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Spring  Fed Float Rod Series

"Zero-G"

The story...

     I was so enamored by the feel and near weightlessness of "Project Excelsa's" carbon fiber grip that I contacted a fellow rod builder who specializes in carbon fiber grips and requested he build a textured split grip for my own personal "spring fed" float rod.  I've always liked the sliding ring reel seats because they offer the ultimate flexibility as it pertains to reel placement.  Plus, they save quite a bit on overall weight being that they are only straight cork with a couple small rings.  I began to notice early on that I use very little of the cork North of the reel and very little of the cork South as well.  I began to test out different split grip configurations and discovered (at least how I hold the small inland trout rods) that I feel completely comfortable with a minimum amount of fore and aft grip cork and a fairly reasonable amount of "split" bare blank area in between them.   It is an interesting configuration that offers the opportunity to customize the rod even further.  The feel of the grip that was delivered is very similar to texture of snake skin.  And, as with the first grip on Excelsa, it is just amazing and super light!  The entire completed rod weighs in at only 3.81 ounces!  Fairly impressive if you consider that the heaviest components of the build are the (3) aluminum winding checks, the rubberized chipped cork butt cap and the ample amount of epoxy in the split grip gap.  Anyway, this rod is coming with me on an annual Pennsylvania stocker fishing trip starting opening day, 2011 and I can't wait to thoroughly test it over the course of a week's fishing.

With this rod, the adventure ends, but another awaits my attention....