Saturday, October 27, 2012

The Featherlight Switch Project Begins

Ever since This River Is Wild posted their tutorial on turning an eight foot Eagle Claw Featherlight into a switch stick I've been jonesing for one.  A couple weeks ago T.F.M. reader Jim Jenkins shared a photograph of one of his favorite brews and in the background I noticed an Featherlight switch rod and asked if he built it.  He emailed back that he did and offered to build one up for me as well.  What a great guy since I don't know if I'll ever build a fly rod...no matter how easy it is. 


Jim wrote...  "Just an update on the Featherlight switch mod.  I have all the components gathered and will probably complete the work this weekend.  Switch butt grip from J. Stockard, 5/6 weight 8 ft Eagle Claw Featherlight from troutlet.com and the shaft inserts are scrap arrow blanks from a friend who makes his own arrows, and long bows for that matter, for bow hunting.  Roughly at about $50 all told.  

Now it’s just a little sawing, fitting and gluing for the mod.   The arrow shafts are great because they are very strong and fit the pre-drilled holes in the switch grip.   It's really a super simple assembly for that part of the mod.  More photos to come."

The project has started and I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out.  There should be another update or two in the coming weeks.  Thanks Jim for doing the work.

3 comments:

Randall said...

Ah yes, Dales....perhaps the perfect fishing beer.

Unknown said...

I made my featherlight a switcher too! I got my lower handle from hook and hackle. The hole in the cork was too big so I shimmed it up with masking taper then gooped on the 5 min epoxy. Ive been swinging flies on it with a mini skagit line. really fun!

Cameron Mortenson said...

Randall...I can't disagree with that.

John...which mini skagit line are you using?