1-By way of introduction

I built my first graphite rod, a three weight, in 2002. It remains my go-to Colorado stream rod. I have since built graphite's up to 11 weight from Elkhorn blanks, which have caught many fish including bones, carp, bass, and steelhead. Many of us old guys learned to cast with a fiberglass rod -- dad wouldn't allow my to touch his cane rods. I still have three that were custom built by MID of Reno Nevada using Fenwick blanks. The six weight I continued to fish because of the feel of the slow action. That lasting interest coupled with seeing an uncut blank at a Bob's Fly Shop in Loveland Colorado, where I learned rod building, got me thinking. A three piece fiberglass rod could live in the truck and be available for emergency carp fishing. You never know when you may spot a carp alongside the road.

Fiberglass seemed like a good choice for carp. It's strong, durable, can make a delicate presentation (carp are spooky), and can really "put the wood" to a fish. I started out hoping for a seven weight and finished with the nine weight you see here.

The blank for this rod came from Rick's Rods. It is one of the few remaining Wright-McGill fiberglass blanks, and was full length. An uncut blank is not labeled. You select by feel. When the rod is complete you get out the lines and see what weight works best. The rod I will be describing in this blog is much lighter and feels "five-ish", we'll see.

In the next post I will discuss fishing this rod with the old Martin reel and a lead core shooting head line. Then we will get started on the new rod.