FLYGUY Creations: 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.