There are a lot of professional rod builders on this site who build numerous rods for other anglers.
After building all those rods you must know what's good and what isn't
Just out of curiosity, what rods do you build for yourselves?

Plain Jane, Black on Black with Fire Opal metal flake. Jesse

Candy apple Red Nylon over Glitzy Gold on my surf rods

My personal rods are the most boring rods in the world. I build em as fast as I can so I can use 'em. No butt wraps, and even sometimes no trim wraps. I do get ultra high performance though. You can't beat that. Bryan

9ft light action spinning rod Pacific Bay blank no fancy wrap, 9.5ft medium action casting rod Lamiglass blank no fancy wrap, 10.5ft medium-heavy spinning rod Rainshadow blank modest 6in butt wrap

I agree high end materials, mid grade cork, boring, built for comfort and to fish. Most ordered sanded blank, no finish.

My personal rods (currently anything I build) I try to do something different. I try to learn or do new things"for me" based on what I see going on these days. I've recently tried my hand at weaving, marblizing, reel seat inserts, weaving into crosswraps, feather inlays, eva inlays and trim, and right now I'm futzing around with cork checkerboards and angle stuff with some of the new "burl cork".....tomorrow......flock tomorrow!!! ( maybe?, based on the proceedure, I want to try out the "Huffster II", flocking gun thats been running around in my thoughts recently)

You can either trick it out , keep it simple.....or both. Either way, it'll always beat a factory rod.

I take a different tack-My truck I tow my boat with has my logo on it. If I pull it to the ramp and load it with plain rods, I'm doing nothing to promote my business. Nothing goes in my boat that anyone can see unless it is first class-I do use funky stuff like the snakeskin seats, wooden grips, marbled guides, toe ring winding checks but I want to make sure if anyone sees my stuff, that it is something like they've never seen before. I also fish with different folkls-what are they gonna think if I'm fishing with cheap or aesthetically unpleasing stuff. I want the product catch people's eyes even if the rod is in the rod holder-just my $.02.

Rodmaker vol6 issue #3 showed two of my personal rods. All my rods are as fancy as I can make them using nothing larger than A size thread. Roller guide rods all have 00 and A thread diamonds under the guides along with weaves in between.
Guess I like to show off what I can do when I go fishing. It sure gets lots of favorable comments from fellow anglers and crewmen and many rodbuilding inquiries.

High performance but as fancy, cutting edge and high end components as I can. Pretty hard to talk a customer into something that you don't even use yourself! It's called marketing (as well as ego stroking!-sort of like shouting "I have it because I can!"). I look at my rods as marketing tools.



Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Like a mechanic that drives the clunky car, most of my rods aren't very elaborate. I don't have time to build much for myself if I'm going to get the orders out. But I do have a few really nice rods in the shop to show off.

I have made the mistake of being on the trout stream and having somebody come up and strike up a conversation. I almost hate to tell them that I build rods if I'm carrying a really plain jane rod, so in that case I just keep my mouth shut but I kick myself later. And if I do carry a nice rod to the stream I can be sure that I won't run into anybody. It always happens just that way.

I build my own rods on St. Croix blanks. There are many good blanks out there but I've come to like the SCIV for about everything I do from trout to bass and light saltwater and don't mind paying the price. Great company and great blanks at a fair price.

I make mine as fancy as I can - and have recieved a lot of comments because of this. Titanium frames, butt and trim wraps, woven graphite seat inserts and good quality cork.

I agree with Bill K. and Mike B.
The rods I build for myself are very sharp and great performing tools! However, I am sorry to say that at the moment I am using
a "factory" G.Loomis 1025C. It seams every rod I build for myself gets sold not very long after it is completed. I get a lot of oohs and
aahhs and then somebody make an offer and I think, "well I'll just build another one" and it's gone! Between work and fishing while
the salmon are running I have not had the time. Alas, I should just say "no sale" but my ego gets the best of me sometimes! LOL!!
The only consolation is 1) the loomis is a good rod, and 2) There are more of "my" rods out there being shown and fished!Again
with the ego.

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

I build 95% trout fly rods (4-5 wt, sometimes 3 wt); I try for a medium-priced rod that fishes as well as the high-end stuff, with quality workmanship.

