Had a request for one. Anyone have any experience with building inline rods? Do just any blanks work? Do they offer considerable advantages to standard trolling rods (besides being a pain in the neck to thread). I would think a Roberts wrap would accomplish much the same as far as stability, but I'm seeing more and more commercial companies introducing in-line models. Is this a new trend to watch or merely a passing fad? Sure saves money on guides.

I've seen these rods and asked the same question to another experienced rod builder. His reply (which makes sense) was that this concept introduces water/salt and any thing else your line can collect into the inside of the blank. As far as salt water goes - that's bad enough, but all the other things water has in it that can "Grow".

The concept of it is wonderful, the implementation is still somewhat lacking. Stability is excellent as is stress distribution. But there are some problems.

First of all, not just any blank will work. Those companies that are making such rods have configured the inside of the rod so that it will not make 100% contact all along the rod. Too much friction. Also, they have coated the interior surface so as to shed dirt, etc., as much as possible. The area where the line enters and exits the blank has been reinforced. Even with all this, they quickly develop problems. Not enough so that they become useless, mind you - they certainly don't. But the performance of the interline rods does not yet approach a well made and thought out traditional rod with exterior line guides.

No doubt that interline rods are getting better. But there are many obstacles to overcome yet. And taking a regular rod blank and just threading a line up through the middle and expecting it to work even reasonably well is going to result in a huge disappointment.

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