CURRENTLY ONLY ONE AVAILABLE- This McFarland Fiberglass Edition Fly Rod, 7'9" 5wt 3pc, has a Lemke LC-1 reel seat in Bright Nickel surrounding a piece of beautiful Cocobolo wood finished in a high gloss. The rod sports a 7" Modified Ritz shaped Flor grade cork grip, FUJI 12mm stripping guide with an Alconite ceramic insert, Snake Brand snake guides and tip top, all in Bright Nickel. All of this high quality hardware is wrapped in 100% YLI GOLD Japanese Silk with Burgundy trim bands at ALL guides. Epoxy finish protects all thread work and decal areas. Comes complete with a black, Clear Creek heavy canvas covered PVC tube with internal cloth dividers for the rod sections.
Click on image to see more views of this rod.
Check out this EPIC Olive 686 "Fastglass II" - 8'6" 6wt fiberglass fly rod in the new Snakebelly surface finish
Welcome to. . . Sweetwater Fly Rods
WOW, what a fast Summer...and FALL...time is fun
when you are fishing Flies!! . . . I wish I had been fishing flies instead of working so much.
Unfortunately, fishing doesn't pay very well!
Getting closer to finalizing a line of High-End blanks and it looks like CTS has an excellent selection
of GRAPHITE and FIBERGLASS rod actions
and line weights that should fit very well
in the void left by St. Croix.
St. Croix Burgundy blanks may no longer
be available for custom rods now but I still
have a few of the Burgundy SCIV/II fly
rods in stock as blanks ready to build on.
EPIC & McFarland still get the nod for the Fiberglass -
These items can be found on the same page as the Completed Rods are listed on. The design options listed with the price sheets are still valid for any other blanks currently manufactured but not with St Croix blanks.
Since St. Croix is no longer in the picture of custom rod building, I am looking more at the SAGE lines of graphite blanks as well as CTS in New Zealand which appear to be more affordable. Maybe more fiberglass EPICS from New Zealand along with more McFarland fiberglass blanks as well as some builds on the 4-piece Blue Halo blanks.
The "BLUEWATER" Edition saltwater models will migrate towards the CTS and SAGE graphite line. I have built several on the CTS graphites from 6wt Affinity all the way through 13wt on the CTS REVO SALT - a work horse when you are after the Saltwater Big Boys...!!!
Chances are you can get exactly what YOU want!!
Now, after several years since the resurgence of fiberglass, fly rods, there are blanks everywhere but only a few are truely in the high quality collector class.
Ones that I favor are the new models of the
EPIC "FastGlass II" with the Snakebelly finish.
They are a 4pc blank in the most beautiful translucent
colors that are partially sanded and finished glossy
to give the surface the look of a snake's belly.
A very nice and unique look for fiberglass. The only drawback is the limited colors. The ones I enjoyed building on were the "Nude" or natural color fiberglass which was very close to the color of the plastic in a mik jug!! It was a nice "canvas to build on since it did not impart another color into the color scheme.
The EPIC models I currently have are listed on the Rod Blanks Available tab. SALSA & OLIVE - in 8'6" 6wts.
I also have some of Mike McFarlands fiberglass blanks in stock and they too are in the high quality collectable class of rod blanks. They have a nice, unsanded appearance but still have a shiny finish and are available in the yellow and the natural - the color I like and have on this site for sale.
CTS in New Zealand is another manufacturer of high quality graphite and fiberglass blanks. The AffinityX Series have superb actions and seem to be effortless to cast accurately while maintaining a tight loop for ultimate line speed and control. Many lengths, lineweights and colors can be had in this series but it takes a fair amount of time to get ones hands on them but they are well worth the wait. As of 2018, CTS made some internal business changes and was improving the delivery of their products. Improvements are being seen and hopefully this will improve more in 2020.
Please call me at 540.691.6290 or e-mail if you need additional information or a price quote for your custom fly rod.
THE Custom Built Fly Rod you have always wanted.
Built the way YOU want it.!!
Here are links to more previous custom builds that you may find interesting and possibly wish to get one for yourself...!!
If you already have your own blank, I will be more
than happy to construct the fly rod of your choosing
with my components or yours.
Please browse through these pages and afterwards, send me a note describing what YOU would like to
have built as your next fishing companion - - -
Then we will get started....!!!
Thanks for looking . . . Charlie
The rods shown below are still on the For Sale page.
Had to make room for one of the new ones for this year.
Same as the Olive one above except in Salsa . . . .
