Kabuto 8053, pt 1.

The second rod I've started is done, a Kabuto 8053 in the translucent white.

I think I ordered the blank nearly two years ago, and was probably sitting on it for 18 months. I decided I needed to finally do it, and put it together.

I was, honestly, originally planning on making this some sort of magnum opus for me, the ultimate rod, one rod to rule them (etc).

That was when I only fished dry flies. Shit, now I only fish wet flies, so, well, fuck that one rod shit, huh? That said, I only had it out a little bit, but I'll wax poetic on it after I've used it for awhile.

There's few times I feel like I'm doing a public service with this shitty blog, but talking about an obscure fly rod you'll never see in a shop might be one of them. I'll do that after I've had some more time (and fish) with it.

Anyways, build details follow.



First off, I gotta be honest, for my third rod and my most expensive blank, I did a really shitty time with the thread. I don't know how it went so terribly wrong, but all the black got really fucked up looking and fuzzy. I'm pretty pissed off about that. I also originally planned to wrap with silk, and opted for the less intensive nylon in the end. I knew it wouldn't be as transparent as silk wraps, but I was hoping for more than I got, which is less "candy coated purple water ice magic fly rod fuck yeah sea king" and more Wonder Rod. Anyways, Pacific Bay Dark Purple wraps with Midnight Black tips. It wasn't NCP thread, and I used two coats of Flexcoat Low Build.

Guides were all Pacific Bay brand, as well, lightwire snakes and a TiCH stripper. I used Yasuyuki Kabuto's recommended guide sizes and spacing, figuring no one would know his rod better than he. I admit, I fudged the spacing slightly. I'm all for doing it right, but I wasn't exactly able to get down to the precise milimeter placement he sent me.

I used a Fenwck style half Wells handle, cheap cork but fuck it, it'll look like shit after a few months of use whether I used REC cork or the Cabela's special. Coring that fucker out was a chore, because the diameter of the blank down there is far bigger than what one would've expected. This is one of the reasons I left the "super, no expense spared"rod concept behind: Trying to core out a wooden spacer (made by a friend from a home stream's tree branch) would've been fucking unpossible, so the next best thing were vintage featherlight styled aluminum downlockers from Ebay. Durable, light, and big enough to easily accept the butt of the rod.

All that aside, its just about impossible for me to capture the look of the rod blank and do it justice. Even without the thread finish being what I wanted, there's soemthing striking about the translucent blank how it catches the ambient light. The best I could do was try to hold it up to the sun and let it flow through, but its just won't translate to pictures.

To the left is a picture of three different blanks, the Kabuto is at the bottom (obviously). Above it is a Quick Finessa 6186, and next down is a Daiwa VIP 43. To put it simply, they are transparent rods, the Daiwa so much that you can almost read through it. In comparision, the Kabuto doesn't even show the contrast of the knife blade very well beneath it, but it has a way of picking up ambient light and almost glowing.