Weather Gods

[rps]

I plan to vent here. If you want rational or sweetness and light, move on.

Over the last two days, dozens of people have lost their lives and hundreds have seen their homes, their businesses, or both, destroyed. This fact is tragic, and I do not intend to belittle the seriousness of their grief and pain.

My wife and I have been fortunate all our lives to not be victims of such.

My rant is much smaller.

@Dutch asked me to build a rod. Despite a spot of illness, Mudhole's woefully slow delivery, and life hiccups, I have done so. Last weekend I epoxied the thread. If you have never built a rod, let me assure you, epoxy application never goes to plan. Sometimes it is a breeze. Other times nothing goes right. Try pulling a dog hair out of a set epoxied wrap. The first coat of epoxy for Dutch was marginally okay. I thought I needed to touch it up. Right after lunch today, I did a little touch up and put the rod back on the rolling dryer for the self leveling epoxy to even out.

The wife and I went to Verizon for a free upgrade to a Iphone 14 for her. With this, that, and the other, we were gone two hours. When we came back, we discovered the power went out shortly after we left. The computers were shut down, the clocks were way off time, and various appliances needed to be restarted. One was the rod roller.

The thread wraps now have the oddest bulges, some areas not covered, and the kinds of defects I am ashamed to show. So I won't. These do not affect the function of the rod or its longevity. They are merely ugly.

I will ship @Dutch his rod when it cures. I will continue to hold hold fate and weather responsible for the ugliest rod I have made in the last twenty years. If I were doing this for money, I would not even send it.

Why is it that when you are doing something for someone else, the weather gods make sure to spoil it?

 

[Quillback]

Had a power glitch here yesterday too.  It was just a brief on/off deal.  Luckily for this area, the weather wasn't organized when it passed through here like it got organized when it moved further east.  Just a lot of high wind.  

[BilletHead]

6 hours ago, rps said:

I plan to vent here. If you want rational or sweetness and light, move on.

Over the last two days, dozens of people have lost their lives and hundreds have seen their homes, their businesses, or both, destroyed. This fact is tragic, and I do not intend to belittle the seriousness of their grief and pain.

My wife and I have been fortunate all our lives to not be victims of such.

My rant is much smaller.

@Dutch asked me to build a rod. Despite a spot of illness, Mudhole's woefully slow delivery, and life hiccups, I have done so. Last weekend I epoxied the thread. If you have never built a rod, let me assure you, epoxy application never goes to plan. Sometimes it is a breeze. Other times nothing goes right. Try pulling a dog hair out of a set epoxied wrap. The first coat of epoxy for Dutch was marginally okay. I thought I needed to touch it up. Right after lunch today, I did a little touch up and put the rod back on the rolling dryer for the self leveling epoxy to even out.

The wife and I went to Verizon for a free upgrade to a Iphone 14 for her. With this, that, and the other, we were gone two hours. When we came back, we discovered the power went out shortly after we left. The computers were shut down, the clocks were way off time, and various appliances needed to be restarted. One was the rod roller.

The thread wraps now have the oddest bulges, some areas not covered, and the kinds of defects I am ashamed to show. So I won't. These do not affect the function of the rod or its longevity. They are merely ugly.

I will ship @Dutch his rod when it cures. I will continue to hold hold fate and weather responsible for the ugliest rod I have made in the last twenty years. If I were doing this for money, I would not even send it.

Why is it that when you are doing something for someone else, the weather gods make sure to spoil it?

 

          Pretty and perfect is overrated.  Sometimes the prettiest things are deep down ugly inside. If it does the job who cares. Some of the first flies I tied were butt ugly. The fish did not care about those, and they are not going to care what that rod looks like.  

[Dutch]

I’m sure it will fish just fine.  All of the components are the same as my shaky rod (favorite rod of all time).

[Phil Lilley]

Sometimes the "story" of the rod and its imperfections is better than a perfectly crafted one.

[fishinwrench]

Start doing them all that way, and call them the Crankshaft series.  

It can't look any stupider than a "Roberts wrap". 🙄

[bfishn]

Seek counselling. The sooner it's addressed, the more likely a positive result.

[rps]

9 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

Start doing them all that way, and call them the Crankshaft series.  

It can't look any stupider than a "Roberts wrap". 🙄

Ouch! When I wrap for myself I do an Acid or Roberts wrap.

[TRRANGER]

Fish do not care about pretty, good thing cuz I aint. This story is what will make Dutch love this rod and that you made it for Him. I have built some rods back in the late 80s with my dad and still have them in a closet and we used the Roberts Wrap and I think they worked really well. Dad had the patience to do a really beautiful multi colored diamond pattern butt wrap that was amazing. I just did basic wraps and would like at some point to start doing it again but kids are consuming to much time right now to build them myself.  

[rps]

4 hours ago, TRRANGER said:

Fish do not care about pretty, good thing cuz I aint. This story is what will make Dutch love this rod and that you made it for Him. I have built some rods back in the late 80s with my dad and still have them in a closet and we used the Roberts Wrap and I think they worked really well. Dad had the patience to do a really beautiful multi colored diamond pattern butt wrap that was amazing. I just did basic wraps and would like at some point to start doing it again but kids are consuming to much time right now to build them myself.  

Once upon a time, I did diamond wraps as well. Of course, that was back when all the blanks were fiberglass. Now days I do minimalist. My preference is spiral wrapped split grip with no foregrip, and micro guides.