Vale Creek Native series ( Magura )

Welcome to my first VCR blog post and thanks for checking in @ Vale creek rod works.

After building many fly rods for trout and carp fishing and having an interest in fly fishing for native Australian freshwater species like Golden Perch and Murray Cod, to name a couple I will target, I put a lot of thought into the rod I wanted for the water I wanted to target these species on. I decided a length of 7 foot 10 inches would be a suitable length. Next step was who would I get to roll my new blanks? After much research I decided to contact Mike McFarland from the McFarland rod company, a master blank roller from America, to see if he was interested in the project. After discussing the project we decided to do a couple of prototype blanks to begin with. My research suggested I would need a ten weight to cast the big cod flies and a 8 weight would work as general purpose rod weight... so this is where I started. Material for the blanks would be black S-Glass un-sanded traditional looking blanks in three piece with spigot ferrules. 

Below are some pictures of the first of our native series prototypes to be known as Magura which is the aboriginal word for fish. This is the eight weight featuring snake brand guides and tip with Rosewood insert and fighting butt and of course, our own Vale Creek up locking reel seat.