Any idiot can make a fly rod.

I may, in fact, be a giant.

Proof? I did.

And all things considered (bourbon), it went pretty well.

God knows it took long enough, mostly due to laziness and a hatred of shipping charges, but with the "practice" rod out of the way, we can concentrate on doing a good one.

I picked up a Cabela's kit and a Garcia Conolon 2070 Lee Wulff blank, a 6' one piece with recommended line weights listed anywhere from 5 to 7. 

So far, I've tried it with an Air Cel 6WFF, and its goddamned sweet.

The blank included the original squred handle (and that's a petite little thing) and reel seat, without the bands. That's OK, bands suck. I cut the end off, and used the kit included uplocking Pacific Bay A4 reel seat. Since I couldn't hide the upper ring inside the cork, I wrapped it with thread.

I did a shitty job, but whatever. 

Also included were the Pac Bay snakes and stripper, chrome and black respectively (why different colours, Cabela's?!). I have since received a gratis set of Snake Brand guides, and I can assure you they're worth the price increase. 

Included was a spool of size Pac Bay size A nylon thread in Evergreen. Despite my assumptions it was NCP, it was not. Oops. Its a shame, I liked the colour before I finished it, but whatever. 

Finished with Pac Bay thread finish, I learned that doing an entire 6' one piece rod is way too much and thus some of the wraps are a little shitty. In some places, it could use a second coat as the thread's textures are still apparant instead of having that nice glassy appearance, but it is what it is.

I've been assembling components for the next one, and I'm pretty sure its gonna turn out fucking perfect.

A special thanks to Andy from Old Yankee Rod works for giving me some feedback and friendly advice, as well as some information about the classic use of signature wraps on rods. It was nice to include a little bit of a piece of tradition into it as I plan to make more rods into the future, and I wanted to include a bit of homage to the way things were done, even if now its all about just writing your name with a pen.

Where's the fun in that?