New Discoveries

I just completed several of the custom rods I outlined in my previous post. I had some successes and discoveries with each of these, much of which I will be incorporating into future builds.

I am very impressed with the Fuji “ACS” casting reel seats. They are built well and are very comfortable and I expect to be incorporating these into future casting rods. The photo on the right shows how it looks on the casting rod. The blank is exposed underneath so your finger touches it directly.

I also used white plastic styrene as an inlay material in the handle of this rod. It looks great as an inlay, but takes some technique to properly turn and finish. It provides a more striking inlay than wood and it’s quite light. I plan to continue to experiment with this in future rods.

For most of my rods, I use a traditional diamond or chevron wrap, I experimented with an 8-axis optical chevron for this rod. (See photo on left).  It was an involved wrap but well worth the effort. I plan to try this again with a different color scheme.

Those of you that use spinning rods for crappie, panfish and trout may appreciate the below rod. It is a custom spinning rod built on a 7’6” 3wt fly rod blank using a split-grip handle design The result is a long, medium action, very light power rod that I’ve found extremely fun to fish with. The handle is cork painted black and sealed with epoxy. It provides a pretty unique look!

 

 

I’m just finishing another 3-piece spinning rod that I will report back on. I've crafted a very unique all wood handle that I am quite happy with.  I'll post some pictures as soon as it is completed.

Thanks for reading, more pictures of all of these rods are in my main photo gallery.  Check back soon for more updates!