BAMBOO fly rod - Dickerson taper with a SWELL butt

This bamboo blank was made of out tonkin bamboo. A 6'6" 2 piece 2 tips 3wt bamboo fly rod of Dickerson taper added swell butt at the bottom.

The bamboo blank in golden brown color was finished with a few coat of spar urethane.


Parts for this rod.

Up locking vintage looking reel seat fitted.

Half wells cork grip finished off with a hexagon winding check on top.

Completed handle.

Agated stripping guide wrapped with Pearsall's Jasper Silk and black thread trimming.

Completed bamboo fly rod.

MHX Cockle Rod

This blank is similar to my sample blank for my own custom rod. 6'6" of length and rated at 4-8lb 2 section.

My friend called this a "cockle shell" rod because of the abalone shell used for the split butt section exposed blank.

Parts for the rod

Arrangement

Abalone deco to exposed blank at split butt.

Test fitting before epoxy

Sky blue thread with titanium trim at the center.

Guides done

On the drying jig after epoxy

Wrapping after epoxy

MGX mounted on the rod...

The BIG one.

I would say that this is one of the heaviest rod ( in terms of poundage ) that I have built. This Musky / Steelhead blank for MHX is rated at 15-40lb and 7 feet of length.

My friend said this rod is for BIG fish. LOL..
For the convenience of travelling, this blank was shorten to 6'6".

The concept for this rod is CAMOuflage. That is the rough idea how the handle is going to be..

The exposed blank at the split butt was wrapped with twisted thread for 'tiger' wrap effect.

Test fitted before epoxy

and exopy...

This is how is look like after final assembly.

Wrapping was done too in front of the fore grip.

The guides are wrapped using the same color thread.

All guides are UP..

The rod on the dry machine for epoxy to all the guides..

And when it is ready...

A few of my friends said this look something like KOZ rods. What say you?

and the grand finale...

Testing my BAMBOO baitcasting rod

I am not sure if you can still remember this rod which was built 3 years ago.
It was the first bamboo bc I built for me..

If you have no idea what I am talking about , click on this link to refresh your memory.

I have fished with it couple of times and it did not hook up or landed any fish.
As I was clearing some of my stuff on the shelf the other day, I saw this rod at one corner and it does not do any justice to let this rod just sit there.

I clean it up and took it out for a lure casting trip with a friend near my place.
Finally after all these years.... it finally landed not just one but two good size catch....


Snakehead on my bamboo baitcasting rod

Peacock bass on my bamboo baitcasting rod..

Composite USA UL with MATAGI components

This is a Composite USA blank which I thought was no longer in the market, but then I heard they are back in business.

And.... ooppsss....

This blank was shorten a couple of inches..


The components used are all from MATAGI Japan.

Rear handle to be shape.

Slight curvy shaped rear grip.

View of the whole handle.

FUJI SiC Tungsten frame guides

Custom Built with Matagi Components

Epoxying the rod on my messy work station

Completed finishing

Fitted with reel

CAMO Handle MHX

I started off with the handles for this rod. Experimenting with different way to enhance the split grip exposed blank.

Of course, first I choose the material that I wanted to use for the grip.
Green CAMO EVA from Matagi.

I tried tiger wraps on the split grip area. It was not what I expected it to be. It's harder than I thought.

With the winding check at both side.

Pre fitted grip before shaping the handle.

Shaped..

MATAGI butt cap at the bottom.

Classic twist Black/Green thread for wrapping. CP is required for this thread.

Sample wrapping coated with CP.
L-series guide and K-series guide.

Rod decal

Fore grip finishing

Guides up pending expoxy.

Rod completed...