a lucky streak

so after letting the epoxy dry we had a little hick-up in the building of the rod...the rod turning that turns the rod for 4 hours after you apply the epoxy stoped 30 min in and because of this the epxy dried on even...so i pent today using a heat gun and heating up the epoxy untill it would drip off.... while doing this on 1 of them i ut to much heat and burnt the string so i had to re-tie the eye loop... i got a little fed up with the mess so i ended up going fishing for a little. I was able to get 2 small bass nothing special maybe 10in and 12in but he sun is seetin and the wavers are calm..a very rare thing...

6 hours...re-tie eye loops, heat gun, epoxy, fish

weekly reflection

What a great week! The week started off with crappy weather with 50MPH winds and massive waves but I was able to work on my rod. I ended up getting the handle done, the eye loops wrapped on, and epoxy on as well. The most difficult thing so far with building this rod was definitely the small eye loops. Because of the way you wrap the string around the rod there are no nots. The end’s of the string are just tucked in through 1 or 2 wraps. But once you start to get to the small eye loops you didn't have much room to work with. Trying to get the eye loop lined up and in the right spot was so frustrating, but I was able to struggle through it.

After getting the handle done the weather stated to turn out for the best. I was able to get out on the boat a couple times. All though I was not as successful as I would have hoped I was abel to catch two rainbow trout. Personally I think the water is still a little to cold for the bass to be up around the shore. Thats why I haven't been able to catch one. But like Dan (mentor) said “it’s not the fishing rods fault it’s the stiff holding it.

One of my favorite parts of the week was getting to sign my name on the rod. First I used gold sheets and taped them onto the rod where I wanted to sign it then I used a heat gun and signed my name. The first one came out very bad. I had to remove the gold wrap and re-do it. The second time I tried to keep it simpler, so I just used my initials, and the date.

Over all, the week went well, I was able to get a lot more done than I was expecting and I am that much closer to my final goal. A hand built fishing rod, with a couple of flies to use. Hopefully next week ill catch more fish and maybe even be able to use my fishing rod.

Friday

so woke up today and it was perfect fishing weather..no wind..over cast sky's and a bunch of worms..my mother decided to come out on the boat today...."i think she scares the fish away" we went out at 7 to 12 and got nothing..i had a couple of fish on the line but was unable to wrangle them into the boat...should b time to invest in a net! came back and got some lunch and hung out at the dock took some cast...yet again nothing....so i gave up fishing for the day and went to work on the rod i was able to apoxy the eye loops..it was so hard! first u have to mix the 2 part apoxy to the perfect amount so it wont harden to fast but will harden...then u have to evenly apply it to the string that we wrapped around the eye loops to hold it on..if your screw up witch i did you have to use a heat gun and heat the apoxy up and try and get it all off....we had to take all the string off 2 eyes loops cause i screwed up 2 times...re tie them and then try to apoxy again..but we eventually got most of it done.

7 hours...5 fishing..no fish...2 hours apoxying

thursday

so today was a weak day...i went to the bait shop and got some worms and bobbers.. well there are no fish in the lake that want to eat worms....i spent all day starring at the orange bobber bob in the water.. altho the sun was out it was very chilly because of the wind...i wasn't able to do anything on the rod because we are waiting on the epoxy and the right man to teach me how to do it....my mom came up last night with the dogs! it was so funny 2 c the dogs run up and down the dock wondering what i was doing just sitting there. they also enjoyed chasing the ducks in the water altho they never come even close to gettin them...

6 hours...no fish..

wed

today was really boring didn't do anything on the rod today got up and went fishing....was able to catch 2 rainbow trout in the early morning...then spent the rest of the say gettin nothing but a couple of nibbles...i did c the biggest fish iv ever seen swim right past me...i tried everything i could to catch him other than jump in on top of him...tomorrow will b a little warmer!! hopping

hours 6....2 rainbow

boring day

so being along is making me go crazy! I was able to finish the handle of the rod this morning and then went fishing for a couple hours..didnt catch anything..im thinking the water is still to cold for most the bass to come close to shore... i ended up doing a little more stylish handle style than i have seen..it goes from fat to slim then it tapers bigger. i took some picture ill try and upload them. tomorrow is supposed to rain..hopefully im going to get out early and catch a fish b4 it does..tomorrow I also need to glue the top of the handle on..total i dont think today went as well as it could have..i wish i had caught a fish..

5 hours..no fish..finished handle

First day