The Fly Rod build has begun

Arrived home tonight to find a package inside the garage that was full of blanks and new components for some rods that are to be built. What I have been waiting on was included in this package.
The blank is a TFO 9' 4wt, reel seat is a triangular seat made by American Tackle, guides are stainless steel, chrome plated manufactured by Pac-Bay.
The cork are all 1/2 inch rounds in different colors and will be glued together then placed on a lathe and shaped to fit. After shaping it will be bored out to fit the blank.
The Rattlesnake skin, well let's just say that I like the way it looks on the bass rods that I build and will look for a spot to utilize on this fly rod if I can.
I hope you will follow the progress as it is built and SUBSCRIBE to my blog to keep updated. Another great reason to follow is I will be starting a blog giveaway for the subscribers with one of the prizes being a day trip fishing the Guad with me.

Send some rain this way,
Robert

Going to build a Fly Rod

Since starting fly fishing my first purchase was a new TFO BVK series rod in a 7wt. In a week a new Sage Flight rod in 5wt and a Redington reel will be joining the lineup. I have a new 3/4 wt BVK reel from TFO that I purchased when the first rod was ordered in hopes of one day building myself a fly rod. Today while ordering some blanks for a couple of rod orders, a TFO Professional Series 9' 4wt blank made it into my shopping cart as well as a triangle reel seat that is going to look so good on this rod. It should arrive at my house on Wednesday and hope to get started on it this weekend.I will take pictures during the build and post up when completed.
Here are a few pictures of my work.....

Stay safe on the water,
Robert

Jackson Kayak's COOSA (Gear Review)

Unable to get out and fish right now so I figured that a follow up was needed to a review that was done earlier in the year on the Coosa, by Jackson Kayak.
There are many kayaks out on the market that claim to do a lot of things. I've fished out of most of them over the years and since getting the Coosa early this year I have now found a kayak to fit the type of fishing that I do as well as coming with most all of the features you would want in a fishing kayak.
Being designed by a professional river fisherman, a lot of thought went into the design and the thing that Fly Fisherman will find beneficial is the ability to stand up and fish out of this kayak. I'm a big guy and have never really stood up and fished except while in a boat. During the year I have been finding myself standing and fishing more often even more while tossing the fly. The seat on this kayak is so comfortable that it allows you to stay out longer, it also has two positions upper and lower. While in the upper position you are able to easily make the transition from sitting to standing then back again. At first when you stand up you will feel a little wobbly but don't fear because the platform allows you to spread your feet to get a better sense of balance and the kayak hull design is such that it has both primary and secondary stabilization which helps with the balance.
There are two flush mount rod holders mounted behind the seat at an angle so your rods are not straight up in the air. This helps out when casting as well as when you get around trees. In front of the seat is a notch built in to the side rails that allows you to lay your paddle in front of you and keep it from rolling away. While you are paddling there are rod stagers molded into the side with built in bungees to strap your rods down and out of the way. Both the front and rear lids are raised to keep water out and they are held in place by a stainless steel hinge and the bungee tie down. Another great thing is they can both be locked while traveling for security. If you fish rivers like I do then you will want to add a drag chain. The drag chain is lowered in current to slow you down and make it easier for you to present the lure to the fish that you are after. I do a lot of camping/fishing trips and storage is a must. The first trip out in the Coosa was a two night trip and I was able to put almost all of my gear underneath with only a few items behind me and out of the way and had no water coming up through the scuppers. This is the effect of how high the kayak rides in the water and makes it affected by the wind if you are in the high position more than others that i've fished from. I really have not been able to find many negatives with it and look forward to seeing the one that they are testing out right now for fishing at the coast.
See you on the river,
Robert