Anybody on the forum building their own rods? There seems to be a lot of rod components available online, thinking about building a rod.

BD

I've built several rods I've paid to have rods finished out with the parts I furnish. One of the rod component companies has rod building seminars around the country for a about 300 dollars & you build your own take home rod. I will give this advice if you are going to use cheap blanks, seats & guides & don't like the smell of epoxy save yourself the headache an buy a rod.

The blanks I was looking at are HMX brand.. seem to be legit. Looking at this kit. https://www.mudhole.com/kits-bundles/Multi-Option-Rod-Kits/MHX-Freshwater-Rod-Kits

Mudhole has good products I have 2 CRB custom made rods. Rod kits-bundles are a good way to start building rods. Enjoy and post a picture of the finished product.

Have built close to 100 I suspect. Would have to go through my notes. Getting set up to build the first one takes a little investment. After that, you can build really nice rods for about 50% of retail.

I have built several over the years mostly Batson / Rainshadow, Lamiglass. As stated above after getting set up price comes down. BTW John Cox is known to build MHX rods while on the trail.

I have built several the last 8 years I built for myself, family and friends. I enjoy building them but have all the rods that I will ever need. I am not good enough with the thread art to sell them, so I quit for the time being. May do a couple this winter if this covid stuff continues to keep me in house.

[img]https://texasfishingforum.com/forum...59b56b9_ce24_4baa_9386_1f43fe04ad03.jpeg[/



This is not a very good pic this is a MHX rod that I built. Got all the parts from Mudhole.

Looks like work out of Billy V's book, with a little Doc Ski and Clemens thrown in.

I have back problems and can only fish sitting down, so the casting rods made today with the long handles are not usable for me. And nobody makes a decent pistol grip rod anymore, so my only option was to make it myself. I have made a couple using the Mudhole kits and they turned out fine. I am planning to build another one this winter, using a higher quality blank than the one in the kit. I have enough confidence in my ability to build one now that I don't mind spending more money. I would rather just buy a rod, but the whole industry is focused on tournament fishermen and nothing else.

I didn't buy any of the special tools they sell; just used things that I already had. I put the handle in a vice and wrapped the thread by hand. It took about an hour to do each one that way, but I am only building them for my own use so the extra time didn't really matter.

Let’s see some pictures Coosa.

I bought a rod building book several years ago along with a rod building kit and never used it. Also built a set of wrapping bases out of cedar and accumulated a couple more blanks and never built a thing since then. With all the COVID stuff, saw that Mudhole is giving virtual classes now. Signed up for one later this month. Gonna actually build my first rod...

For any that have interest, for $199 they give you the class and rod building materials...

My dad built rods semi-professionally in the 50's and 60's. As his eyes got bad, I wrapped for him.

I did the same thing in the early to mid 70's. Remember these were glass blanks with Featherweight pistol grip handles and carbide guides. Generally shorter than what we fish today. I still have one in my tackle room that I built in 1975 plus or minus a couple years.

I wouldn't build a rod now under any circumstances. Yes, you can save some money, if you think your time is free, but to me just not worth it. Too many good, reasonably priced (under $150) rods out there to buy. If I wanted a short, pistol grip rod, I'd probably have to build one, or have someone build it, but that's about it.

I have a couple old rods that I really like. An old Daiwa VIP fiberglass rod. The best jerk bait rod ever built. And an old Shimano Crucial. These are 20 plus year old rods. Ever two - three years I rip the guides off and re-wrap. Single colors, no underlays, no fancy butt wraps like I used to do. They don't catch fish, and that's my goal.

That said, it is fun to have a rod you built yourself, that no one else has. If that's your thing, enjoy.

This brought back some memories. About 50 years ago, I had a customer that wanted a rod with red, white and blue wraps. I spent hours on that rod wrapping A thread under wraps, accent rings under the guides, at least a 6 inch, if not 8 inch, diamond but wrap, all in red, white and blue. Damn, I'd love to have a picture of that rod. The most demanding and fanciest I ever did.

PS, I hate single footed guides. We didn't have them 50 years ago, or I would have never built a rod.

1st rod. Obviously going to have to let my wife choose colors/patterns from now on...

Pleasantly surprised with the rod/blank and components themselves.

Sorry Shiner, I just noticed your request for pictures, but it 25 degrees outside right now, so you will have to wait until I get some better weather for me to dig them out of the boat and make a picture, but I will try to get it to it soon so everyone can see how easy it is.

Mudhole ran a 50% off special on some of their blanks, so I bought another kit and have put it together since my last post. I got a 6.5' foot OEM medium blank with their pistol grip kit for this one. I had used 6' blanks before, and I wasn't sure how a 6.5 would work with a pistol grip. Well, it worked great and I am afraid I am gonna wanna replace all my 6' rods.

The graphite blanks that they make now are so much lighter than they used to be, that I am now thinking that I might could even use a 7' blank. Another thing unusual about the way I fish is that I usually hold the rod by the foregrip instead of palming the reel. I started doing that long ago as a kid because it let me feed the line between my thumb and forefinger when worm fishing and I was able to feel bites a lot better with the clunky fiberglass rods of the old days. I still tend to hold it that way, so I put a 4" cork foregrip on it. After fishing with it, I like that better too.

Like others, I would rather just walk in the store and buy the rod I want, but a 6.5" pistol grip with a 4" foregrip is not in the BPS catalog.