Zareth voiced his/her/it's humble opinion in rec.outdoors.fishing on Thu
30 Aug 2007 01:24:21p:

How many people here have built your own rods and would you reccomend
the experience?



I would definitely recommend it! I got into it back in about '82. I'd
been tying flies for a while and was totally into fishing at the time. I
bought all the parts required and built a Sage II 4-5 wt. fly rod.

I did it on the cheep tho. Instead of the "PRO" tools I used a long
(2.5-3 ft.) cardboard box with a vee cut in each end to hold the blank.
A lead fishing weight about 3 oz. tied with wool around the blank kept it
from letting your thread loosen when you needed to get up for a fresh
beer or **** or go to bed and hadn't tied off the wrap yet. Poke a hole
in the side of the box and insert the tip of a fly tying bobbin with your
thread. Wrap the thread around one leg of the bobbin to keep tension on
the thread.

I went on to build a Powell 10' 9-10 wt. light salmon/steelhead fly rod,
a couple of noodle rods, rebuilt grandpa's old, circa 1945 fiberglass 6
wt. fly rod plus his old fiberglass 9 ft' trolling rod that I converted
to a big spinning rod with a honking big Diawa sal****er spinning reel,
my old 6' solid fiberglass cod rod. Did some fancy thread work on that
one that looks pretty sweet. I still fish all these rods. Get a trout
for grandpa every year on his old 6 wt. He got me hooked when I was
three.

Look up some stuff on the internet and you'll find it pretty easy.
Google is your friend.

Just make sure you fix your guides along the spine of the blank or you
won't be happy with the results.

Nothing like catching your first fish on a rod you built from scratch.
Make your own leaders and tye your own flies and it's just a piece of
heaven for the soul.


Later......

LabRat...... |:^{)