YUP - IT'S A GIRLY ROD
Sunday, 20 November 2005
Some of you may remember the last fly rod I built; an 8 ft. 5 wt. that I fondly call the salute to Mexico. It was the first rod that I had ever made and in my eyes it turned out to be a gem. The original kit came with red, green, and gold thread. I was a little disappointed in the thread colors. These are pretty boring, I thought to myself as I opened the kit. However, once Lee Koch and Doug King explained how to apply the wraps to the guides my imagination took over and I knew I could make a pretty cool looking fly rod. Somewhere, during the afternoon hours of wrapping I think Lee got a little bored and offered to help me with my wraps. I had been struggling to put green wraps on the lower end of my rod and was happy for the assistance. You bet!, I replied. When Lee asked me what color to use I quickly responded that he should be creative and use the red and gold. And in the end we came up with a unique rod that had green wraps on the bottom half and red and gold threads wrapped around every other guide, all the way to the tip-top. A fun result after many hours of labor.
But what does that have to do with a girly rod?
On November 19th, our fly fishing club had the luxury of hosting its second annual fly rod building workshop. Earlier in the year, when I heard we were going to do another workshop I jumped at the chance to build another fly rod. You see, I had a special rod planned in my mind since the rod building workshop; the year before. No more dull green wraps for me!
At our club meeting, earlier in the week, I had told Lee that my secret wish was to make a fly rod with pink and purple wraps - but the kit I bought had come with some standard issue thread; in the typical colors of brown and green, and of course the added bonus of gold metallic thread. Lee being ever helpful offered to bring some purple and pink thread so I could make my one-of-a-kind rod. I was elated!
Yesterday, was the big day. Lee remembered the now famous pink and purple thread. I could hardly wait to get my handle and reel seat on the rod and start putting the wraps on the guides. And once I did - boy was I in rod wrap heaven. My husband, Wayne, had to remind me to stop wrapping and come eat lunch with the rest of the group.
Did I mention that once I started with the pink wraps - people who stopped to see how I was doing started making comments about the bright pink color? I think I may have scared a few people off when they saw me start in with the purple thread. (OK Mike, I know you put purple wraps on your rod.) There was also a bit of teasing. At one point someone made the comment that I was making a girly rod and no man would ever touch it. So I started calling the rod my girly rod and decided it needed even more flash. So what's a girl to do? Easy! Just add some gold thread for tipping around a few of the wraps. Man talk about being GLAM!
In the end, my newly built rod came out just the way I wanted it. My vision, while somewhat bright and flashy for others, is just the ticket for me. I can hardly wait to build a rod next year. This year the girly rod. Next year? Well, we'll just have to wait and see.
Colleen Whitney