Rod tube project

Since I will be traveling through some beautiful country, with an endless amount of rivers, creeks, and ponds, I thought it would be a huge time saver to be able to store my rods all together and strung up. To find a creek on the side of the road, pull over and start fishing would be stellar.  There are a few companies that sell rod tubes for roof racks but of course they are absurdly expensive.  

  

I hate spending money on something I can build myself for much cheaper, I certainly got that gene from dad.  So when you look at that rod holder what is it? A pipe with a container on the end.  It's extremely simple.  The pipe was easy, 1"1/2 PVC from Home Depot.  The end piece is what I had to really search around for.   I was thinking a box type object that already had a lid would be the best.  I shuttled off to my favorite thrift store to peruse around and see if anything jumped out at me.  I settled for a simple liquid contained you would normally find iced tea in, cost all of .98 cents.   It didn't already have a lid type system I wanted but the shape was great for holding a rod with a reel on it! 

I also got a hinge to make a lid and a lock strap to lock her down.  It was extremely easy to build and I had it pretty much complete in about an hour. 

I tested it out and it held my 9' Winston and my 7' glass rod complete with reels. I added some foam to the inside for protection.   The 1"1/2 pipe is a bit small and you have to take both rods out at the same time but it will work fine and takes up way less space than the 2" for how I was mounting it.  

I wanted to mount it on the drivers side since my tent flips to the passengers.  My Thule bars were not super long so I only had about 4" to work with.   I bought some U bolts from Wally's world and installed.  Oh yeh, I also painted it flat black of course.  

The rear window still has room to go up and I did some highway tests and it held up great.   The only thing I want to do is make some kind of cover for it, since it really isn't water sealed on the lid I made. 

The winter project

While I was visiting home this winter I stumbled a fiberglass fly rod in my dads office.   I proceeded to ask dad about it and he told me he built it from a cheap blank kit.  The past few months I had been on the look out for a short fiberglass rods, such as the reddington butterstick, for use on the small mountain streams I love to fish.   Right after he told me he built it a lightbulb went off and I thought, bingo, I can build a rod for small streams!   I did some research and there are tons of places online that sell the blanks, kits, and supplies.  Dad also gave me a rod wrapping stand my grandfather built for wrapping his spinning rods. 

I decided on a TL Johnson retro glass blank, 7'6" 4wt.  It was on sale because of a blemish from www.flyfishingcrazy.com and also had a deal for buying a building kit at the same time.  I bought epoxy, thread preserve, and application tools from www.mudhole.com , they have tons of rod building supplies.  The thread I bought at micheals haha.  

The handle building was fairly straightforward and easy. The wrapping was the challenging part.   I practiced a bit on a spinning rod I had lying around. In about two days I had completed all the guide wraps.  They were pretty much all lined up perfectly.  

It was now time for epoxy...  I was dreading this part.  I'm not a super fancy person by any means.  Most of the time I prefer functionality over aesthetics, but I had spent a lot of time on this rod and I wanted it to look stellar. 

Most rod builders have fancy rod rotisseries that spin the rod while applying the epoxy and keep it spinning during the drying process to ensure an even coat.  Well I didn't have one of those.  But I did have a cordless drill, some para cord, and a plastic retaining clip.  Did the job! 

The epoxy went great!  I did two coats and most likely should have done a third but I was to excited to use it.  I purchased an Orvis Access mid-arbor reel for the rod through backcountry.  Once it was strung up, I was itching to try it out.  My buddy Lisa and I went to the middle Provo last Saturday to see ifwe could hook into some trout. It was the warmest day we have had in a while and the river was packed.  I didn't care though, I was obsessed with my new rod.  Having the only fiberglass rod I have  casted be a 10' 8w, I was blown away by the action on this small rod.  It put a whole new spin on my hobbie. 

I did manage to land one fish one the new rod!  Not only was this the only fish we caught all day, it was the only strike.  On a micro sz22 dry.  I was a happy camper...  

A few days later I landed my first ever tiger trout on it as well 

I am super excited to use this rod on my trip and to be honest I don't see my self using my other rods at all haha.  My next project is to build a rod/reel tube to mount on my truck so both my rods will be together and strung up ready to go for when I find a creek and just want to toss a line in real quick on the road. 

Family time

This past week mom and dad flew out here for a little vacation.  They did this last year, and during visited Moab, Canyonlands, and Arches national parks.  This year they did a few hikes in Zion and Bryce Canyon.   

