Kenai Alaska Trout Unlimited, Purple Haze Center Pin Rod Auctioned off

Purple Haze

 

Last year I fished the Methow River up near Winthrop Washington for some fall steelhead.  Had a great time, picked up several nice chrome fish and learned a new way to fish called Center Pin or "Pinning".  There is a special rod for this kind of fishing of course and so after doing so well with it I ordered up the components to build myself one.  Well just about the time I finished this rod it was time to head off to Christmas Island where I ended up meeting Kyle Kolodziejski from Kenai Alaska who became part of our fishing group for the week.  As the week went on we all became good friends and of course drinking and story telling buddies.  Kyle had admired my rod building skills with several of the guys using my custom rods.  He and I talked and long story short I offered to help his Kenai Trout Unlimited group out by building a rod for their annual banquet, fund raising auction.  After we returned from the trip Kyle and I talked about what kind of rod to build and one was a single handed fly rod and then I talked to him about a Center Pin rod and that was it...  I started to order all of the materials to build this rod and found out that the blank was not going to be easy to get so I had already finished my rod called Purple Haze after the colors of thread I had used along with the fact that I was listening to a lot of the Woodstock Soundtrack at the time of the build.  I ended up sending my rod to Kyle to be auctioned off.  So I packaged it up and sent it to Kenai.  The rod and a great matching Okuma RAW-II 1002 reel made $750 for the local TU Chapter.  I was and still am really excited about how this all worked out. 
The rod is a Rainshadow blank, cork handles with Composite Grey Reel Seat and black guides all the way up.  This is a 13 foot rod when finished so I end up building it in sections because I just don't have enough room to do it any other way.  I have since built two more of these rods one with the same color design and another in bright green which turned out great as well. 

Here are some pictures of the rod and reel

The color is a little off with this picture but the thread is a brilliant purple with a lighter purple metallic band along with a copper band that matches the Okuma RAW-II 1002 perfectly!!!



Add Purple Haze with Okuma RAW-II reel
 

Here is the feather work with some Grizzly Hackle, Rooster Hackle, a purple Amherst Peasant and some Jungle Cock for good measure!!!  now you can see the colors better. 

 

 

 

Special thanks to Kyle for being on the receiving end of the rod and working with the Okuma Rep who donated the RAW-II 1002 matching reel for the auction.  If you are ever looking for a guide in the upper Kenai region make sure you check Kyle out.  His group is called Keen Eye Anglers and he can be reached at 907-227-5308, www.keeneyeanglers.com   Tightlines to the new owner of the Purple Haze rod and look forward to the 2015 auction and a new creation!!!

Avochie Dream.....  Last year I was paid a visit from a couple from Aberdeen Scotland, Donald and Lorraine Kamsley.   Don and I talked the evening away around the art of fly fishing and my custom fly rods of which he took a liking to.  Don and his wife were introduced to us by George and Jimi Wilson, friends of ours here at Lake Wenatchee.  Don and I kept in touch after he returned to Scotland and he asked if I would build him a rod and I was excited to build one that could be used in Scotland.  What he was looking for was a 7 wt. Sage Xi3 that he could use in the rivers there to fish Salmon.  He also wanted a Alp's cobalt "electric" blue triangle reel seat and blue insert guide eyes, chrome snake eyes, and matching thread wrap.  He was also looking for one of the custom handles that I build but with something new a removable fighting butt that allowed the rod to be changed from a single hand to a double handed switch rod.  After some research I pulled all of the components together and got this rod going.  Here are some of the early pictures:


loose cork in design, reel seat, shim and adapter for fighting butt





Everything glued together

With everything glued together the work of wrapping eyes with matching cobalt blue thread, and two metallic bands started.  The rod turned out great and was shipped to Don a few weeks back.  He was getting ready for some June fishing  for salmon and I know that this rod will work well because I have built a few in the past and they are excellent big fish rods.  Don Matched the rod up with a Sage 7060 azure blue reel....

 

Here are some pictures of the finished product!!!

Avochie Dream, two butts, blue rings in cork, comfort grip

Avochie Dream, named after one of Don's favorite area's to fish in Scotland

A bit of Feather work embedded in the epoxy...  grizzly hackle, blue Amherst pheasant, and jungle cock...

Ready for action and Don to catch many salmon on.... 

 

 



There are several rivers in Scotland that Don fishes on, the river Dee, Deveron, and the river Don to name a few.  Here are some great shots of the kind of waters this rod will find itself fishing...


Junction Pool River

Table Rock Pool
 

Upper Table Rock Pool

Could be a bunch of my fishing buddies!!!!  behind them is the lower junction pool

River Dee, Dinnet Beat....  that's a long rod!!!  and a nice fish on the shore!!!

River Dee!!!  beautiful color in that fish!!!

 

Don and I have talked about going over to fish with him in Scotland and it just was not in the cards this year but maybe in the future I can make it happen.  It looks like I would have an amazing time and the waters look beautiful and what a bucket list place to go to!!!!