Brian's 12 wt GT Rod

Now here is something new for me a two handled "single handed" fly rod.  The build request came in from a fishing buddy Brian Bowden who was looking for a saltwater rod that could be used to catch Giant Trevally in the tropics, specifically our trip to Christmas Island in December or Ling Cod in Puget Sound.  The second "foregrip" handle offers a place to hold the upper part of the rod without gripping the rod itself.  I hope to give it a try in the future.
The rod all started with a real stick, a 12wt Winston and the reel seat is also a Winston branded seat along with some great cork both foregrip and handle.  The eyes are black stripping guides and snake and Brian with looking for more of a "stealth" look so I used green thread but did not color preserve so it turned almost the same color as the rod.  I added just a few highlight bands on the first section and some feather treatments using jungle cock, bronze grizzly, and some reddish brown rooster feathers.
This is the "biggest" size wise rod that I have built and can easily handle salmon, GT, Tarpon and a lot more sizable fish.  I am looking forward to seeing how this rod works when we travel to Christmas Island in December.

Saltwater Cowboy "T"

This is a rod build for a good friend of mine Tim Opitz, Cowboy T as he has been named over the last few years.  The rod is a Sage Xi3 8wt fast action Saltwater designed rod.  It includes some great components from Utmost Enterprises including chrome eyes, cobalt blue winding check, stripping guides with cobalt blue inserts along with a Alps Triangle reel seat which I have used on several of my rod builds over the years.  It also includes a custom "comfort grip" cork handle and fighting butt made of cork burl with some blue cork rings inserted.  Tim has done some tropics fishing in the past and this new rod will be a great add to his collection and for going to Christmas Island in the future.  This rod could also be used for Salmon fishing either in Puget Sound or some of the local rivers.  I "flashed" this rod up a bit with some bright almost chrome highlight bands combined with nice cobalt blue thread wraps.  The rod also has a signature embedded feather feature of jungle cock, grizzly, amherst pheasant, and even some blue guinea hen.
Tim and I do a lot of fishing together after working two significant airplane programs together at Boeing.  We worked on the Joint Strike Fighter and the 787 Programs and found our common interest are fishing and hunting and we have done both together over the past couple of years.  We went to Alaska and did a week of cod, halibut and salmon fishing and he is also one of the group that is going to Christmas Island in December for some bonefish and GT fishing adventures.  Looking forward to years of fishing together with Tim as we explore new streams and lakes here in Washington.

Saltwater Cowboy "T" Cobalt Blue and Silver Highlights with Cobalt Thread

Blue Custom burl handle with comfort grip and ALPS reel seat

Feather work includes Amherst Pheasant, grizzly, guinea hen and jungle cock....

Saltwater Cowboy "T" 8wt with custom cork, and Alps reel seat...

Peace Rod

A while back one of my fishing buddies Jeff Peace asked me to build him a new rod for a trip that he was taking to Alaska and then a follow-up trip that he and I will be taking to Christmas Island in December.  After a bit of talking we settled on a new Sage Xi3 7wt which is a great Saltwater fast action rod.  I ordered the rod from Custom Fly Rod Crafters and it came with a sock and a really nice tube.  I ordered the components from Utmost which is located in Sequim Washington from Carol who has been a great person to work with when building custom rods.  The components are high quality Pacific Bay or Batson Enterprises.  Jeff was looking for a fairly simple straight forward rod so I toned down my urge to do tropics flash for this rod although it still has some great features.  It has a Batson saltwater reel seat and cork handle kit, chrome eyes and nice brilliant blue highlight banding that blends really nice with the deep sea blue rod and thread wraps.  I added my signature feather grouping of jungle cock, grizzly hackle, and a touch of blue dyed Amherst Pheasant.  The rod blank provider did the lettering, Peace Rod by HD.
Jeff and I have known each other for a few years now.  He and I worked at Boeing together and he was the Program Manager of the 747 Program for a number of years and held several other titles over the years.  Jeff and I worked together after we both left Boeing and did a some consulting work focused on the Aerospace Industry.  We both have hung that up for now and have been doing some great fishing adventures together and I look forward to fishing with him and watching catch fish with this new beauty.

Jeff Peace's new rod custom built by HippieD (HD) me (o:

Batson Saltwater Reel seat and cork kit, finished rod with sock and tube

Grizzly, Amherst Pheasant, Jungle Cock Combination...