make sense on a Euro rod, or maybe the tit
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Hey Herb, Thank you for the offer, but I think the hood on those seats will require a larger diameter fighting butt in order to recess the .930" hood when the reel seat is used in the downlocking configuration. Although, now that I think of it, I could make my own cork rings in a larger diameter in order to get the fighting butt style I prefer. I like the size and look of the fighting
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I would order your components as soon as possible; I should have ordered everything at the same time. Now I have the blank(2wt.), but the black ultra light size 1 REC single foot guides I need are backordered. Kind of a pain deciding which reel seat to use. I want to use the REC RFTS seat, but I'm worried it will look too big on such a light rod having never held one in real life. Also re
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Hey Ben, I did the static load test with 11, 12, and 13 guides. I felt like even with 11 guides, the static load was at least as good as some factory rods I tested to establish a baseline. I really wanted to like the rod with 11 guides, and am positive it would've fished fine, but I couldn't stand the way the line sagged between guides with that setup. It's probably just me, but I can't to
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I couldn't find a guide layout on the NFC site... I did find one for an 11' Euro rod on the Proof site. I am very happy with the way this rod has been fishing. I have two weights in the Diamond Back Nymph reel and may be able to get away with only one weight after some more testing... I just received the 10'6" CTS Euro X I am hoping to build as soon as the stuff to make a grip arrives.
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