These are the newly-designed rods I made for my 7 and 5 year old girls. I originally started them off with small pistol grip handles and standard Zebco spincast reels but they were uncomfortable and their weak wrists were constantly fighting the heavy reels' tendency to roll over on them. This design works much better for them and it is just as easy for them to cast using the finger "t
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In response to Josh England's question, here is my 3S60LF rod. After fishing it a few times, I have since removed the foregrip and trimmed about 1/2" more of the threads of the NPS18 reel seat. Very comfortable design borrowed from Kirkman's light line smallmouth article in RodMaker.
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From time to time, I mention on the board using a Phillipson spin/fly seat. Here is a picture of what I'm talking about. The black aluminum seat slides along the cork and then locks down by pressing the reel foot into the cork when the seat ring is tightened. This particular rod is built on the TFO Pro series 9' 10wt. 4pc. Handle is 16" total length, including slightly flared butt be
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Here is another idea for a spin fly handle design (rod in the foreground). The Fuji 18mm seat is mounted on a full-length flex coat arbor and is extremely light. In my opinion the rod handle is very comfortable in both spinning and fly rod use, although unconventional looking. I used the St. Croix 4F906.2 blank. Rod was designed to be good trout/bass/panfish rod with nymphs, streamers, small
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Hey, thanks Jon. That's exactly what I was hoping to find out. I won't be in High Point but thanks a lot for the offer. Steve
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A friend wants me to build him the 9' model at this link... The loomis site doesn't list blanks. Is this blank available? If so, who sells it and, if not, can someone recommend a blank that would be a close match to the 9' rod at the link above. Thanks for any help. Steve
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I hear you. I've got a spare tip section for my favorite fly rod (St. Croix 4F864) stored away as accident insurance and 5 new pairs of my favorite running shoes stacked in a closet.
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Thanks for correcting me, Tom. I'm kind of an outlier in that I usually fish my rods with lines heavier than the ERN=ELN formula would indicate as a starting point. Not because I fish close but because I like the heavily-loaded feel of a vintage rod, coupled with the lightness of modern graphite. So, for example, I like the feel of a 60's era Fenwick fiberglass 6wt. (ERN ~ 3.6) but I like even
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Greetings fellow builders, I haven't been on the rodboard in a while but I'm still using the CCS and building rods. I came across a blank recently that got my attention. A guy had cast the Sage TXL 7'10" zero weight, 3pc. factory rod and wanted me to build him a custom one. It turns out that the blank has a DBI of 2.5/65. I know the whole ERN=ELN is a bit simplified and makes the ass
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Thanks, I'll order a set and give them a try.
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Tom, are the I.D. of the Model F Minima 4 guides in size 4 big enough for fishing 4-6 wt. fly lines and leaders rigged with nail knots or are they too small like the size 4 ceramics? I would like to try a fly rod project with the Minima 4 guides and want to use the smallest that will work well with nail knots (not loop to loop) and 4-6 wt. lines. Thanks for your "guide"ance.
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Can anyone tell me the main thread color on the following two factory St. Croix rods, which have since been discontinued and replaced with different color blanks: Older pre-IPC Avid series fly rods with the matte dark grey blanks. Main color wraps have a bluish grey tint but I can't guess the Gudebrod color. Older Legend Elite fly rods with the brown perlescent blanks. Main color has a mo
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Also Mo, keep in mind that if you set up your rod shop on the moon, your rods are probably going to be so expensive that nobody can afford them. Not even NASA employees with their moon travel discount.
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Not to mention that people are routinely using braids and other super lines that have breaking strengths many times over the originally rated line specs, which like Tom says are really just suggestions. More important is helping people understand how to set their reel drag so they don't break the rod. Using 30lb. braid on a UL spinning rod with an ERN of 5.0 if fine as long as you don't have th
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Andrew, you say the river is very narrow and so am I correct that you don't need to cast far, but still need a heavy line to turn over heavy flies? If that's the case, consider the St. Croix 3S70ULM2 2pc. spinning blank. It will do what you want it to do very nicely. I have one and built it with a TN handle and I fish it alternately as either a spin or fly rod.
