Rod Builder? Change 7wt fly to spin cast?

[Steeltrap]

I've been looking for a lightweight casting rod (not spinning rod) and those seem to be few and far....unless I wanna get into $200+ which I do not want to do.

I have a 40YO 7 wt shakespeare 2pc fly rod that I'm thinking of cutting off the fly handle and installing a casting handle. Of course, this will also require installing new eyelets.

Has anyone ever done such a task? Results?

Thanks much.

 

[Solitariolupo]

Right now I don’t know how good of advice I can give you since I’m building my own rod right now. Shouldn’t be to hard to do.

What do you mean cut the handle off just the cork or the hole end of the rod.

Might be a pain taking the epoxy of the threads then will have to cut the threads very carefully so you don’t cut the blank.

After all the hard work find the spine and just build everything on the spine.

 

[Bamboozle]

Are you thinking about getting into BFS?

If so, a light & flexible tip is what you want and so is fiberglass.

 

[Steeltrap]

What is BFS?

 

[ryansheehan]

Bait Finesse system

 

[Steeltrap]

Bait Finesse system

Thanks Ryan.

I've never hear of that term before. I'm looking to have a rod for my growing "batch" of grandkids. Spincast rods\reels are a little easier to learn casting on than a spinning rod. Light weight lures can be tossed easily and a newbie can learn accuracy of tossing those lures with less "messing" with a spinning reel.

Once the spin cast is "mastered" spinning is next followed by fly.

Just looking for an inexpensive entry rod that doesn't have the action of a 2x4. :-D

 

[Bamboozle]

Have you looked at some of the inexpensive combos Zebco offers at places like Walmart?

I'm not necessarily talking about the "kid combos," but longer rods with reels at around $16 - $30.

You could buy a few combos for the price of the materials you would need to build a rod.

 

[JoeE]

I only built bait casting rods out of bamboo but one could build a bait casting rod from a fly rod blank if you know what taper you are looking for in the blank. The blank itself doesn’t know if it is a fly rod, spinning or bait caster. I would talk to a graphite or fiberglass maker (not a builder) and ask them if they would share the mandrel taper of a bait casting rod (if they would share) or you could also mic a bait casting rod in the length and action that you like then you would have a taper. Now, it would be hunting for a similar taper or the easier route, call the folks a Muddle Hole see what they have to say (they might not know) or hopefully lead you to someone to help you, they do have factory seconds for less than 20 dollars and may lead you in the right direction, also they have component kits that won’t break the bank.