Looking to possibly get a custom rod built...questions

[mrsturggie]

Take 300 bucks and go to mud hole . Com buy a kit and build it yourself. It’s not rocket science. You can build your very own and there is something about it that’s very rewarding. Call them up and they can and will help you every step of the way. They have kits that are high quality to the lesser it’s up to you and if it’s icing over there where your at, you have plenty of time till you can use it anyway. I got into it by accident. Now I work on fixing rods and building them all the time. It’s a great hobby to get into and gives lots of opportunities to create personal gifts to friends and family or items for fund raisers at local schools and such. It doesn’t take much. I local fella here got on the down and out from a accident and needed some assistance. I bought a kit from mud hole and customized it a bit and sold tickets for 20 bucks to raffle it off. It went so well that I make em for kids here in our town that can’t pay there own way to camp. They go around sellin tickets rather than candy and that helps get my name out there. I don’t make any money per say, but I do get a solid sense of being useful to my community from the results. Don’t be scared, you can do it!

[willwork4fish]

Take 300 bucks and go to mud hole . Com buy a kit and build it yourself. It’s not rocket science. You can build your very own and there is something about it that’s very rewarding. Call them up and they can and will help you every step of the way. They have kits that are high quality to the lesser it’s up to you and if it’s icing over there where your at, you have plenty of time till you can use it anyway. I got into it by accident. Now I work on fixing rods and building them all the time. It’s a great hobby to get into and gives lots of opportunities to create personal gifts to friends and family or items for fund raisers at local schools and such. It doesn’t take much. I local fella here got on the down and out from a accident and needed some assistance. I bought a kit from mud hole and customized it a bit and sold tickets for 20 bucks to raffle it off. It went so well that I make em for kids here in our town that can’t pay there own way to camp. They go around sellin tickets rather than candy and that helps get my name out there. I don’t make any money per say, but I do get a solid sense of being useful to my community from the results. Don’t be scared, you can do it!

Best answer so far...I started building when I was talking Rich Forhan back in like 2003 about building me another rod (he had built me 2 already...I want to say I paid $150 each) and he suggested I try and build my own. I don't build them to make money really, I like doing it and whatever I make just goes into trying out new blanks for myself for the most part. I've also probably built 20 or 30 raffle and charity rods over the years, it's nice.

You really can save money building them yourself though you probably won't because you'll end up building yourself way too many...I think I have 40 rods in my garage/boat/shop and another 40 blanks, I sell them off now and again pretty cheap when guys in my club or other buddies are needing one. Honestly nothing better than catching one on a rod you built with a jig you poured and tied.

[willwork4fish]

willwork4fish does good work... I know personally.

thanks Mike, gonna start building again now that I'm almost done with that boat. I'll figure out that blank for you this winter

[D.O.C. 989]

Best answer so far...I started building when I was talking Rich Forhan back in like 2003 about building me another rod (he had built me 2 already...I want to say I paid $150 each) and he suggested I try and build my own. I don't build them to make money really, I like doing it and whatever I make just goes into trying out new blanks for myself for the most part. I've also probably built 20 or 30 raffle and charity rods over the years, it's nice.

You really can save money building them yourself though you probably won't because you'll end up building yourself way too many...I think I have 40 rods in my garage/boat/shop and another 40 blanks, I sell them off now and again pretty cheap when guys in my club or other buddies are needing one. Honestly nothing better than catching one on a rod you built with a jig you poured and tied.

Agree with all this, very good post.

[cidgrad]

Thanks for the clarity. I had inquired about a custom build on the phone many moons back and was told it was just blanks you folks made. Glad to see it can be any blank or materials you can source. Really nice to know!

[coreynov902]

I have seriously considered started to learn to build rods as well as lure making and airbrushing. I almost pulled the trigger on buying a rod building kit from Mudhole a few months back. Maybe now that there's snow on the ground and I know I won't be getting out on the water any time soon I'll dive in and try it. I think I just struggle with knowing that there will be a learning curve and that that learning curve may cost me a bunch of money...money that could have been spent simply purchasing something tried and true in a production rod.

