TOURNAMENT ROD

hollowbuilt four strip construction
866-2 Special Tournament Trout Fly​

John Napoli casts my TTF rod in a stroboscopic photo at the Long Beach Casting Club in California.
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Designed specifically for the tournament trout fly event, this is aslo an excellent fishing rod. At 8'6" it is a staggered ferrule design, hollowbuilt well into the tips and casts a #6 double taper like a dream. For those of you unfamiliar with tournament casting, the requirements for the trout fly event are a rod no more than eight and a half feet long (this rule actually changed at the national casting level some years ago to allow the use of 9 ft. rods, but I still prefer the 8'6" length) that is fast enough for the dry fly round with enough power to 'hover' the fly, and still not so fast as to make the wet fly round which requires shooting to the next target with only one false cast difficult. It must also roll cast easily to 50'. You can see why such a rod would make a good fishing rod. Standard with up-locking aluminum reel-seat, half wells grip and translucent cinnamon wraps. Because of the staggered ferrule design, in which the tip is significantly longer than the butt, a special hollowbuilt bamboo ferrule plug makes up the difference in length to help protect the tips.

The first of this model was completed in 1992 after my move from New York to California. Since that time I have built some adjusted tips for the original series of rods, and then in 2018 I completed a re-designed version of this model. This new version incorporates evolved hollow-cutting and refined tip tapers, resulting in a higher performance rod. While still sweet and effective in-close, the new design is a clear improvement casting to further targets, as well as making the roll-cast more effortless. This is probably the finest example of my current understanding of what is possible in terms of both taper design and hollow-building.
Price: $7,585

Current Models

TROUT RODS (2020)
four and six strip models

STEELHEAD/SALMON RODS
four and six strip models

TOURNAMENT ROD
hollowbuilt four strip construction

TWO-HANDED RODS
six strip hollowbuilt construction