Back in the Shop

I'm ready to get back to work on a rod. I've been taking a little time off since the Smith river trip. Been rearranging the shop and getting rid of a few power tools. Took a load of totally unnecessary stuff to the flea market for "in store" credit. Coach Elliot at Thackerland keeps me supplied with more shop stuff than I can use. I need to get back to work on rod number 9. Rod number 8 is a 7ft 4wt 4pc "progressive" taper. By that I mean that the taper grows in fairly even increments from tip to butt. That gives the rod a consistent action as you push more line out and load it further into the butt. Number 9 will be a little different. It's a progressive taper with a "hinge". It's a 7ft 4wt 4pc derivative of Wayne Cattanach's 2pc Sir D. As I recall, the original Sir D was designed for fishing brushy pocket water on Michigan spring creeks. The idea behind the taper is to be able to manage a short line in tight pockets with a roll cast and a quick hook set. The hinge is about 10 inches below the ferrule in the butt section. You'll see in the attached charts that the taper progression slows significantly for a couple stations and then resumes an aggressive slope into the grip. That gives the rod a bit more of a spring action in the butt. That should make short line rolls easier to do. As you'll notice in the deflection chart, the Sir D is a little faster than number 8. It's stiffer to facilitate a quick hook set. That's the theory anyway. The original Sir D is a popular taper with many makers. It ranks up there with the PHY Driggs, Payne 101 and Dickerson 8013. I've modified the taper just a little to carry the weight of 2 extra ferrules while maintaining the same deflection curve as the original. We'll see how that turns out. I've got the butt section ready to glue up. I'm going to get started on the other three sections tomorrow night.