My yellowstone special

[JasonGotaProblem]

This one was fun. I wanted a nice mountain trout rod to use with an ultralight spinner to throw flies. One may wonder why not just go for a fly rod, but I'm not ready to cross that one way bridge just yet.

This was a Chinese Amazon special, stripped down and redone. The blank has a nice feel to it and super light weight, the hardware was garbage. I decided not to go super flashy on this one to reduce the incentive for someone to steal it. After all it is a travel rod.  But I couldn't just build a boring rod, so I did a bit of thread work. Just above the grip I attempted to do 4 threads side by side ( red-gold twist, red nylon, regular gold, red metallic) and on the guide that got a close up I did red nylon and red metallic side by side. Interesting look but i don't think its worth the effort to do it again.

Line rating 2-6# lure rating 1/32-1/8oz

I'm probably gonna use it with my SS700 with 8# braid

[pjstevko]

Looks great!

[Rancanfish]

I gotta learn how to do that stuff.  It's great to personalize. Nothing more fun than ultralight.

I have already crossed the 'fly' line.  I have a great superlight fly rod a buddies dad made for me in the 70's. I'm (maybe) going to pop this reel on and practice a bit. The rod is more for fishing a bit more brush obstructed stretches of river, being it is only 7' long.

[steelfish]

looking good Jason

first I though it says my Yellotail special and was amazed by the super thin blank for a Yellowtail fish then I was sure I needed to re-read the tittle and well, its a Yellowstone special 


I have had way too much bad luck with special priced travel Chinese rods from ebay and amazon that I stopped after braking some rods just pulling on the fish or on a normal cast.

Mudhole, GetBit and surely other stores sell house-brand blanks that are pretty good for the price, PacBay also sells economic blanks that should be better than un-known brands.

[philaroman]

try #2+ bass popper flies  w/ UL spin...  esp., WITH the wind 
(maybe more for home waters & less so for trout)
used to be $2/per -- now, prices are STUPID & larger sizes tough to find
quick/lazy search shows only DIY affordable:
http://www.j-maclures.com/perfectpopperbassbugsz1or2.aspx

[JasonGotaProblem]

looking good Jason

first I though it says my Yellotail special and was amazed by the super thin blank for a Yellowtail fish then I was sure I needed to re-read the tittle and well, its a Yellowstone special 


I have had way too much bad luck with special priced travel Chinese rods from ebay and amazon that I stopped after braking some rods just pulling on the fish or on a normal cast.

Mudhole, GetBit and surely other stores sell house-brand blanks that are pretty good for the price, PacBay also sells economic blanks that should be better than un-known brands.

I looked at hard those. Everything worthwhile was over $100. This was $48 I just had to strip it. And as usual I did some serious stress tests before I dedicated any time to it, and then more after stripping to make sure I hadnt messed it up. I'm optimistic.

try #2+ bass popper flies  w/ UL spin...  esp., WITH the wind 
(maybe more for home waters & less so for trout)
used to be $2/per -- now, prices are STUPID & larger sizes tough to find
quick/lazy search shows only DIY affordable:
http://www.j-maclures.com/perfectpopperbassbugsz1or2.aspx

[img]

It's crazy how expensive flies are. They're $5 a pop or more in the local fly shop. There's a fly shop within walking distance of my airbnb (half way between it and the river, go figure) that seems to sell them $3 a pop. I'll likely seek some local guidance on what's getting hit that week, and probably bring some lead wire or some split shot just in case.

I was throwing one of the ones I made a few months ago about 12-15 yds. It feels weird throwing so short but I guess that's physics.

[JasonGotaProblem]

I'm starting to wonder if this rod is cursed.

I brought it to yellowstone: record flooding, no fishing.

I loaned it to a buddy for his camping trip: day before his trip he injured his leg and cancelled the trip.

I loaned it to someone else for their trip to key west: flight was delayed by 12 hours and the only fishing window closed.

I'm not really a superstitious person but what the heck. I guess I need to loan it to someone who is generally really lucky to break the curse.

[ExcessiveAngler]

Looks good Jason!
And don't think you're the first guy to ever try using poppers or flies on a spinning rod
That's all I did as a kid, and they used to laugh at me, back-and-forth with a Spinning, Rod, with the popper, just like an actual functioning, fly rod!
And then you hear woosh, a beautiful,6-7 pound largemouth on a bright green floating popper, with white rubber legs!
Yeah, they all shut their mouth then lol!
They were bought from the store(I think it was called Bob Kislins)and used to be like $.59 for a whole pack of them as a kid!
Amazing how things and times have changed!
I still have some old flies and poppers that I bought in packages here. I'll see if I can find them and take a pic.
Had I known then, what I know now, I would've bought every damn one of them!
And these look really quality too, for being store-bought lol!

[ExcessiveAngler]

I'm not really a superstitious person but what the heck. I guess I need to loan it to someone who is generally really lucky to break the curse.
[/quote]
Oh my goodness!
That's a little spooky, I'll have to admit!
I don't know I'm very superstitious, unfortunately lol!
Hope you're not the guy that takes bananas on the boat!!!!!