Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Rod Building



The latest project that i've been researching is fly rod building.

Everyone who has been fly fishing for a while has told me that the best rods they've ever used was one that they had built.

i have no knowledge of the first thing to do....but i have been reading everything i can get my hands on.

i've also found a lot of good deals on rod building kits online. The price range has been all over the map and it seems like a lot of rod companies sell rod building kits which have all of the same materials, but the price seems to go up if it's by a popular company such as G-Loomis or Sage.

Bottom line:

i want an 11 or 12 weight rig to be able to handle tarpon. i'd also like to have another 8 weight. i want a 9 ft, 4 piece rod and i want to spend under $150.00.

Mama's friends dad (this is like your next door neighbors cousins sisters college roommates uncle) knows how to build fly rods so i'm sure i'll be enlightened soon enough......

5 comments:

  1. under $150? for a quality tarpon rod kit? i doubt it. maybe a 4pc 8wt kit on sale somewhere.

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  2. You never know....

    Have YOU ever built a fly rod?

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  3. no, but i'm about to start. it's going to become a part of our curriculum. so i guess i have to learn if i'm gonna teach it. lol

    i have a bunch of buddies back in missouri who build their own...from simple to "fine art" grade collectibles. it was a major hobby in our fff club in springfield, and a couple of the fly shops i frequented only sold their own custom built rods.

    the more you study on the subject, you'll find that the sage, loomis, etc. blanks aren't necessarily the best bang for the buck. you're still paying for the name. and the concensus among the guys i have come to respect over the years is to buy an inexpensive complete kit w/instructions (video is best) for your first attempt and give that a whirl. 90% of the time, folks end up with a very respectable, serviceable rod and are off to a good start. but they learn a couple of things they will do differently or improve the next time around.

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  4. Very well....

    i've seen this new epoxy stuff over at Fishing Jones' blog. Uses UV light to dry in 6 seconds....that would speed up the drying process yeah?

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  5. it's a new application of a product that's been around for many years. i'm not sure i'd like the results, especially for a beginner. any imperfection would not be correctible. gotta get it right the first time. i used to use a uv glue w/a small uv pen light for permanent knots like on loop connectors at the end of fly lines and the nail knots between backing and fly line. dried in about 10 seconds. fly shops use it a lot to speed up the drying time so they can move on to the next task faster. quick-drying uv glues and epoxies have been widely used in industry for decades to speed up mfg'ing and repair processes.

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