So, I was thinking of modifying a cheap little Martin single-hander graphite into a mini two-hander spey rod for my daughter. I was able to take off the bottom cap of the reel seat to expose the graphite blank inside. I'm thinking of inserting an oak dowel rod into the inside of the blank that will extend down far enough to glue/form a cork butt grip to.
Do you think this will be strong enough for a good fight with a steelhead? Should I use weldwood or should I look at some sort of marine epoxy? Any ideas would be appreciated!
I have had good luck using a carbon arrow shaft and just about any two part bonding epoxy. I have never used wood dowels only carbon and fiberglass. Give it a shot worst thing you end up doing is having to re do it or put your butt cap back on
There is a company on the web that sells graphite rods of various diameters and lengths for high end kites, I bought a piece of this when I converted my 9 1/2' 6 weight BVK into a two hander. Epoxied the graphite rod into the butt of the fly rod, then epoxied a premade bottom hand grip onto that rod. Simple measure and glue job, worked great.
Fellow named Jack was kind enough to send me some beautiful wood pieces to use as inserts on a bottom grip, and some scrap flyrod blank pieces to use as inserts. Sadly I lost his contact as a bunch of my archived emails got deleted (Jack, if you're reading this, thanks so much, it worked). I found out that, in the end, it's easier to buy the carbon rods I noted above as they are uniform in size (not tapered like butt sections of a fly rod) and long enough to use on multiple builds. Measure the ID of the butt section, order a rod piece that is a size smaller, sand it down and tape it to size and epoxy it in. You can order premade bottom handle sections (got a 5.75" one from mudhole dot com) and drill them out or tape up the carbon shaft to make it fit.
I'm going to use the wood pieces I got from jack on my next build, going to make a two handed 4 weight with a 4 weight single hander and do it a bit nicer.
I have done the samee thing with an ugly stick flyrod when I worked the lodges in s/e alaska I would teach customers how to get into saltwater flyfishing w/o breaking the bank.Iwould take an ugly stick big water rod anywhere fron an 8-12wt and extend the the butt section like above and make a real mean head casting machine out of it then show the tourists that there is more than salmon that will take a fly pretty educational and fun
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Washington Fly Fishing Forum
1.8M posts
21.3K members
Since 2000
A forum community dedicated to fishers, anglers and enthusiasts in the Washington area. Come join the discussion about safety, gear, boats, tackle, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!