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I want to build a 3 wt rod for a friend of mine. Small meadow stream, 20 to 30 foot casts - tops. All dry fly. Maximum trout size is about a 12" brown. 6' to 6'6 I suppose, but I'm open to suggestions. Joe Kimsey is 80 but can still bang out a full line with an 8 wt. He has a disciplined casting style. (Leonard Baker) If you would go 7' a Garrison 201 is hard to beat. (Joe Arguello) I love my 6’ 3 wt. I built from Cattanach's taper. I do just the type of fishing you are describing, except that "meadow" does not describe the streams I use it on. "Hemlock snaggy velcro-brush-lined" is much more accurate. It speaks volumes that I like to fish this rod in places like that, but also where I have room to cast more. I find it to be very versatile. The action goes way down into the grip, so if you don't like that kind of thing, you might not care for the rod. Personally, I think it is great on this particular rod and is perfect for the really short casts on really small streams. Again, versatile. (Carl DiNardo) I'm not a big fan of really light lines, especially anything under a 4wt. With that being said, there is one 3 wt taper that I like and would fish under circumstances that called for it. That's the 6'8" F E Thomas 3 wt. It is an exceptionally nice taper. (Will Price) I have made several of Wayne's 6' 3 piece 3 wt tapers Like them a lot. Just finished one about a month ago. (Tony Spezio) I have made that rod and it a fine tool. (Gary Nicholson) It is a sweet little rod is it not, I have another ready to wrap. I was fishing the first one I made on a small creek here for Bluegills and hooked into a 2 pound bass. I did get to land it on that small rod. (Tony Spezio) 6'8" FE Thomas - absolutely great 3 weight. (Bob Williams) I have a G197 Garrison 6'9" 3 wt. that I like very much. Bruce Howell built it for me back in the 80's. There is a 7'9" 3 WT that I am wanting to try real bad. (David Roberts) Thanks for the great suggestions. Thomas, Leonard, Garrison, Cattanach. So many to choose from. I'll probably make them all! Again, many thanks. I'll keep you all appraised of my halting progress. I get my shop rewired weekend after next; the garage was so dark the lightbulbs carried flashlights. (Leonard Baker)
I would like to make a 7’6” 3 weight. My problem is that my final forms start at .030 and go up .005 at 5in. stations. Most of the tapers I am finding are either smaller, or the tip is under .060. The two I did find were similar. One is Smartt Stan and a Lewis Special. Has anyone built these rods or cast them. Any info would be a help or if you know any another tapers that might work. I heard that Leonard had a model 38 ½ that might fit the bill but I can’t find the taper. (Rick Barbato) Take a file and draw the surface of your forms down a little at the tip end, then sand it smooth. Make sure to keep the file flat on the surface. I think Mike Shay one time used a belt sander on a set of his. (Larry Puckett) Yep...I did that... easy as pie... (Mike Shay) If you do decide to drawfile the forms, make sure how far up you'll have to do it. I did that, successfully, but found that the stations for 15 or 20" also were too small, when "cranked". Probably ought to know what you're getting into before you're up to your ears. It's not hard, but it's not FAST either. (Art Port) Rather than filing down your forms, there's another way. Make a one foot wooden (or metal) extension for your forms & screw the forms & extension to your workbench. I bet it'll work for one rod. (Ron Larsen) Here you go with a sacrilegious solution. Make the tip with your forms as tight as they will go on the tip stations then sand each flat to the desired thickness. That small tip is all power fiber anyhow. Good luck with the project.. (Jerry Drake) I agree with Jerry, don't mess with your forms. You won't have to sand off much to get the tips down to dimension. (Bill Walters) I have seen a lot of people post smaller rod tapers and say that they beef up the tip section to .60+ anyway and the rod turns out to cast great. You might build it as close as you can to the taper based on what your forms will allow, and then tape on guides and give it a cast. If you don't like the way the tip flexes or bounces or whatever, then start lightly sanding to get to your final dimensions. Just a thought from a newbie. (Greg Reeves) Yes well... I