Custom rod builders have a lot of good ideas about products that will be used in the future to build fishing rods. Some of those ideas are cosmetic, some structural and some a combination of the two. The RF reel seat is a classic case in point. Recent photos of new products, some home made and some purchased from commercial rodbuilding companies are presently being posted on this board. These low weight seats designed for maximum hand contact for increasing the "feel" will prove to be a drawing card to increase rod sales. Maybe some of the vendors on the site will put the squeeze on the manufacturers to bring to market some of these new products for use by custom builders. Hopefully after ICAST someone will make a seat available so I will not have to butcher a standard seat. It really bugs me to see products available at the local discount house that I am unable to purchase.

Not for nothing, but all that work to make everythign lighter is great. But if you are goign to such great lengths to do all this....hopefully the people using the rods are putting the lightest reels on there or it's pretty much moot.

Billy the guys who want and are buying this stuff are using some of the finest reels available, Calais, and are spending big bucks to get a light rod. No butt thread wraps, Permagloss guide wrap finish, titanium frame guides and tip tops, Lite cut down seats, split foam grips, no foregrip and they do not even want decals or hook keepers. They want high dollar light weight blanks It is all I can do to keep from laughing when a "basser" asks me to limit guide wrap length and notes that he does not want a lot of that "paint" on the guides. All this and they are not buying on price - at present there are very limited commercial lite rods available and their prices are sky high. The door is open for custom builders. I can tell you one thing - getting good prices for rods with absolutely no artsy fly bait is a builders dream. If you have the right blanks and components in stock the build takes an absolute minimum of time. Finesse tactics with a casting set up are being bought! The only thing moot about this is that the opportunity will pass you by if you do not listen carefully to the guy who walks into your shop. If the guy mentions shaky head you should be well prepared! As Jesse Buky says "Cha Ching"



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2007 09:00PM by Bill Stevens.

One thing to watch in your build is make enough on the first rod to cover your labor on the next 3 they bring into you for warranty. Most of the larger manufacturers are starting to offer a limited (read short term) warranty for the simple reason that the bass anglers are tough on equipment. Many have 6-10 rods rigged and laying on the deck waiting to be stepped on, most don't own a net and like to choke up on a rod as they hoist one over the side of the boat. The lighter rods feel great but due to less graphite they are a little more prone to breakage from abuse. Just make sure that you make enough to cover your labor on the subsequent rods you have to build for free.

Interesting thread, since I have a new customer that wants just that. In his words: "no bling and I want the rod to be bare in the split of the split grip". Along with a black on black everything, even wanting the blank to be "natural" color with wraps to match and blend. Darth Vador (sp?) anyone?

Bill, it may be a rod builders dream, and I agree. But I sure do like to bling things up also. I like the "WOW" when people see a blinged (word?) rod I've built. Building the Vador rod is fine, but there's not much excitement.

I too like the "WOW" and like it even better when it is not controled by the amount of time I have in the build for cosmetics. One of these things can be quite classy and fit an finish really stand out. I never thought I would ever hear a customer instruct me to apply a mininimum amount of finish. They even love the dimpled thread produced when Perma Gloss is used. The finesse style of angling has recently been attributed as one of the main reasons for winning a tournament on "tough" water or bite. A few production builders have upped the ante for the price of bass rods recently and new warranty language is now in place. I will now gladly do business on a face to face basis with a bass fisherman - a year ago I would not accept a build from them - business is changing. Here is something for you to check out - ask one of the bass fishermen if he has a CASTING rod that is set up for fishing super light shaky head and where did he get it?

I've often wondered who designs rod components for fly rods in particular. I'd like to see a 17 graphite reel seat the length of a 16 so you can use it with larger saltwater fly reels without having to cut part of the threaded barrel off. I'd also like to have a set of stripper guides that are really designed for fly rods and not having to use a casting guide or a high frame spinning guide to get the height I want. I fault the rod companies for not pressing the component builders to build a better product. Some of these companies that sell thousands of rods a year spend millions of dollars to design rods out of the newest materials and turn right around and put the worst components on the finished product they can find. And charge top dollar to the buying public for doing so. The sad part is the average Joe does't know he is being had. He plops down 700 bucks for what he thinks is a top of the line fly rod but in reality he's getting a $100 blank with less than $25 worth of components.

Bill,

I made one of those casting rods for a police chief up north built on a Elite Tourny CTS.....I liked it myself........but he did let me bling it! :-)

Funny about bling. I'm one of those guys that want everything absolutely minimalist with zero bling. And I mean zero.

Mo

Mo dawg, you rollin with no bling, that just be whack, yo. fashizzle my dizzle.

Bill, there is no doubt in my mind that when a rod builder dies and goes to @#$%& he is going to find out the devil is a bass fisherman and his wife is a speckle trout fisherwoman.Jesse

Yep and the holder of the keys to the kingdom will have a seaside marina mailing address and zip code! As usual the check payable to cash is in the mail - should be half way there by now - the old bones look good!

Mick McComesky Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mo dawg, you rollin with no bling, that just be
> whack, yo. fashizzle my dizzle.

TRU DAT!




Regards
Dave

Fishing is Life the rest is just Details

I am in the same boat with rod components. I'm fine with the guides available, but I can't find a reel seat that meets my needs. What I'm looking for is a split reel seat (casting/trigger) that allows the reel to be mounted as low as possible to the blank. I'm talking 0.5 millimeter or less to the blank so the reel can be palmed better. I can make the split seat by cutting it, but making it low I can not. I also engineer my rods to be as light as possible as stated above. The rods I fish with everyday are my tools. I build them with minimal everything so they are light and crisp. The blanks that have a perma gloss etc coating gets removed to a natural carbon look. The baitcast reels that go on these rods weigh less than 5.6 ounces. I started building these rods because I couldn't find rods with these features. I believe there is a market for this kind of rod and the people buying them are the same ones who spend $400 to $600 on a mega bass rod and another $450 for a lightweight baitcast reel. These people know what they are doing and will pay the price.

Jonathan, while there is nothing I know of that is available for purchase, you can modify what is out there to get what you need by some careful drilling/reaming. That's what makes it custom. Yes it would be easier to just buy a premade job, but that's part of the fun for me.. coming up with something that can't be bought. Form your seats/arbors to lower the reel to what you want it to do.

Mick, just checked in again. Your comment is flat out hilarious......

The funny thing is that my brother played 3-4 hours of basketball everyday while in college and picked up the ability to talk like that from the guys he mixed around with. He'd do an imitation and we'd just bust up laughing.

Mo