Building your own fly rod questions

I have built 3 Graphites & 1 bamboo overhaul. All graphites came from
Hook & Hackle
7'6" 3wt on a Pacific Bay Rainshadow blank-perfect for me
9'0" 5wt Rainshadow built for a friend
9'0" 8wt RainForest II a bit on the slow side but nice

Some things that I have learned:
If you rod doesn't perform as expected when finished, try diffrent
lines. Each rod has a line dynamic that fits it best.

Tons of good info on the net

I like low build epoxy.

Spend the extra $30 for titanium guides. I won't ever put my time into
chrome guides again.

I like the way color preserver looks on wraps. try with & with out &
decide for yourself.

Get a bunch of cheap fly rod tip sections & spinning grips. Build ice
fishing jig sticks to practice wraps & epoxy work, then give them away
to you buddies. You will learn a lot through practice & make a few
friends in the process.


--
DoubleHaul
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On Aug 14, 3:07 pm, DoubleHaul
wrote:
I have built 3 Graphites & 1 bamboo overhaul. All graphites came from
Hook & Hackle
7'6" 3wt on a Pacific Bay Rainshadow blank-perfect for me
9'0" 5wt Rainshadow built for a friend
9'0" 8wt RainForest II a bit on the slow side but nice

Some things that I have learned:
If you rod doesn't perform as expected when finished, try diffrent
lines. Each rod has a line dynamic that fits it best.

Tons of good info on the net

I like low build epoxy.

Spend the extra $30 for titanium guides. I won't ever put my time into
chrome guides again.

I like the way color preserver looks on wraps. try with & with out &
decide for yourself.

Get a bunch of cheap fly rod tip sections & spinning grips. Build ice
fishing jig sticks to practice wraps & epoxy work, then give them away
to you buddies. You will learn a lot through practice & make a few
friends in the process.

....and, just for fun, try mono rather then thread to wind the guides.
After varnishing, they appear to be "floating" on the rod.

cheers

oz, whose rods are pretty much "naked" -- just guides, grip and reel
seat

I just built a couple of rods and they turned out fine. It's not that
hard. Good advice above, start with cheaper blank and components and
use the rod as a back-up or give it away. When you master the
techniques you can buy a more expensive blank and components. I'm
looking at building a Sage or Scott next. I plan to test cast a
factory rod to find the rod best suited for me and then buy a blank and
components.

Cabelas has some good deals on rod kits. Look at them. I bought most
of my stuff from J. Stockard. Mudhole is good too. The following are
two sites that are very helpful for rod building. I can’t post the
link, but here are the sites. "rodbuilding.org/list.php?2"
"rodbuildingforum.com/"

Many pro rod builders post on the forum. They can answer any questions
you have. Good luck – I promise after you build you first rod you will
become addicted!


--
afishinado
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Building rods is a lot like eating potato chips- you can't stop at just
one. I still use the first rod I built 35 years ago, a sage 8'-6" 5wt.
Yes, it's not as pretty as a store-bought, but I don't fish to impress
others with my equipment. If I had started with a cheap blank, I
probably would have retired it by now. After checking out that mudhole
site, I'm getting the urgre again... maybe something for the winter
months. Don't remember where I found them, but some time ago I found a
source for gold- plated titanium snake guides (the gold is for
lubrication they say). the wieght difference is considerable on lighter
rods, and they look great! Good luck!


--
stumpy
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On Aug 15, 2:50 pm, stumpy wrote:

.. Don't remember where I found them, but some time ago I found a
source for gold- plated titanium snake guides (the gold is for
lubrication they say). the wieght difference is considerable on lighter
rods, and they look great! Good luck!


http://www.fujitackle.com.au/goldcermet.htm

--
Regards and tight lines!

Mike Connor

http://www.mike-connor.homepage.t-online.de/

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/Flycorner?hl=en

Sorry, that was an Australian link. Here is the main link for Fuji;

http://www.fujitackle.net/ar/product.html

Many dealers can obtain them for you. The best rings in existence in
my opinion, for a number of things.

TL
MC

Also by the way, it´s not gold, it´s Silicon nitride usually coated
with Titanium nitride

http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=53

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_nitride

It doesn´t lubricate anything, but is extremely hard and has a low co-
efficient of friction.

TL
MC

I have been building 5 rods over the last 2 years, 3 3wts (2x7'9" and
9'), 2 7wts 9' and a 9wt 9'. Picked it up very easily by reading and
following advise in Art Scheck's book Fly Rod Building. My main
supplier is Hook & Hack, they have great online deals on rod blanks,
kits etc. You can also call and ask them for advice.

One thing you need to know: Once you start building your own rods, you
will be hooked! You will be looking at fly rods in stores with a
different approach, notifiying little details in finish and sometimes
be disappointed how a very expensive rod is finished (I am very anal
about clean wraps, bubbles in coats etc.). However, it is great fun to
fly fish with your own rod and flies and being successful.

Feel free to send a PM if you have questions.

-K


--
Karel

Live long and fly fish
:fish:
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Building your own rod is not difficult, if you are a bit of a craftsman to
begin with. You might save a small bit of money, but not enough if you find
the building to be a chore. The main advantage is that you will get the rod
you want with the type of grip, reel seat, guides, blank, and wraps that
suit your taste. Finding all of these in a single commercial rod is
difficult. I find that I like varnished wraps and dislike the commercial use
of epoxy on the wraps. I also like to shape the grip to suit me and I just
like to fish a rod I built myself - which is probably the main reason I've
built a few rods.

You say you're a DIYer, so you'll probably enjoy building a rod and that
will make it worth it to you.

Gene

"mdk77" wrote in message
ups.com...
I ran across this on the internet and wondered what the advantages and
disadvantages are to building your own fly rod. Is this something the
average fisherman should stay away from (too difficult)? Anyone here
fish rods they built themselves? What are some recommended resources
for this (books, web sites etc.).

I'm a guy who is a hopeless DIY person. It's a sickness :-( and an
ongoing source of ribbing from my teenage children when I try to build
everything from our radio's to our furniture. They do think it's cool
that I tie my own flies though. Their friends tell them they're not
sure if I'm a madman or a genius (definitely a madman IMHO).

Thanks in advance for the info.

On Aug 15, 1:24 pm, "Gene Cottrell" wrote:
Building your own rod is not difficult, if you are a bit of a craftsman to
begin with. You might save a small bit of money, but not enough if you find
the building to be a chore. The main advantage is that you will get the rod
you want with the type of grip, reel seat, guides, blank, and wraps that
suit your taste. Finding all of these in a single commercial rod is
difficult. I find that I like varnished wraps and dislike the commercial use
of epoxy on the wraps. I also like to shape the grip to suit me and I just
like to fish a rod I built myself - which is probably the main reason I've
built a few rods.

You say you're a DIYer, so you'll probably enjoy building a rod and that
will make it worth it to you.

Gene

Thanks Gene. I've do like to tinker with building things, and have
made up my mind that I'll do this as a "winter project" to keep from
losing my mind when the snow is flying and I can't fly fish. I'm also
going to tie a ton of flies. It's my way of relaxing after a
stressful day. My son and daughter have gotten pretty curious about
this fly fishing now, and I've taught them both to fly fish, and
recently my daughter has asked to learn how to tie flies herself. So
I'll teach her, and we can stock up this season for the "tree bass" we
seem to catch quite often :-)