One of my goals this year when they visited was to get my dad out flyfishing.  I am pretty sure it had been Atleast 20 years since he had tried to fish for trout on a flyrod.   I had Presidents' Day off and mom wanted to go skiing and thought it would be a good idea for me to take dad out on the water, since he was terribly sick of snow and skiing was not a priority for him.  I borrowed my roommates hunting waders for him, set up my rlwinston rod, and put together a small fly box for him with the essentials.  I was hoping we would be able to land some on drys and not resort to nymphing and we were not dissappointed!  I advised him to put start with a sz22 dry since I did see a few risers.  Well it wasn't 10 minutes and dad landed a nice healthy Provo river brown!!

As you can see he was pretty excited.  We proceeded to walk up stream and found a stellar section of flat water with lots of risers and fins swimming about.  There we each landed a few more fish.  Including the largest brown my dad had ever caught. 

All in all it was a great day!  Lots of fish!  Hopefully when I am back east I will be able to convince pops to do some flyfishing with me around NY.  

Rack attack

The next step for my new tent was installing it on the roof.  This tent had mounts for Thule bars, it just so happens that I brought my Thule rack from my blue jetta out to Utah.   So the bars were covered.   Not the dilemma was attaching it to the truck cap.   I visited our local rack shop and for a pair of flat mount Thule feet it was $250!!!!!!   I needed two pairs.... Yehhhhh right.  So I decided to build my own using the existing rail on the truck cap.  

It wasn't easy lining up all the holes using a power drill and  not a proper drill press but I did it. Everything lined up and fit together!   Next step, throw that tent on the roof!!!

Loaded up!!  I tightened everything down, grabbed the Thule bars and did a pretty rigorous earthquake test.  No movement in the rack or flex in the cap!  Now it was time to try it out. 

The ladder needs a bit of work but everything work perfectly! 

Tons of room in her too!!!   Dad called it my penthouse suite! 

Sometime in the next few weeks I will be taking a test run trip up to Idaho or southern Utah and will update on how she works! 

New slumber hut

The past few weeks I have been scouring KSL for a new sleeping pad for the trip.  I had a really nice Big Agnus insulated pad that had sprung a leak.  I spent a good hour in our bathtub with soapy water trying to find the leak with no luck.  So the search went on for a cheap used sleeping pad.  

Well I awoke one morning and checked the camping classifieds as I usually do and hit the jackpot!!  A insanely cheap roof top tent was just put up.  This was not an item I had planned on purchasing for the trip since they are normally close to $1000 and my 2 man $30 Kelty dome tent worked just fine.  None the less I immediately called the guy and shot over to his place to check it out.   Now buying things on classifieds is always an adventure.  You never know who the people are, if you might wind up in an ice tub missing your kidney, or just a face on a milk carton.  This was nothing like that, I was greeted by a very jolly fella with a huge red beard.  His hand stuck out for a hand shake while the other shot my way offering an ice cold bud light!   This is very rare for Utah, especially at 10am!  It seemed only polite to accept the beverage and it 'twas the morning after my birthday so a retox was much ablidged.  

Back to the tent... I bought it!  Now I tried to explain to my mom what a roof to tent or RTT was.  Not the easiest thing to do.  So let me add a demonstration pic. 

It's a tent that folds up on your roof and when you want to use it you take the cover off and flip it out and you are done.  You can keep all your pillows and blankets in it.  Plus it has a built in sleeping pad!  Boom, problem solved!!!  Now of course I bought this super cheap and for good reason.  She had been rode hard, but thankfully not put away wet.  The outside appearance would have scared away the majority of bargain hunters, but when opened up the tent and interior were hardly used!  

So onto the next fun part... I will be building Thule feet to fit this onto the roof of my truck cap.  It should be a fun little project! 

My addiction

I grew up on the St. Lawrence River, and since birth, water has been part of my life.   This means that everything from boating, to cliff jumping, to seaweed wars, are all in my blood.  Simply put I love water.

As some of you might know Utah is really not known for it's abundance of water. Yes we have an enormous body of water that nearly no life can survive in, but that's not really my thing.  But Utah does have beautiful, cold water, mountain streams and rivers (and a bunch of drying up resevoirs).   These flowing ribbons of life are where I have spent the majority of my free time while here in Utah... Fly fishing. 

This too is in my genetic make up.  Dad fly fished, his dad fly fished, and to honest those are the only two I know but that's good enough right?

This sport that I have become so fond of does not just offer the chance to land a monster fish, it presents a ever adapting challenge.  A Rubik's cube of variables that can change hourly.  Problem solving has always been a passion of mine and this sport takes it to a whole new level, of course with the chance of that legendary fish (pic or it didn't happen).  

So I am basing this trip around and epic fishing/exploring adventure. See and explore as many beautiful rivers as I can and fish the shit out of them.