Rod builders, give me some advice...

[JeffK]

I've been building rods for 50 years and buying a kit is a good way to start. Check if they have glue, thread and finish so that you can order if you need it. Also, don't forget the rod tube and maybe sock. Hook and Hackle, a PA business, has nice kits as well.

I just wrap the guides with the blank on my lap and the thread in a fly tying bobbin. Need really good light to make sure getting a good wind. These days I use magnifiers as well. When I tried rod wrappers they feel awkward, so I go back to doing it by hand.

I don't use epoxy but use a varnish finish for the wraps. Use Minwax water-based varnish for the color preserver and Birchwood Casey Tru Oil for the finish. Varnish not as polished, but easier to repair/modify.

My best purchase was a rod turner to dry the finish. Used to turn every 15 minutes while watching TV, but was awkward and easy to make mistakes. Rod turner makes it easy and does a better job.

Try finishing the wraps on a dowel or piece of old rod before the final job if you are new. Get the kinks out before working on the rod.

The $1000 rod thread got me thinking about the economics of doing it yourself. Back in the day it was said that you could make a rod for about 1/2 retail. My first rod was a Fenwick rod that was outside my teenage budget but I could make with my lawn cutting funds. Less expensive rods from China and Korea have changed that all around. For example, on the $1000 rod page many people love the Redington Classic rods, but I can't make those rods for the price I can buy one. In general, it is not worth my while to make $300 or less rods and many of them are good rods that I enjoy fishing. Looking at making a Diamondback nymph rod that retails at $525, but the parts would run me at least $400 so I just stayed with the nymph rod I have. At the high end I can make a $1000 rod for $600-$700 (premium rods have premium parts), but then again I don't want to spend $600 for a rod.

I can save money by using parts I have accumulated over the years and being on the lookout for sale or clearance rod blanks - last year's models work just fine. That ends up a lot of work as well, but is OK if I am in the mood to shop around and build a rod, but a drag if I am not.

That leaves building a rod to your needs. For example, needed an 8 wt rod for bonefishing and the TFO BVK rod performed well at a decent price. However, the hardware didn't look saltwater friendly to me so bought the blank and built a rod with the hardware I like for the salt. That rod is my go-to saltwater rod now. Other custom things one can do are make a grip to fit your hand, put the stripping guide right where your reach ends or maybe wrapping the rod in your school colors. I make less rods these days since I can get rods I like to fish at costs around what I can make them for.

 

[PennKev]

The $1000 rod thread got me thinking about the economics of doing it yourself. Back in the day it was said that you could make a rod for about 1/2 retail. My first rod was a Fenwick rod that was outside my teenage budget but I could make with my lawn cutting funds. Less expensive rods from China and Korea have changed that all around. For example, on the $1000 rod page many people love the Redington Classic rods, but I can't make those rods for the price I can buy one. In general, it is not worth my while to make $300 or less rods and many of them are good rods that I enjoy fishing. Looking at making a Diamondback nymph rod that retails at $525, but the parts would run me at least $400 so I just stayed with the nymph rod I have. At the high end I can make a $1000 rod for $600-$700 (premium rods have premium parts), but then again I don't want to spend $600 for a rod.

Making home-built versions of name brand production rods not been economical for a very long time. I can remember the cost of Sage, Winston, et al. blanks 20 or more years ago, and even then they were priced so that there was no great savings in building. No rod builder was going to make money knocking together clones of factory rods and cutting out the traditional end-retailer. The pricing is/was set to prevent exactly that. Commercial customer builders need to offer actual customization to make any money at all building on such blanks.

So no, you can't really make a "Redington" for $300, but you can make a very similar rod for less than that. In most cases you would probably actually end up with a better rod without too much effort. The lower end blanks from blank-only companies like Pacific Bay and Batson are very good when compared to finished rods from Redington, Echo, etc. In reality, many rod companies do not even offer blanks, particularly lower cost brands. So you couldn't really build an actual Redington or Echo or whatever if you wanted to. TFO is the only such "budget" company that I can think of that has offered blanks of their production rods.

If you NEED the Redington name tag (or any other well know brand) you pay for it and that is true regardless of the price range in which you are shopping. If you are OK with a rod that doesn't carry that name recognition and are willing to take a shot on blanks that have no finished version available for you to check out of the fly shop, you can find some real gems. A good specific example is any of the Proof Fiberglass kits. Any of those kits will build into a glass rod that is superior to the Butterstick or similar priced glass rods on the market today. You'll end up with a rod that has better cork, better components, and better performance for $50 or more savings. but yeah, you gotta build it yourself and trust that it will be a good rod.

Can you "save" money building rods?

Maybe?

Not really.

I guess all I can really say for sure is that for a $300 budget I can build more rod than I can buy off the rack. I still spent the money, but end up with rod that I feel is better.

 

[JeffK]

I hear you PennKev. The rod I am building now is a 7 wt Rainshadow and it will be cheaper than "equivalent" rods. It's the knowing the action thing. Got to trust action will be to your taste since hard to try out many blanks from the OEM manufacturers. I've donated many of my rods to TU auctions since they weren't just what I was looking for; but also found some gems. North Fork Composites (Gary Loomis' company) has blanks on sale now that make the equivalent of higher ends rods (especially if you like fast ones)

Saving money on building fly rods is a lot like saving money on tying your own flies. You can do it with discipline, but what fun is that.