F.H. Paddock “The One”

Before Sage ever came out with it’s series of One fly rods, maker and builder Fred Paddock had cooked up a taper to supplement his already stellar lineup of fiberglass rods. This is the abbreviated and unofficial story but Sage eventually contacted Paddock and asked him to relinquish the use of “The One” on his then new blank. Shortly thereafter Mr. Paddock made an announcement that he was getting out of the rod making business. Fortunately I jumped on the chance to purchase one of these  remaining 7’10” 4/5wt blanks as he was clearing out his remaining inventory. This is more or less a photo dump of my finished build on Fred’s blank.

The real One.

You might notice a few scratches here and there. That’s because I fished it last weekend and it casts quite well. I would call it a progressive action and it handles a dry fly remarkably. Very tight loops are the norm and it’ll even handle a bit of wind within reason.

Intletted slim cork and a gorgeous spalted maple spacer from Mike McCoy at Snake Brand Guides.

I used bronze original Snake Brand guides and a tip top to match. The bronzed agate stripping guide came from Golden Witch and I used a cinnamon YLI 50 silk for the wraps tipped with brown YLI 100.

Agate.

I still haven’t figured out how to properly inscribe a rod but I’m getting better. Next time I’ll nail it.

Cinnamon wraps over bronze.

Twenty inch mark.

Thanks for reading.