I've got a customer who wants a trolling rod built as a gift for her father. I'm confirming as to whether it's a baitcaster or a spinning rod but I believe it's going to be a baitcaster. The target fish is pretty much everything that swims in our central Minnesota lakes. Here's the kicker...he prefers to hold the rod when he's also driving the boat so it must be the same length as his current favorite rod which is four feet long.

I'm planning on measuring 4' back from the tip and cutting the butt off. My goal is to start with a blank that has an action angle of 75 or up and then after cutting would end up somewhere in the mid 60's. That should provide an acceptable moderate action that I believe would be good for this application. That's what I would consider the easy part of the equation. The other part would be having that same blank also possess enough backbone after it's been cut. The handle plus the reel seat combined will be roughly 9" so that only leaves 39" of room for the guide train. With something this short I'm planning to spiral wrap it as well.

I build all my rods using blanks from Batson. If anyone has done something similar I would like to hear how it turned out.

Thanks,
Chad Huderle

Huderle Custom Rods
Prior Lake, MN

Chad,
I worked with Jim Carroll in North Dakota developing a short trolling rod that has been used extensively all over the midwest trolling for walleyes.

The common use for this rod was in conjunction with a 10 foot or outrigger rod, and then the 5 foot rod, to be in close. Thus no need to use a planer board.

Basically all of the rods were built on the same blank, which starts as a 6 foot solid glass blank. It is called the 6 foot medium action blank.

We currently get these blanks from Batson:

.385"x.105"x72" Black 6'0" 1 12-20 LB n/a 0.385 7.0 Moderate n/a Solid glass bottom fishing $10.52

With this blank, since it is solid glass, if you want a softer action, just put the blank in a lathe and change the taper of the tip with sandpaper, being sure to not burn the glass.

The advantage of using a blank like this that is solid, is that you can get the performance and action that you need, either unchanged, or by sanding a different taper into the tip, but still have a virtually unbreakable rod, and yet sensitive rod, due to the fact that it is fiberglass and of solid construction.

After we did all of the initial development, the idea was sold to Scheels (http://www.scheelssports.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/TopCategoriesDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10101) in South Dakota who have a contract with a Chinese Rod builder and import the built up rods of this design into the country.

Since the original rod was designed, as with many things changes have been made to the rod. I believe that they are now using an IM7 graphite blank in a medium action called their shorty rod and it sells for $70.

Since this rod was used exclusively as a trolling rod, the rod was built with a long back grip of about 12 to 15 inches for easy rod holder use. Since it is built as a bait caster, really no need for a fore grip on the rod, unless you want one.

We had tried a couple of rods built as a spiral wrap, but I suppose due to the very short length of the fishing portion of the rod, the folks didn't like the spiral wrap and we went back to a conventional wrap, using reasonably large guides for easy of use, quick rethreading and not having to worry about snaps and siwvels which will reel right through the larger tips and guides.

With the 15 inch back grip on a 50 inch rod, you are only talking about 35 inches of fishing length. If you put the first guide at 20 inches, you are only taking about another 15 inches to the tip of the rod, so not a lot of room for spirals, or for that matter need for spirals.

Over the last 5 or so years since this rod became popular by the tournament folks there have been several hundred of these rods built and sold by builders as well as by the commercial companies.

Take care
Roger