Chiwaukum Special and Miller Time Rod Builds

As many of you know this past summer we had several wildfires in the State of Washington and Eastern Washington suffered some real devastation.  The Chiwaukum Creek fire started just a short distance from my home and we were evacuated.  My wife Kim and I came back from the west side the next day with the full intent of helping our local fire district with food provisioning for our fire fighters.  Our fire grew so large so fast that they initiated a "State Mobilization" so we had fire fighters from across the United States here to provide support including a Helicopter Support group who we fed for a number of weeks.  One of the members of that team we got to know well, Ty Miller from Fairbanks Alaska.  As we spent a lot of time together we talked about fly fishing both here and in Alaska.  He came over and checked my rod building shop and some of my rods out and in the end he wanted a couple.  So over this past winter I built two new rods for Ty.

The first rod is one that Ty can use in the Alaskan rivers to catch steelhead, salmon and it can even be used for tropics fishing in that it is a salt water rod set up as well.  We named it "Miller Time" and it is built from a new Batson, Rainshadow Eternity2(RX9) Cobalt Blue 8 wt blank.  It has a Alps Triangular cobalt blue reel seat and bright blue wraps with blue metallic highlights over the chrome Pacific Bay guides and snake eyes.  I also added some red thread in to tie in the Allen Blue and Red Alpha II reel that we put on the rod.  The final touch was feather inlays of blue and red amherst pheasant, grizzly hackle, jungle cock which all really pops with the reel combination.  I did a custom handle with burl blue and natural burl cork along with spotted rubberized cork.

"Miller Time", blue and natural burl handle, Allen Alpha II Reel, Eternity2 RX9 Rainshadow Rod...

Embedded Feather work 

The second rod is a fire fighters special and named after the fire that Ty and team were here to fight.  It is called the "Chiwaukum Creek Special" and this is the second of these rods I have built.  One was auctioned locally and the funds provided to our Fire Department Auxiliary to support our local fire department.  This rod starts with a new Rainshadow Revelation RX7 6 wt matte black blank and added to it is a grey Pacific Bay composite reel seat, red and natural burl cork along with some spotted rubberized cork.  It is matched perfectly with candy apple red and black thread and red metallic highlights.  The Allen Trout reel looks amazing on this combination and it also has embedded feathers of amherst pheasant, grizzly hackle and jungle cock.  

Chiwaukum Creek Special...

Looking forward to getting the first pictures of Ty catching some great fish with both of these rods in the future.  I was able to pick up a great TFO rod carry case that allows for all of this gear to be stored in one case along with some gear and still be carried on an airplane.
Thanks Ty for all that you did for us last year....