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Even if all you want to do is flip them for a profit and never build them, it's a good buy. E-mail me if you want to sell one of the duplicate GFL 7.5' 6wts you have.
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Sorry to not be answering your question Marty, but if I had a rod that delivered a fish like that on the first trip, I'm not sure I'd be fishing with anything else for awhile. I just gotta ask, how big would it have needed to be for you to officially declare that your lucky rod? You South Carolinians must be spoiled by 6-7 lb. bass : )
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Marty, I have a CTS model EST781 which is probably similar to the blank you're building (CCS = 12.7/77). Before the micro guide craze, I built it with BYAG20-BYAG10, then 5 x BLAG6, then BFAT6 tip. I fish it with a Quantum size 20 reel and 6lb. trilene XL and I love it. The only thing I would do differently if I built it now would be to use even smaller running guides but there would be no nee
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I use mine mostly with a 6wt. because the length, power and action are similar to many vintage fiberglass and early graphite fly rods which I like but didn't want to pay the high price for. Works great for me since I also like to use a lot of bigger flies like streamers and the 6wt. line turns them over better. Plus this rod is much lighter in the hand than the vintage rods. I also built one
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Think of it this way Jay. Every rod has some optimum performance based on the reel, line rating and type, lure wt., person casting the rod, etc., and by definition every other combination of those things is going to be somewhere less than that optimal performance. But in the real fishing world, you can't dwell on just the optimal, you have to consider a range of conditions you want that rod to
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I think you are focusing too much on durability, especially if you are a careful fish fighter, as you say. Choose the blank you want based on power and action, brand preference, # of pieces, color, etc. and if you stick with a reputable manufacturer, you should be fine. I've been fishing for almost 40 years and the couple rods I've broken had nothing to do with durability, but everything to do
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Tom's and Joshua's numbers sound about right. In other words, they are about 20 rods more than I thought I needed before I began building my own! There's a guy who posts on here named Matt Davis who signs off with "better to have and not need than to need and not have." That's brilliant!
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Thomas, I have two rods I built for that type of fishing, the Rainshadow IP840 (DBI = 8.0/70) and the St. Croix 3S70ULM2 (5.3/67). I prefer the IP840 since it has a stouter butt but can still throw small lures very well because it has a soft tip.
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Rods that are straight do what you tell them to do, but sometimes we don't tell the rods what we think we're telling them. When I switched from 6 and 6.5' rods to mostly 7' rods, my accuracy was lousy until I learned to adjust my casting stroke a little. For awhile there, I could hardly cast without catching a sycamore or river maple. It was embarrassing.
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What inspired me to start building rods was the idea that I could save money, which as I write it, seems extremely laughable given the addictive nature of rodbuilding and the fact that I've gone from about 4 rods to 30 or so rods. No savings there, although I can't be honest without saying that is why I started. Now, the reason I keep building them is because it's fun, I've always needed a ho
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You would think that yew wood could be useful. Man, that's a fun sentence to write and read.
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Nice review, Tom, and how refreshing to hear just facts and observations without hype. I built a Burkheimer one time for a friend and if I recall correctly it was 7'10" and rated 3/4/5. Fit and finish, straightness, and line rating all seemed top-notch to me - as good as I've seen from anyone. It was before CCS so I don't know what the numbers were. But also like Tom said, I would not ha
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Twice I have had to remove or redo an inscription on an SCIV blank. After considering all my options, I ended up, in both cases, overwrapping the entire inscription area with thread, which involved extending the area by a small amount - about 1/4". Then I coated the thread with epoxy, let cure, re-inscribed, then overcoated. Once I used black thread with some metallic inlays, which create
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Thanks for all your efforts to host and share these data Bob. I second what Stan and Tom have said...I rely on the information a lot and have no complaints. It's a generous thing you are doing.
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I am always on the lookout for that blank Mike so I can build myself one. Great rod which crossed paths with me and that fish at just the right time to make a nice memory.
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