A few months ago, one of my working colleagues told me, she found in the cellar of her new home some fishing gear, some rods, and reels. Two of the rods looked like a fly fishing gear in her opinion and asked me if I don’t need them. Of course, I said yes. Big surprise when I saw the rods, two ultralight graphite spinning rods from the beginning of the 90’s. Without to think too much about, I took them and let them rest in a corner of my room. Some weeks after, on a sunny day, I had the muse to put a fly fishing reel on them and to make some casts on the loan. I was surprised about the smoothness of these blanks, so I thought it would be nice to give them a second life.
First of all, I removed the duplon grips and the guides. The rods have been built on asymmetric blanks, one of them with a length of 8’, the second one 6’8’’. Brought the blanks to Theo Matschewsky, a very skilled german rodsmith. He measured them, the smaller one corresponding to a 2wt and the longer to a 3wt rod with a medium-fast action. Theo exchanged the tips with solid carbon tips (Solitip, a method he developed during the years) and enforced the cuffs with carbon fiber (Solicuff). Next step was to remove the coating of the blanks and put on them a thin polyurethane coating, making them look vintage.
Mounting the Ritz cork grips and lightweight reel seats have been the next step. Now that the guide spacing is also done, just have to wrap the guides and finish the rods. Stay tuned for the next stage of this two rods.
For more information about the Solitip take a look at Theo's webpage:
...or watch him on youtube: Solitip
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