My two (primary) personal rods -- I have about twenty total -- are...

a 9 ft 4 wt Lamiglas Perigee blank with American Tackle Titan guides (titanium/ceramic), Goldenrod wraps, Struble U-3 reel seat w/ myrtle insert -- progressive action

a 8 ft 9 in 4 wt Dan Craft Signature 5 blank with American Tackle Titan guides, Gunsmoke wraps with silver trim, Struble U-3 reel seat w/ palisander insert -- a "cannon"
This rod is invariably a guide favorite when I show them my rods

My favorite rod that I didn't build is... an 8 ft '13' Orvis 99 bamboo rod (5 wt) that I bought in 1966 with Wes Jordan's personal assistance

All my rods are test rods. All teh pictures of nice rods, nice grips, nice wraps - are usually for other people. MY stuff, I experiment with complex wraps which only someone who is heavily into them can appreciate. New components - I'm really into new stuff. I will not put something on a rod for someone else if I havent' tested it myself. This way I can expect posible problems, and remedy them for the other people's rod. Blanks - The ONLY way to know how a blank performs, is to use it. I see a lot of "custom" rodbuilders wrapping rods for applications they have no idea about. How can a NYer make a proper drift boat fly rod for WEstern Rivers, unless he has done this type of fishing a few times? to a point, I get really turned off when I see a "custom" builder making a rod for something I know they don't do themselves. I have turned away several orders for Surf rods, becasue I honestly am not familiar with "everything" that goes into making my rod better than everyone elses. Yes I've made them for freinds, but I honestly cannot tell what makes it better than a rod from a factory or how much better it casts, etc.

I have been focusing my attention on building basic rods to very high standards of fit and finish. I will only begin to study fancy wraps after I can produce top grade rods with consistency. At that time I plan to buy a Wonder Wheel and practice, practice practice. In the mean time I am collecting top notch blanks for the future. I have a growing collection of excellent and even rare blanks just waiting for when I can do them justice. I am fortunate to have access to many types of fishing.

Fly fishing rivers abound in my neck of the woods. I like to use my little Kayak at times to reach out of the way spots. Using the Kayak in lakes for Large Mouth and Smallmouth Bass is also a lot of fun. When I feel the surf calling I head to the New Jersey Shore or the beaches of Long Island, NY for Stripers and Bluefish with Convetional, Spin and Fly gear. An occasional Party boat outing for Flounder and Fluke is often on the agenda in spring and summer.

No matter what type of rod I build for myself or others I strive to make it perform as close to it's potentail as I can with top notch fit and finish. Aesthetically I prefer the understated look. Anything from Plain Jane to subtle colorations..all the way up to elaborate but classy decorative wraps are what I seek to achieve. I approach each rod project for myself the same as for a client; which is to build a rod that will become an heirloom for generations to follow. I may or may not ever get to the point where I can judge my work worthy of that stature, but I plan to have fun on the journey towards that goal.

My next personal rod project is an Allstar Breakaway 1387. This will be a Bumper Wrap set up with American Tackle TiN Silver ring Titainium finish guides. I'll turn a Split Grip using the new Burl Cork from Andy Dear and perhaps a 20mm Fuji Cobra reel seat. Guides will be single wrapped with colors to be determined later. The only compromise I made on this rod is in not going with Fuji Titanium SIC's. My surf gear doens not see much use andI take very good care all my rods and reels. So rust is not likely to be an issue.
Dave

Just following my Bliss

All of my personal rods have been made with the best components I can afford and with the highest degree of fit and finish. I cut my own reel seat inserts and my own grips, so that I can get a comfort-fit to my hand. I put in unusual things such as mirror mylar underlay for the thread base under my logo, rod specifications and feather art. These bring out a degree of sizzle that my customers like to see. My rods are on display and are selling tools for my work. I recently have been putting twelve-section checkerboard inserts into the cork grips. This, too, is eye-catching and helps focus thought on the rod. I have even built identical mooching rods, with one standard and the other spiral wrapped, to demonstrate the values of the spiral wrap. Again, these were built with the highest degree of fit and finish, with feather inlays and custom cut reel seat inserts.

My $0.02 worth.

Doug Weber
Weber Rod Works

Dave Gilberg Wrote:
>At that time I plan to buy a Wonder Wheel

Really? You gonna sell tickets for it like they do in Coney Island?

Dave, I think we all know you meant the Wonder Weaver. Glass houses and all that. At any rate, you'll love the W.W. when you get that far. There are a lot of usable weaving tools out there that builders use to turn out some beautiful work. For me, the Wonder Weaver is the easiest to use and does the best job of keeping things organized. Good luck.

Jeff Hunter

My personal rods and those I sell are built the same way. I'm with Billy in that I build rods for fishing in which I'm experienced. As a result, taking into account the design critieria and budget of the customer, I build them rods that I would use personally for for the same criteria and $.