Hello All -

Not sure if anyone else saw it yesterday or not, but ESPN Outdoors (airs Saturday and Sunday mornings on ESPN2 here in NW Arkansas) showed some footage of the first ever Busch Shoot-out tournament held down in Alabama. One particular item of interest for custom rodbuilders - tournament finalist Ben Matsubu was shown Flipping / Pitching with a split grip, no foregrip, spiral wrapped rod that was obviously custom made.

No mention of who built the rod, but if I had to bet I'd say Brad Tharp at Tactical Assault or Rich Forhan at Revolver Rods. It was definitely the Forhan / Tharp spiral configuration.

Unfortunately, Ben did not win the tournament. If he had, I'm sure rod orders would be flying around already. Anyway, nice to see that serious anglers (or maybe just those without rod sponsors - LOL) are beginning to adopt some of the established improvements in custom rod design and construction.

Tight lines,
Bill

it was probably made by the people that make the rods for yamamoto baits. ben runs a yamamoto bait shop here in Hemphill, TX on toledo bend.

I dont know about you guys but as a bass tournament fisherman i really dont like building for other tournament guys. Not all but most are way to hard on equipment to stand behind any rod failures. Even myself I leave the nice ones at home during tournaments and fish the work horse rods that have cracked finnish and bent guides from stepping on them and the occasional pushing my parners 19 ft bass boat off the sand bars when we get stuck. "Another reason for a flippin stick by the way". If I were to push anyone to gain more custom rod exposure it would probably be the Walleye guys. They fish sitting down most the time and the rods are being trolled a good portion of the time.

Bill,
Just curious, as I did not see the program....
Did the announcers or anyone point out the rod and the difference or was it just because you knew what to look for? If no one talks about these things on the air or in national publications, no one seems to notice.

I thought I was the only one who saw that. He did pull a couple of nice fish out of those cypress trees. I have a project for some Tournament fishermen coming up. Maybe I will suggest it to them.

I would agree with Bucky...probably provided by Yamamoto.

Bucky, I see that you are from Hemphill. Do you know Jack Martin?

David-

Unfortunately, the commentators did not say a word. Just one of those things I can't help but notice - I'm sure you are the same way.

Didn't know Yamamoto was making rods. I'll have to file that one. I guess you learn something new every day.

Cheers,
Bill

hey Sean

well i'm from Liberty, TX but go to hemphill alot. I have 2 uncles that have lake houses there. I'm sure one of my uncles knows Jack Martin.

One of your uncles wouldn't happen to be Harold would it?

This rod was probably built by Rich Forhan, Brad Thorpe or George Roth. All build with a split grip and no foregrip.

You may be suprised to see how many pros are using the spiral.AFAIK, no major rod manufacturer makes a spiral except Shimano and this rod is a 'heavy', thus no sponsorship on the pro circuit. C2

lol no he is not harold

Had to respond to what Travis Thompson said. Man, is he right! I have made several rods for the bass tournament guys and have a few observations:
If you think you build a tough rod, you don't. After slamming around, steppig on, power bouncing a 6 pounder in the boat and push poles out of sand, no wonder these rods come back for repair. One guy kept bringing his rods back for repair with the tip top and 2nd guide broken off. He didn't mind paying for the repairs because he loves the rods and told me when he snaggs a lure, he reels the tip down as close as he can get to he lure and jams the rod into and away from the snag several times until the lure gets free. Another guy won a tournament with one of my rods and it was published in west coast fishing paper with the mention of who made the rod and how to order one. I heard nothing.
If you want to know who makes the toughest rod components, just ask a builder who does tourney bass rods.
Happy winding.

Yeah, I can really sympathize with the "toughness" issue. I build a lot of fly rods, but also some spinning and casting bass rods. The first time I built a rod for a tournament fisherman, I put little thin coats of epoxy on it (like I did for my fly rods). The next time I saw the rod, it looked like he'd been trying to pull the guides out with pliers. I have no idea how he was fishing to cause this, but I did learn an important lesson. Thin finishes are really pretty and nice, but tournament bass fisherman get the big globby "football" finish on their guide wraps.