did take a belt sander to my forms and have absolutely NO regrets having done it. It's not like sanding a piece of wood after all. My first set of forms were made by Lon and the tip groove only went down to .031". Giving a tip dimension of .062" if I was lucky. I wanted to make some rods that had final tip dimensions of .048 and .050. That would have meant sanding .012"-.014" off the tips. Which pretty much would have left a tip made out of glue, not power fibers. Besides since I flame rods mostly, the color difference would have been quite noticeable. You guys can sand off the powerfibers if you want, but sanding down the top of the forms was no big deal. Maybe a half hour. (Mike Shay) Man, do I feel like a Goof. Never thought about a belt sander. I made my forms by hand and they only go down to .030". Was not looking forward to breaking out the file again. (Pete Emmel) I wasn't suggesting that anyone MAKE their forms with a belt sander. Only to modify them a bit if they see fit, you know? (Mike Shay) I’d go with Mike and belt sand them down. Most of my rods have tips less than 0.060. I would be unhappy if my forms were not able to be set to these dims. You aren’t taking off much steel so the forms are highly unlikely to go noticeably out of whack. (Stephen Dugmore)
Being fairly new to rod building (starting my 6th rod) I am looking for a 7’6” 3 wt. I have built a Payne 101 and like the action I am wondering by changing line wt in RodDNA if the numbers that it generates would be the same only in a 3 wt. or would it need some fine-tuning, If anyone has tried this how did it work out? Is this a good idea or should I just build a proven taper? (Rick Barbato) I don't use RodDNA, but I know it works fine with Hexrod. (John Channer) If you are using v1.3, you have two options: 1. Simply changing the line weight to 3 and generating a new model/taper or 2. Use the Controlled Modification and subtract .012 (.006 per line weight) from the existing LWV (line weight value) and generate a new model/taper. I have successfully used both methods, and if you do both, you will get slightly different values, both legitimate in my opinion. Select both and view the stresses together and make a decision as to which you prefer. Please let me know if you have any more questions regarding RodDNA. (Larry Tusoni)
Does anyone have a taper for a fast 8' 2 piece 3wt that they would part with? (Jon Holland) Go to www.hexrod.net, find the taper archive and uce the program to convert the Dickerson 8013 to a 3 wt, you won't be disappointed. (John Channer) The Dickerson 8013 will make a fine 3 wt but it maybe too fast in the butt for most folks. If you reduce the butt to: 60--228 It will be slowed down just a little to a medium fast rod something like the Cattanach Taper, the Sir D as a 8 ft. (Bob Norwood)
I would like to know what everyone would suggest would be a good taper in the 7’ 3 wt category for a graphite convert. I know what I would choose, but would like to know what the rest of the list would pick. There aren’t many in the databases I have looked through so I have chosen a couple of tapers and either reduced the line weight or shortened the rod. Which taper would you choose to build for this person? (Greg Reeves) Garrison 201, 202 or 202e depending on casting style. (Joe Arguello) I know you asked for a 3 wt but you also state that you are a graphite convert. I think the "Sir D" taper from Wayne Cattanach will suit you very well. It's a 7 ft 4 wt with a fast action. It probably feels very much like a graphite 3 wt. (Larry Swearingen) Sir D's got my vote. (Thanks to Tony S.) I've built seven so far for fellow graphite junkies and all have loved them. Today I will start milling the Sir D 7642 in the hope it will be pretty close in action to the 7042. Sure wish I had more patients to slow down my casting stroke for a less progressive taper. Maybe that will be my 2010 resolution. (Tom Key) We had this discussion a couple weeks ago. If you have old postings, see Al Baldauski's from Dec 11. If you can believe what stress curves say, Wayne's 7642 is different from his 7042 (Sir D). The 7642 looks slower, maybe semi-parabolic (whatever that means). (Frank Stetzer, Hexrod, Taper Archive, Rodmakers Archive) I have to agree on this, it is one sweet rod. I also made a 3 wt from his book, not sure if it was a 7', I can't look it up now. It too was a sweet rod but I did not fish it. It was a gift for a friend. (Tony Spezio)
