Westslope Rods

I had a few more pics to post of the new rod. It's about time to start on the next one, but I think I will have to wait until next week. It is campin time. With rods and bows, we wil be sure to have a good time. Hopefully I come back with some fish pics. Oh yeah I fell in the river the other day too. Really woke me up.

New Rod

This is the newest rod I finished. These photos were takin by my good friend Cort. He did an amazing job with these pics. A fly rod is so hard to photograph, because it is so long and narrow. I love how they turned out. This rod was built for my dad. The reelseat and two caps on the grip are made out of Chokecherry Burl wood. When I was younger living in Idaho, I used to go pick Chokecherries with my dad and grandpa in the fall. Then grandma would make us some jelly. I always thought it was neat that we could go to the mountains, bring these berries back and make something with it. The rest of the grip is cork with a cottonwood and birch bark inset. I flamed the rod with a torch. It reminded me of a rattle from a rattlesnake. Bamboo ferrules are my favorite. It let's there be a little art in the middle of the rod. Most bamboo ferrules are made of nickel silver which is good looking, I just like how much more natural bamboo is. On the signiture wrap I used some horse hair from my dads favorite race horse that passed away earlier this year. Luckly I pulled some hair last year to tie some flies. The case is made from cedar, another Idaho touch. Growing up in smalltown Idaho and having my dad and grandpa build stock fences for a living meant that we needed to cut alot of cedar posts. So with this case having cedar and chokecherry together was cool. You can even take a few flies with you too.
Thanks Cort for the awesome photography.