Final Product

So after a lot of hard work and hours of thinking and re-thinking how I was going to finish this first rod I completed it with 2 days of drying time to get it to Washington in time to give it to my Grandpa during the family reunion. Here are some pictures...

This is a photo of the rod after I glued it all together and before I cut it to its final lengths. There is a butt section and two tip sections.
This is the glued rod just after cutting to length and after I put the first coat of varnish on. The wraps, guides, reel seat, cork and ferrules had not been mounted yet. All of those curls in the picture are slices of bamboo that are 0.001 inches thick.
Here is the finished rod ready to go into the tube and be taken to Washington.
I decided to make my first rod and give it to my Grandpa because he is the one who taught me to fish. I was about 4 years old and I know that I didn't realize the impact that he and fishing would have on me. I have since fished all over a lot of the western states and have seen beautiful places that I would not have seen had it not been for fishing that area. At one point in college Kris and I even lived a block off of one of the most famous rivers in North America, the Henry's Fork in Idaho. I have spent memorable times with friends and family and made memories that will last a lifetime and beyond.

There is no way that I could pay Pa back for the things that he taught me about fishing but this is the closest I could come. I don't get to see Pa get emotional very often and it was touching to see him do that when I gave it to him. I hope he enjoys fishing it as much as I enjoyed making it.

No matter what kind of rod you fish, how much you paid for it, where you fish or how many fish you catch, it will be the memories that you make that will be your fishing experiences and that is better than any fish in the world.