I am needing to build a short 3 wt rod for small fish, tight cover, with casts 20 feet or less. Sometimes a little more if out poking around for bream. I've been wanting to build the F.E. Thomas 6'8" 3 wt taper for a while now but looking at the stress charts, It looks like it loads properly at 50 feet of a 3 wt line. Now this is where I could be screwing up with stress charts because I am looking at the maximum stress between 200k and 225k when the line line length is set to 50. If I lower this down to 20, the maximum stress never breaks 130k and to me that means it would hardly bend. Am I thinking correctly? Also, is the F.E. Thomas taper a good choice for this scenario or can ya'll think of a better taper. (Greg Reeves) Yes, this rod is quite quick and I have one that carries a 4 wt forward for distance and 4 DT for close up. It throws an unreal tight loop. (Doug Easton) You might take a look at the Cattanach 6632. It is a very sweet rod for close in casting. (Dan Zimmerlin) Just to confuse you some more, I've built a number of the Winston 6' 3 wts. that I really enjoy. I fish mine with a DT3F line for brookies in the Sierras. It's good for tight-in fishing, but can lay out line as well. (John Parmenter)
I am looking for a 3wt 9 or 8.5' taper. I know this may be an odd taper to find. (Tony Spezio) I took a few minutes to look over the 9' 3 pc 3 wt Montague that was suggested, and I think it could be a rather nice rod. My impression is that it looks like a 4 wt tip stuck on a 3 wt mid and butt sections. That is to say that the top section, in my mine at least is a little too heavy although it should be a nice rod to castas is. If you make it I would suggest making another tip closer to a 3 wt to try with it. would make a good test and I think you might find one of the tips to your liking.Suggested second tip below.
The Mod tip would be lighter to cast and maybe a little faster action and should match the mid and Butt sections but not over load the Butt flex between 65" to 90". Of course these are just my thoughts and I don't know for certain. If you should build one let me know how it turned out. (Bob Norwood) I'll be keen to see this too. There's a Montague 9' 3wt taper in the Hexrod rodmaker's list. However, I was just looking at the same type of rod and put the question out on the Rod Building Forum and was persuaded that such a rod would be heavy and extremely slow. (Cliff Parmer) I have found that any time you set out to try something different than the norm a line begins to form of those individuals than will tell you it won't work or it can't be done, etc., etc. I just read the discription of the rod and Higham said it is a pleasant casting rod that you can cast all day long. I would accept Dennis' opinion. It is true that a 9' rod is going to weigh more than a 6' rod. A 9’ 6wt will weigh more than a 6' 6wt also. If the taper is too willowy for you adjust the taper and build another. But, if someone is giving you the impression that what you are interested in trying won't work, some people would take that as a challenge. It's sort of like the dumb idea of building a 4'4" splice joint rod out of moso bamboo. It can't be done. (Timothy Troester) I can make that rod. 9', 3 wt., 2 piece and it will not be a willow and it will weigh about 3 1/2 ounces, maybe a bit less. The first step is to get the words "can not" out of the vocabulary and mind set. Then just go do it. (Jerry Drake) The Montague rod on Hexrod is also listed at Rodna. It's not a 3wt, but rather a 6wt. The listing at the top of the page on Hexrod says 3wt, but if you read a little farther it will say 6wt. On Rodna its listed as a 6wt also. If someone comes up with a 9 foot 3wt taper, I would be interested also. (Floyd Burkett) Actually the 6wt designation is a mis-type by someone...whoever posted the rod to Hexrod tapers and then on to Rodna. Reed Curry & I measured the rod at Greyrock in 1998. My original email in July 1998 to the listserve says 3wt, no mention of 6wt. I still have the yellow sheet with the original notes in my taper book. The rod was restored by Tom Smithwick and in my notes 3wt. is underlined twice. Unfortunately, as with many tapers as they migrate thru the internet they get copied with mistakes, mis-types, etc. The rod was a 3wt. (Dennis Higham) Here ya go. 9', 3 piece solid built.I have not made this rod.
