Hi All...thank you for admitting me to the forum!

It has been about 50 years since I've built a rod. Back then I used Fenwick Boron blanks (saved paper route money for months) and still fish those rods today.
I'm now old, but have a 15-year-old son that loves fishing and is learning to fly fish, and I want to make him a rod.
I've purchased a North Fork Blank (LMX FAF905-4) 9'0–5 Wt. For freshwater...some trout, and the occasional deer hair popper for bass. I've always had good luck with Loomis rods and I figure Gary L is still in the business because he likes making blanks.


I used to only go with Fuji guides, but there are now like 10 flavors of them.
Which guides would you suggest?
Also, for handles... I'd like to go cork Full Wells, and a nice reel seat.

Also, way back when, I was able to buy labels I could customize to put on my rods. What is the current best way to put a custom label/note on a rod?

I've been looking at Mudhole and a few other sites.

I've read through the library and FAQ here and appreciate all the info

Thank you very much for any help, tips, etc. you can give me.

Tight lines!

P.S. After this I'm going to have to pull out my old Regal Vise and start tying flies again...I hope my old eyes and fingers are up to it!

My favorite guides are Snake brand universal guides, if you are concerned about aesthetics, they also sell matching ceramics. I have never had a guide from them that wasn't perfect and ready to wrap. Ron Weber at Southwest Custom Rods for a Lemke seat and an expanded selection of inserts including acrylics. My favorite production cork grips are no longer available, if you want to go new school, there are now quite a variety of carbon fly grips now.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2024 01:57AM by Spencer Phipps.

Thank you...I will check the Snake guides out.

Welcome back to rod making!

The choice for fly guides is now a wide one.

Decision number 1) Do you want traditional double foot snake guides or single foot guides? Main benefit to single foot is less wraps. Some love, some hate the aesthetics. Or you can go with micro guides.
Decision number 2) What material or color of guides to you want? Traditional steel or chrome look? Black? Or in between with a TiCh?
Decision number 3) What size guides do you want to use and do you wish to taper down the size of the guides or go from one stripper to all size 1 running guides? See article in Library above. Or maybe stripper to one size 4 then all 1 running guides. Totally up to you.
Decision number 4) How much to you want to pay for guides? You can go pretty cheap as in a buck or so and get a perfectly good guide, or go high end for Recoil or the best Snake Brand guides. The top of the line Snakes have a hollowed out foot area to better match the curve of the blank. Recoil guides (in a 5wt you Do Not want the Recoil thin or light guides) are rather pliable so if you get one caught on something it will bend out of shape but pop right back into shape.
Other decisions: What type of grip and real seatd do you desire?

I built the LMF 905-4. It is a very good rod for the money.

I chose single foot guides in a TiCh color. They match well with the wooden maple reel seat with TiCh metal I chose and the gray blank. I also went with a TiCh or grayish hook keeper and winding check. I used one color of thread, a Fuji Pro gray impregnated with color preserver.

My philosophy is that if I am going to take the time to custom build a rod I want to use good components, including high quality cork.

If you desire and uplocking reel seat, which is by far the most common these days, you need to buy or make a grip with an inlet for the upper reel foot holder. Mud hole has lots of components, now very much leaning towards CRB brand, Lure Parts On LIne has plenty of choices, as does Custom Fly Rod Crafters out of Albq, N.M. I have had good customer service from all, and the gent in Albq. is super helpful and happy to discuss products or potential decisions.

I very much like the PacBay TiCh guides but they are getting hard to find.