Colt Johnson

For sale is a brand new (just built) McFarland 2/3 wt. 6'6" 3pc. rod. For those that are unfamiliar with Mike McFarland's Yellow Glass rod blanks, Mike is considered one of the best fiberglass blank producers in the world. His tapers and rolling skills are unsurpassed. This rod features a cap and ring seat with a mortised cork insert. Mike sold me this blank as a 3wt. but I love it with a WF 2wt. line. This is an amazing bluegill rod! I am asking $290 shipped to the lower 48. Email me at coltrane45@hotmail.com if interested. Paypal preferred. Thanks, Colt

For sale is my Ross Evolution 0 fly reel. This is an amazing ultralight reel with a superb drag. It is best with 1, 2, or 3 wt. lines but will also hold a 4wt. line with no backing. It is a mid arbor reel. I am including an extra spool that is slate blue (the reel is black). I am asking $165 shipped to the lower 48. Contact me at coltrane45@hotmail.com for more photos or if interested. Paypal preferred. Thanks, Colt

For sale is my Lamson Konic 1.5 reel. It has barely been used and it is in very good condition. The drag works perfectly. I am asking $75 shipped to the lower 48. Contact me at coltrane45@hotmail.com for more photos or if you are interested. Paypal preferred.

For sale is my Sage TXL 4wt. 7'10" 3pc. custom built fly rod. This rod features a walnut burl seat with sliding bands, a bamboo burl grip, a Titanium/SiC Fuji Stripper, and TiCh single foot running guides. This rod is a cannon! It can cast in close at 15 to 20' as well as punch 70' plus casts. It fishes streamers, nymphs and dries all equally well. A great all around rod. I am asking $250 shipped to the lower 48. Please contact me at coltrane45@hotmail.com if interested. Paypal preferred. I have a lot more photos. If interested, please contact me for more photos. Thanks, Colt http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m620/cjohns282/P8130087.jpg

Jack: In addition to the information you provided about fishing from the shore, can you offer any further information about what kinds of fish you want to pursue, what kinds of water are you fishing (the banks of a river or the banks of a pond or lake) and any other information that may be relevant. All of that will help us suggest the appropriate line weight, rod length and etc. As a general principal though, you should consider the following as it is sometimes a difficult concept for newbie fly fisherman to grasp: Unlike traditional rod and reel fishing where the weight of the lure being flung through the air pulls the line off of the reel, flies are way too light to function that way. ***Just try tying a medium sized fly onto your spinning tackle and you will see that casting even ten feet is quite a chore, never mind the wind!*** Rather, a fly rod functions with different weight lines. If you have noticed, fly line is significantly more massive than regular fly line. You mention a comparison in lb. test in your questions, but you can forget all of that when discussing fly line. The fly line will be plenty strong no matter what weight you get. The different weight fly lines are referring to the different masses (physical weight of the line). If you recall your physics lessons, velocity is speed times mass. If you increase the mass you also increase the velocity. Since flies are not heavy enough to generate the necessary velocity to pull the line off of the reel, you need to create your velocity with the line. So you have massive line that is being flung through the air, and that line creates enough velocity to carry the burden of pulling the fly to its destination. The larger the fly (typically) the more mass you need in your line (i.e. a greater fly line weight). As a general principal you can fish tiny flies with 1-3 wt. rods, medium sized flies with 4-6 weight rods, and larger flies require 7-12 weight rods. That is a very generalized statement and there are certainly personal preferences that dictate what weight fly rod people choose to fish. For me, I prefer a 1 or 2 wt. fly rod for my bluegill fishing. And for bass, I vary my fly rod selection depending on the size of the flies I will be using and the conditions I will be fishing in. If it is going to be windy, then I need to opt for a larger weight fly rod. If I am fishing an intimate stream that is 20 ft. wide at its widest point, then I can get away with a lighter weight fly rod. It all depends. For example, I landed a 3 lb. largemouth on a #12 spider last weekend using my Sage SPL 0wt. rod. The rod handled the fish just fine. But had I wanted to cast a 2/0 deer hair popper with a fat marabou tail, I would probably need to use my Sage SP 8wt. at a minimum. The key thing to remember is that the larger and more air resistant your fly is, the more velocity it will take to pull your fly to its destination. Since the line is responsible for pulling your fly to its destination, you will need to increase the speed your line travels (that's where you get into the action of your rod i.e. a fast action or a slow action) or the mass of your line (i.e. the line weight). Hopefully that helps to get you started in your fly rod selection. Colt

My current project that I will be working on this weekend is a Supefine Touch 7'6" 1wt. blank. I contacted Jim West (head of the rod building department at Orvis) and he very kindly went out of his way to get me a blank even though they are not being sold in "blank form" yet. He even provided an awesome graphite case free of charge! Mr. West provided what was probably the best customer service experience I have ever experienced! I just received the blank and case three days ago but I am going to start working on it tonight or tomorrow.

I also built a Steffen 2/3 wt. 7' 3pc. that I use for bluegill fishing. Here are a few photos of the Steffen. I turned a black ash burl insert for this seat.

Hi all. I am from Peoria IL and this is my first post on the forum. I love fly fishing for the local fish in our state and I particularly like smallmouth. I enjoy building fly rods and tying flies to compliment my fishing. These are some pics of my latest build. It is a McFarland Yellow Glass 8'3" 7wt. with black snake guides, antique gold silk thread, a struble D-1 skeleton and a paper birch burl insert that I turned. I also turned the cigar grip. Let me know what you think! Colt