Thats fights you every darn step of the way. This last one I built has been a pain from the word go. Took forever to get certain components. Then layout was a pain. Never got things quite right. Everything seemed to be a compromise. Wrapping was a nightmare. Broken thread tieoff loops breaking. Finishing was just downright ugly. Used a finish I have used in the past. This batch behaved totally different. End results are just downright pitiful. Thread is good and protected but that is the only good thing that can be said about the finish. If it was not already fishing season and it has not 11 guides and a ferrule and butt wrap I would consider redoing it. But I am also afraid of @#$%& off whatever god of rodbuilding that it seems is already not happy with me.

So it is ugly took three times as long as it should of and twenty times the swearing of the average build. Does it fish though. It does. Not as well as I had hoped. Casting just not as good as my testing had me expecting. But the main goal of controlling fish around obstacles from shore was achieved. Nine foot ml rod for spring pond trout. I managed 8 fish between 12 and 19 inches. Rod was very sensitive very responsive and loads of fun to fight fish on. So all is good right? I guess. But wait we have yet another bit of fun.

After the afternoon of fishing and nearly forgetting all the troubles. I go and pack everything in the truck. Rod is two piece needs to be broke down. Well first guide of the tip section is very near the ferrule. As I pulled the two pieces apart or attempted to my hand slipped. As my hand slide forward I flattened the first guide right down to the blank, Pac Bay minima match. Well if it bent that easy I can surely bend it back. It bent back but did not look right. Would of been usable. Small problem though that lovely finish had not totally cured. Still nice and flexible and not stuck very well. Yep it popped.

So here I am in a parking lot of very busy state park on the first real nice spring day. Extremely busy. Quick background of me I get called Santa all the time. The rod pushed me to the breaking point. I am certain there were several parents that were asked why Santa was cussing and throwing things by their kids staring at me. Not one of my better moments.

I ordered a replacement guide. Got it wrapped. Took two attempts. Second attempt I was not paying attention and got the next guide up the blank snagged on the crosspin holding the roller to the support upright of the wrapper. Yep snapped that sucker right off after bending it all to @#$%&. Dug around and found a guide the size up a 5 versus a 4 micro. Looks like it will work instead of waiting to get the 4.

I am nearly afraid to touch the rod anymore though. Once I get the guide on I got to revisit the finishing nightmare. Anyone have a suggestion of what would make a good sacrifice to the rodbuilding gods.

Sometimes building something, anything, is just a steady recovery from a series of small mistakes. Have a beer, set the rod aside for a few weeks and get back after it.

Michael,
If you can afford it, it might be time to make a rod sacrifice and simply chop up the rod and burn it. That way, all of your troubles would go up in smoke.

But, a better thing to do, would be to get your heat gun and razor blade and strip the blank throw the guides away and start again from scratch after you have let things cool down for about a year.

Your choice, but just continue to get out and catch the wily creatures that are swimming in the brooks and water ways.

Michael

When everything you touch turns to SH**T, my advise is don't scratch your head.

The only way you can beat the gods is not let them get to you. As Roger said strip it down and start over. This time put a picture of you holding one of the Trout by your wrapper, glance at it occasionally to remind you why are making the rod.

It will calm your nerves and drive the gods crazy.

Have fun

John

I know your pain. Had the same lovely experience. The only good luck in the whole mess was it was a rod I built for myself, so it got stuck in the rod rack while I worked on builds for other people. My rod rack holds 24 rods on each side, if no reels are mounted and it's nearly full most of the time. It seemed to me every time I went to the rack the first rod my eyes would go to was that one evil rod. It seemed to be saying, go ahead, get me out, I beat you once, and I can beat you again, sucker. When I finally got it out, I stripped it down to the blank, cork, reel seat, guides and all removed, and started from scratch.

The second time, it all came out fine.

I feel your pain. Hopefully the bugs are out now.

That's funny.

Michael,
Your honesty is refreshing and you received very supportive replies to your post from concerned members of this forum. Personally, I love John Ds reply about scratching your head; I’ll remember that one! While you are certainly not the first to experience such dismay with a build, we have all been there, possibly just not as admittedly so. Attempt to pin-point the causes of the issues and caulk them up to experience. I enjoy fishing my first build simply because it is my first, but it is far from my go-to rod! Consider employing your present build as a baseline to compare against how great your next builds are!

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Thanks for all the kind words. What makes this so darn frustrating is this is rod 30 something. My first attempts looked better and were less headache. I intend to fish the rod this year and probable rewrap this winter. So I had to get back on the horse tonight as they say. Only took eight attempts to wrap one micro guide. Yep I ticked someone off real good.

Oh.. I hear ya... I restored a old ugly stik for a freind awhile back... Somewhere around i dunno,, day 10? About 4am.. It revealed its name.. "Lenora" i had.. A moment with that rod.. My buddy loved it.. His wife loved it.. They both cant believe it was the samw rod.. Granted, it did look like it went through a fire lol.

Stands to be the worst rod ive ever worked on..

Had the same thing with a rod I was building for a guy that wanted what was written on the wallet in Pulp Fiction. Bad MF R. I will never put cuss words on a rod again. A preacher once told me that everything is connected with God and most of the times when something is going wrong or your late to somewhere it because he may be saving you from something terrible if it didn't go wrong. Relax and go with it.

It seems im dealing with a troublesome rod right now.. First off the day started crappy.. Woke up at 7am, (i work til 1am) to get ready for charity benifit, my wife and i were going to vend.. 21mph sustained winds with gust of 35+... Needless to say after an hour and a half our tent was completly destroyed, so we packed it in... Beingfor a charity event i donated a very nice baitcaster that was a collaboration build between myself and 2 other builders.. More on that later.. So we got home and i decided to try and get the wooden handle off the original heddon pal reel seat, that was snapped in 2 since my brother for some reason thought it would be a good idea to press fit heart wood onto.. The drill bound up for 1/2 a second split the handle in 2 lengthwise.. And i thought i was home free after ordering a 40$ replacment seat.. I was wrong.. It has a bakalite hood, so threading is different, (hence the 40$) i left that hood over at my brothers for some reason.. Bad idea.. He was screwing around with map gas, and somehow hit the hood... Scorched the @#$%& out of it.. That i cant replace.. Good thing i work in a machine shop... I want to strip the rod back down and figure out a way to get rid of the yellowing discoloration.. (Its a solid translucent glass rod) but kind of feel at this point its better to let sleeping dogs lay.. Lol

Well onto finishing. Yep perfect match just as bad as the rest of the rod. At least things are consistent.

If it means anything to ya.. Ive caught 1 fish year.. Lol been spending too much time building.. Lol

Anthony,
Balance is the key.

As the saying goes, all work and no play makes for a very sad boy.

Enjoy the season and be safe

Yeah.. But i can honestly say i enjoy building more then fishing anymore.. Its a very close battle.. Very close... But im never disappointed with a finished rod.. At the vert least, its a great learning experiene.. And we are only as good as the information given.. Building is more of a controlled science then fishing..

Its funny acually.. My ultra light weight is 2.2oz. And i love that rod.. And ive had in on the water 3 times.. I really do need to get out fishing more.. The season is young yet.. And theres plenty to build.. Ill get out of my cave once it gets nice enough to wade in shorts.. Man i cant wait.. Lol