New Build: Graphite 9' 7wt Fly Rod

Just completed...a nice quick and lightweight streamer rod. From salmon and steelhead, to bonito and bonefish, a 7wt is a very useful line weight! My favorite for sightcasting for striped bass and bonito fishing here in the North East! Fuji seat, turned cork grip (Ritz shape) and the red EVA fighting butt. Two-footed/snake guides on the two lower sections, single foots on the tip section - for lightness and faster recovery. The very last picture shows it next to its bigger brother, an 8wt I built last winter.

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Epic Bandit 10wt

Just completed...

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Sweet and Salty 4wts

A couple of older Retrograph 9' 4wt builds. One made for freshwater, the other for ultra-light saltwater fly fishing.

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Saltwater Retrospective: Saltwater Fly Rods by Vladan Milenkovic

This is a small snippet of rods I built for saltwater flyfishing. Certainly very far from the complete list of my builds, but these are few of the creations I use and enjoy on daily basis. They are all a part of my current fly rod collection. Each rod has so many stories to tell...  

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Completed New Saltwater 8wt Graphite Fly Rod

The new rod is completed. Slightly faster than my old trusty 8wt...(I made a side by side photo.) It will be a nice stick for stripers, bonito and albies!

Ritz composite/cork grip, Fuji seat, EVA butt, non-tangle black strippers and TiCH single foots. Carbon grey wraps with red silk tipping.

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Ritz Handle on the 8wt Graphite Rod

Just taken off the bench for a quick photo. My latest graphite 8wt is in the works! Guide wrapping and finishing to follow. (My older 10wt is on the right, for comparison).

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Fiberglass 6wt - Streamer Special

Just completed... This is an 8'6" 6wt streamer and sight-casting fiberglass rod. Medium-fast taper, S glass, 4-piece. Light in the hand, with excellent power in the butt. Downlocking saltwater aluminum body/composite hood seat, Struble rubber button, black EVA Wells grip and tiered check. Single foot TiCH guides and no-tangle TiCH strippers. Clover silk olive windings, tipped red at the handle and the tip. Ready for action, with that 1970s charm!

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Old rods revisited: HarborSky saltwater camo fly rods

I built these rods in 2012 and still use them regularly. They are 9' for #6 and #7 lines. Graphite blanks were made by G. Loomis, painted by myself with a non-gloss paint, for the stealthy camo look. Their moderate action is well suited for precise shots on the flats. I use the #6 most often for my local sight-casting. It loads quickly for shorter casts. The #7 (fishes like a #8) has more power...I like it for longer casts on pale bottom flats. 

They are still fun rods to fish today, and they have held up very well, after many days in the saltwater environment! You can read about them in my original post.

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Latest Saltwater Builds

Two saltwater graphite 9-foot rods, a 9wt (black) and a 10wt (blue sapphire.)

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New Saltwater Handles

Just completed...9wt and a 10wt. Pictures of finished rods coming up soon!

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Refurbishing the "Pink Panther" 868-4 from 2011

This rod has been one of my favorite rods, built back in August 2011. I caught some very nice striped bass on it. It needed its single foot guides replaced. The Fuji strippers were OK and also the tip top, so I left those unchanged, but rewrapped them. I put Pac Bay Minima single foots, so hopefully they can last another ten years or so...

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Striped Bass and Conquistador Glass

First week of striped bass fishing in 2020, under COVID-19.

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Retrograph "Sightcast" 906-4

Fresh off the bench...the black rod! The blank was made by CD rods. Stealthy looking streamer rod, medium fast action, syncork grip, Fuji seat, Pac Bay TiCH guides. Built for rugged use in saltwater. It will make a nice sight-casting fly rod for schoolie stripers near my house.

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Retrospective

Current builds (on the left) vs old builds from twenty years ago (on the right.) Those were built in 1999, on G. Loomis Mega-taper saltwater fly rod blanks. Caught plenty of fish, but still in pretty good shape.

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North Fork Gamma Beta F990-4

My most recent build, an allaround graphite fly rod for Northeast saltwater. An excellent choice for albacore fishing...

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Saltwater Graphites (part 3)

The last rod in this batch of builds is an extremely light and powerful 9' 9wt. The completed rod weighs only 3.6oz. Just like the previous salty builds, it sports Fuji and REC hardware. It will be put on test very soon!

Photo of all four rods (L to R: 7, 8, 9 and 10wt)

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Saltwater Graphites (part 2)

A one piece 8'10" 10wt stick, excellent for long hours on the jetty, when you are tired and don't have to worry about rod sections coming apart. Also, a nice boat rod. (The reel seat insert is red, but it turned out pinkish in the photos.) The rod wears REC Recoil snakes and Minima Titanium strippers.

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