Post by Chee Yung on Jul 3, 2006 17:37:06 GMT 8
Rod Story #5 – Beaverhead Rods by Winston Booboy Wayne Maca
Dear BOBs,
Been a while since I penned one of these tales.. opting to bug uncle with rodmaking dreams
and overloading alberto’s PM with long frivolous descriptions of cane rods ;D..hehehehe
A rod that arrived from Wayne Maca last week made me want to share its origins and my personal take on its inception. Of course, it hasn’t achieved its dream-duty of hooking temensis, sebarau, barras and giant herrings but I guess this pictorial will be a start…
The rod is a 240cm 2 pc #6wt fully hollowbuilt monocoqe ( shell structure) design not unlike graphite rods except that the power of the rod comes from pure cane powerfibre (detected with ultrasound equipment) and bonded with composite glues. Basically, it is a regular cane rod cut down to the very essentials F1 style. Nodes are arranged in a spiral pattern. The Ferrules are graphite carefully mated with the blank. Reel seat is anodized aluminium like all modern Winstons and insert is willow burl from Wayne backyard and cherrywood. Guides are salmon red striped agate and snake brand blued guides. Wraps are maroon silk with very fine signature wraps and white tags.
The rod is signed with an interesting ‘ *-?-@*-!’ which to me represents a joke shared between Wayne and me… I tease him as an ‘extreme’ guy ( he used to make world class snowboards) and he gives me ‘grafitti’ ;D! Oh well, this is what I mean by ‘personal touch’…hahaha
Anyway, this rod is the result of watching Wayne work with Glenn Brackett in 'Trout Grass', contacting Wayne, five months of chatting about local fishing, cutting edge design, aesthetics, snowboards, a rejected tip that wasn’t fast enough, the Winston walk-out, many ‘You –Take-Cares’ from Montana, and Wayne helping to set up Sweetgrass.
Casted the rod with SA #6 wt WF over the weekend and it laid out 70ft smoothly. I’d say that it is not very ‘tippy’ and flexes all the way down the butt. I brought my 9ft #6wt T&T Helix along just to compare and IMHO both weigh almost the same (the beaverhead butt is actually lighter but the tip is heavier) while casting and both achieved similar distances. The main difference was that Wayne’s rod seems smoother and roll casts much better…. Of course the look of the golden brown cane is just great!
Now, you may ask why I purchased a cane rod that is like a graphite rod… my personal feeling is that it is not a cane rod that tries to be graphite but a cane rod that is very difficult to make and that rivals graphite in weight yet keeping its power fibre ( or soul if you’d like to see it that way)…a totally au naturale piece of art. This is how I see progress and flyfishing… employing more ‘heartwork’ and remaining in tune with nature. Flyfishing is after all about limits and stretching these limits without loosing touch with nature. To me, the beaverhead rod cannot exist without bamboo just like fishing cannot exist without fish that swim wild.
Historically,the rod is part of the craft of the Winston 'family' that included tournament winning greats like Merrick, Howells, Brackett that started around San Francisco with other greats like Powell... that, and also I’ve fortunately made a friend and got a piece of Twin Bridges, Montana...I’m very happy indeed
;D!
Cheers
CY
Dear BOBs,
Been a while since I penned one of these tales.. opting to bug uncle with rodmaking dreams
and overloading alberto’s PM with long frivolous descriptions of cane rods ;D..heheheheA rod that arrived from Wayne Maca last week made me want to share its origins and my personal take on its inception. Of course, it hasn’t achieved its dream-duty of hooking temensis, sebarau, barras and giant herrings but I guess this pictorial will be a start…
The rod is a 240cm 2 pc #6wt fully hollowbuilt monocoqe ( shell structure) design not unlike graphite rods except that the power of the rod comes from pure cane powerfibre (detected with ultrasound equipment) and bonded with composite glues. Basically, it is a regular cane rod cut down to the very essentials F1 style. Nodes are arranged in a spiral pattern. The Ferrules are graphite carefully mated with the blank. Reel seat is anodized aluminium like all modern Winstons and insert is willow burl from Wayne backyard and cherrywood. Guides are salmon red striped agate and snake brand blued guides. Wraps are maroon silk with very fine signature wraps and white tags.
The rod is signed with an interesting ‘ *-?-@*-!’ which to me represents a joke shared between Wayne and me… I tease him as an ‘extreme’ guy ( he used to make world class snowboards) and he gives me ‘grafitti’ ;D! Oh well, this is what I mean by ‘personal touch’…hahaha
Anyway, this rod is the result of watching Wayne work with Glenn Brackett in 'Trout Grass', contacting Wayne, five months of chatting about local fishing, cutting edge design, aesthetics, snowboards, a rejected tip that wasn’t fast enough, the Winston walk-out, many ‘You –Take-Cares’ from Montana, and Wayne helping to set up Sweetgrass.
Casted the rod with SA #6 wt WF over the weekend and it laid out 70ft smoothly. I’d say that it is not very ‘tippy’ and flexes all the way down the butt. I brought my 9ft #6wt T&T Helix along just to compare and IMHO both weigh almost the same (the beaverhead butt is actually lighter but the tip is heavier) while casting and both achieved similar distances. The main difference was that Wayne’s rod seems smoother and roll casts much better…. Of course the look of the golden brown cane is just great!
Now, you may ask why I purchased a cane rod that is like a graphite rod… my personal feeling is that it is not a cane rod that tries to be graphite but a cane rod that is very difficult to make and that rivals graphite in weight yet keeping its power fibre ( or soul if you’d like to see it that way)…a totally au naturale piece of art. This is how I see progress and flyfishing… employing more ‘heartwork’ and remaining in tune with nature. Flyfishing is after all about limits and stretching these limits without loosing touch with nature. To me, the beaverhead rod cannot exist without bamboo just like fishing cannot exist without fish that swim wild.
Historically,the rod is part of the craft of the Winston 'family' that included tournament winning greats like Merrick, Howells, Brackett that started around San Francisco with other greats like Powell... that, and also I’ve fortunately made a friend and got a piece of Twin Bridges, Montana...I’m very happy indeed
;D!Cheers
CY
Including graphite material onto cane is just radical. The butt cap is sweet too.
;D
... anyway, for a cane rod, the emphasis is on the blank springing back and not the guides 
... swallowing a lump I checked the tip... now I know why the Ti didn't cut it... it was a 'crimped wire tip'( BTW I dont know how to describe it 
) and not a nice perfection style tip 
.. marcello makes 2/2 at the same price 
... the BIIX is designed for its purpose and I respect that 
Fishing sucks? Try Flyfishing! ;D
