Been a while.

Man ,I have not done anything here since October...Where do I start/ I last post about my excitement over getting my rod blanks and reel seats after a long wait. I'm happy to say all of the rods have been built and sold. The interest in them was not as good as I hoped for but that's the way it is, 8/9 weight glass rods are not everybody cup of tea. Since these were build I have been working on a few trout rods, The blanks are being rolled for me by James Green, a fella from California, he does some Yellow S glass and Black E glass, the Black is a bit slower than the Yellow, very nice medium action rod, I have a 7ft 3 in 4 wt completed and it turned out to be a really nice caster.

I am working on new reelseats for my rods, basic cap and ring slideband type on the lower line weights and have to work on a thread locking seat for the heavier rods. I  still have a number f the Lemke seats that I worked out with Joel back in the summer as well as more 8/9 weight blanks coming from Mike Mc Farland.

Tightline Fly reel

I was poking around on line and came accross this interesting reel called the Tightline fly reel.Looks of course like the famous Ari Hart Remco reel.I really like the look of this reel, and it's avaiable in custom colors and the price point is very tempting! The company website is thightlineflyreels.com I hope that's correct, I think so.

True loss.......

I know this is coming in as a pretty late posting.I found out quite late, couple months ago that Shane Stalcup had passed.I know he was having some surgeries some time back and I had wondered in the back of my mind if it was anything serious?I was shocked to here of his early passing.I think he is one of the most innovative tiers in the last couple decades. I loved his design,all of his flies had a very realistic look and profile to them and were very durable as well.The materials he used, mix of synthetics and natural and they were all relatively easy to tie.I wrote him in 1999 to request a copy of his catalog, I was really impressed with alot of the flies in it, there were some patterns for bass that I really loved.I called him to place an order for a couple of them.The"Fly Rap", I believe it is called and a foam frog pattern, the name escapes me at the moment.I asked for a custom color for two Fly Raps, purple and yellow, a popular local lake color.I have fished the Bass colored ones a few time and have caught several bass on it.I kept these in my bass box, after I heard of his death I decided to pull them out and I plan on framing them or something special.I thought I'd post these to share with others and you just don't see these patterns very often.

Contact info.

I'm not sure why but I can't seem to post a comment/response to comments you leave for me.You can email me direct to fourstringgod@yahoo.com any questions about these rods or otherwise, thanks,Brian

Lilly Pond Bass Bug rod.

This has been a bit of a journey for me, the idea started actually last winter.I live in the burbs of Chicago and as such I don't get to trout water as much as I would like, always been this way. I spend most of my time on the water chasing bass.I love glass rods for there ease of casting, it fits my casting style very well.I have owned a number of heavier rods that I fished for bass but wanted something I thought is somewhat bass specific.The idea came and went last winter and then popped back into my head this past spring.I needed to get the blank made for this rod, the first thought was glassmaster Mike McFarland .He had said last fall he was not selling blanks anymore so I thought this was a real long shot.I wrote him with my idea, a rod designed for bass fishing, throwing big deer hair bugs,lead eye things etc..maybe eight to nine feet in length and an eight weight if possible.I sent that email off with the thought of no response.A few days later Mike wrote back and said he'd like to do this project, he thought it was a cool idea and he had an idea for it.He asked if I would be interested in having them rolled in black S glass, he said he had enough material to do a limited run of these, I thought it sounded awesome.I had the blanks getting started and was thinking of the reel seat, I wanted exclusive to this rod line. I talked to Joel Lemke of Lemke Concepts to do this seat, I like his hidden thread design alot and asked if he could do it in all metal, he agreed, some photos and design adjustments later I had my seats.I have finally got the finished rod together of the viewing public to see.I'm call this the Lilly Pond Bassbug rod. It's 8 1/2 feet2 piece, 8wt and a cannon! It will serve the needs of bug fishers and alight saltwater as well, yet to be tested there though.I hope you like this rod.

Finally, they arrive!

I have not posted anything new recently because nothing was happening, nothing new anyeay. I hatched an idea last fall and it fell by the wayside during the winter months and resurfaced again this Spring.Being in the North suburbs of Chicago I spend most of my time chasing Bass.I'd love to get up to the driftless more often but can't afford to do so.I've been fishing glass rods for years now, and this season having sold my primary Bass buggin'rod I've been fishing the old Loomis GL3 9 foot 7 wieght, nicerod but not close to my old Vintage Scott yellow glass!I spoke to Mike McFarland of the McFarland Rod Co.to see if he would be interested in taking on my project. Some months earlier he said he was not going to be selling blanks anymore, I thought for sure I'd get shot down,a few days later Mike wrote me back and said he would like to help me out, I was pretty happy with that! We worked out some details and he agreed to start amking the blanks for a Glass Bass rod.
The Blanks are made of Mikes stock of S Glass he had form his purchase of the old Daimondback blanks making equipment. He thought it would be a good match for a rod of this type, I agreed.I also wanted to dress the rods a bit different to set them apart from alot of what's seen out there. I turned to Joel Lemke,a fantastic reel seat maker,formerly with Struble.I explained what I was looking for and he said he had a design already made and he'd send me pics of them,they were just what I was looking for.He said he had a few small tweaks to make in the design and they would be ready for production.I recieved, after a long wait the blanks from Mike today, and the reel seat last week. I'm offering the rods, they will be 8'6" 8wt.2 piece configuration. I'm going to wrap them in Black,REC Recoil guides.I'm not doing a full custom rod to try to make these an affordable rod.Any questions please feel free to email me.

Pen to Paper.......and flies!

Just thought I'd post these up, every now and again I get around to a little drawing,I do most of these in my car,waiting to start work, I have to wait occasionaly for co workers to arrive so I do some scetching while I wait.A couple of trout and my first Smallmouth Bass.I tied a few interesting sub-surface Bass flies, new designs, hope to test 'em out soon!