(Jerry Drake) I got a couple emails off list about the 9' rod. One from the original poster of the rod taper Dennis Higham. It appears that the 6wt designation both on Hexrod and Rodna are mistakes and the rod is actually a 3wt. I think I'll make the rod and see how it casts. (Floyd Burkett) Just so everyone is on the same page. :-} Reed Curry & I like slower rods. I still fish a pre-1900 - 9', 4wt. The 9' Montague is a slow rod that flexes far into the butt. If you build it, you will have to slow down and lengthen your casting stroke. What Tom said about the rod is true. It's not a rod for everyone. Jerry's rod looks like a better solution to a 9', 4wt bamboo even better if hollowed. (Dennis Higham) Expect it to be the slowest rod you ever cast. The taper does work if you can slow your cast way down. Otherwise, you will just tie knots in the line. The original was the highest grade Montague I have ever seen, with excellent cane work, and first class hardware. It must have been a custom order. A nine foot 3 weight is really pushing things. If you go for a more normal action with a solid build, it will be excessively heavy, and it will feel like driving a tack with a sledgehammer. The only way around it is to build the faster taper, then aggressively hollow it. Jerry and a few others can indeed pull that off, but Tony is looking for something suitable for a beginner. A nine foot three weight is most assuredly not that. To set the record straight, the tapers mentioned on Clark’s are 8 foot 3 weights. That was the configuration for the Demarest challenge a couple years ago. Even that’s a challenge, but there were a lot of great entries. (Tom Smithwick) I have a friend that has not made a rod and I am going to teach him how to make one. When I asked what he wanted he said a 3 piece 9' 3wt. I just batted my eyes. I thought I would ask the list if there was a taper for that rod. I knew it would be a hard one to find but I went along with it.No need for it now, I sent him the replies you guys sent and we will now be making a Garrison 209.Thanks for all the replies, it made it easier to change his mind. (Tony Spezio) This is getting to be a popular configuration for the czech nymphing guys. If you are designing a rod that never really has to cast, then sure it makes a little sense. It fills a niche, but if you ask me any old nine footer will server that purpose. Of course most of those guys want 10' rods now. People always look at me like I have two heads for fishing with short bamboo rods. That is until they cast mine and they get a big grin on their face and they get it. But you will probably never sell a die hard czech nympher on a 7' wt. (Scott Bearden)
A good friend of mine retired in the fall and I want to make a rod for him to celebrate his new found freedom. I'm looking to build him a 3 wt. in a length from 7'9" to 8' for chasing Cutties in the foothills of Alberta and the Kootenays of BC. He is a certified FFF casting instructor and there isn't a rod I haven't seen him be able to make dance. The reason for the 3 wt is all of his current trout rods are 3 wt and his reels are all set up with 3wt lines already. He's got a real nice old 3 screw St George in LHW that would look good with the bamboo. He likes to throw Chernobyl ants and big fuzzy flies for Cutties as well as traditional stuff (all dry) and I'm looking for a taper that can handle all this. All his other gear is set up for salt in the 8-12 wt class and those Caribbean winter/spring destinations. Maybe I'm out to lunch here but if you have a recommendation please pass it along. (Ron Elder) I know it’s shorter than what you are looking for, but I have made the F.E. Thomas 7 foot 3 weight posted in the Hexrod archives. It has a swelled butt, and is a powerful little rod. (Tom Vagell) Uh ... I'll go out to lunch ... I guess he must already have a 6'3" Paul Young Midge, because everyone who owns a 3 weight line needs one. On the other hand, if he has a Midge, I'm not sure why he'd need another 3 weight rod. (Grayson Davis) Isn't the Paul Young 6'3" midge a 4 weight? Jim Sabota has a taper for a 7' 6" three weight that I think is great. Seems I use it more than anything else now, even when something else would be more appropriate. Contact Jim, he has always been generous with his tapers. (Larry Tucker)
I was planning to give the Cattanach 7'6" 4 wt (Sir D?) a shot for my second effort but I could really use a 3 wt. Any suggestions? (Joe Aversa) David Ray's Taper Library lists a number of Cattanach's Sir D 3 wts in varying lengths. (JW Healy)
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