Worst Fly Rod Ever?

Turning One Bad Rod Into Another

A little while ago, I stumbled across some $5 rod and reel combos and just couldn't resist buying one. I knew it's fate immediately. It was going to be my first solid glass fly rod. A test cast with a 4wt line told me that it may be better with a 5 or 6wt line for the short casts that I would be using it for. I will figure that out once the rod is rebuilt though.

You get what you pay for!

Step one was to get rid of the reel seat, and find something to replace it with. A couple of broken graphite fly rods became donors. removing the original one piece plastic grips and reel seat from the green beast revealed that the bottom half of the blank was shorter than the top. 

With a mini hacksaw, I managed to cut off the cork that I needed from both of the old rods, as well as cutting through the metal on one reel seat to remove the bits I needed to create my own cap and ring seat. I decided to trim and reverse one of the original grips to make a short half wells style grip. It needs a bit more sanding to get it the way I want it, but it feels ok in the hand. Certainly good enough for this rod! The second grip pictured below was sanded considerably after the photo was taken to allow the threaded ring to slide over it to hold the front of the reel foot in place.

o

The finished reel seat is nothing special, but is seems to hold the reel securely. I think I spent enough time sanding it considering it was going to end up on what could possibly be the worst fly rod ever made. The end cap, cut from the same original reel seat fits perfectly in place. Now it's just a matter of deciding how much to trim off the front and cutting it down, filing the inside graphite tubing so it slides onto the blank extension behing the grip, and gluing everything in place.

I am still trying to decide if I will strip off the few cheap wire guides and put on some snakes salvaged from one of the graphite rods. If I find a line that it casts well with, then I may just do that. I'm even thinking of stripping the green paint from the blank and leaving it as plain white glass. I will decide that if and when I strip the old guides off. 

More than anything, I can't wait to take this thing down to my local stream and catch a trout with it. No doubt there will be a report with pictures to post up once that happens.