[Casslaw]

Here’s my .02 coming from someone that only wishes he could build a rod! I have 2 “custom” rods built with ALX components by an old member here. One is a 7’6” frog rod;p; flipping stick, the other is a 7’ chatterbait rod. The difference between these rods and my “good” rods is incredible! The weight, feel is amazing. They cast better, are more sensitive, and are my favorite rods by far.

I habe PM’d Alex many times and he’s always answered my questions 100% honestly! I wouldn’t hesitate to have ALX build my next rod. Actually my next rod (jerkbait) will be done by ALX.

[D.O.C. 989]

I have seriously considered started to learn to build rods as well as lure making and airbrushing. I almost pulled the trigger on buying a rod building kit from Mudhole a few months back. Maybe now that there's snow on the ground and I know I won't be getting out on the water any time soon I'll dive in and try it. I think I just struggle with knowing that there will be a learning curve and that that learning curve may cost me a bunch of money...money that could have been spent simply purchasing something tried and true in a production rod.

Another option to learn is go to yard sales or thrift stores and purchase some old rods, they are usually very cheap sometimes as much as only a couple dollars. Take a few of these and learn to remove the components on you tube or from a builder or even on here then put one or two back together. You may end up only having to buy a handle or cheap cork rings to build one. Once you're comfortable on the build process get you some new stuff and build what you want.

[Bassin Dude 365]

Another option to learn is go to yard sales or thrift stores and purchase some old rods, they are usually very cheap sometimes as much as only a couple dollars. Take a few of these and learn to remove the components on you tube or from a builder or even on here then put one or two back together. You may end up only having to buy a handle or cheap cork rings to build one. Once you're comfortable on the build process get you some new stuff and build what you want.

This is basically what I am doing. Repairing old rods and getting good at removing guides without scratching the blank. I've even stripped a couple rods down to the bare blank, reel seat, handle and all to be rebuilt this winter.

[basscat tyler]

Thanks for the compliment but you're slightly incorrect.

Customers have a couple routes we go - customized ALX production rods or true 100% custom... we can of course offer the best pricing on our products which meets about 80% of the custom rod requests. We take the time to talk thru custom builds with our clients and if we do not have something in our lineup that works or if they want something else, we can meet that need. That's the beauty of our custom shop. We have a very extensive knowledge of pretty much everything on the market and know how to match a customer's needs with that.

We purchase from almost every rod component manufacturer via our OEM accounts. We have an entirely different side of our business that builds private label/OEM and uses all of these different components... we even have CAD capability to have our own parts designed and custom made - as we do for several of our fly rod customers. Now that's OEM, but the cool thing is we have access to things others don't sometimes.


This custom BFS build is on a Phoenix blank, Fuji Seats, Fuji guides.
Attachment 383111Attachment 383112

None of this is off the shelf stuff. All grips hand turned and shaped in our shop per customer spec. Fuji components.
Attachment 383113Attachment 383114

Custom VSS on a non hydra blank or drop shot with Fuji Ti K guides.

Attachment 383115

Check out the custom shop page here for a load of pics. We need to update that with some of the builds we have put out lately. Had some really awesome stuff go out the door!

I want that spinning rod!! I cant stand a spinning rod that the reel seat nut is on the top. I hold a spinning rod above the reel.

[Huckleberry]

I build my own and honestly some of the rods I’ve built, no one in their right mind would pay for the time I have invested in building them. If you’re doing decorative work, it’s not hard to have 20, 30 hours or even more into it. But I have a bad ass rod when I’m finished. 2613CDD8-CFAB-4C40-882C-D8DA42EF230F.jpegFC4DE6C9-C6A0-4770-A8D6-42752DB30CE3.jpeg

[D.O.C. 989]

I build my own and honestly some of the rods I’ve built, no one in their right mind would pay for the time I have invested in building them. If you’re doing decorative work, it’s not hard to have 20, 30 hours or even more into it. But I have a bad ass rod when I’m finished. 2613CDD8-CFAB-4C40-882C-D8DA42EF230F.jpegFC4DE6C9-C6A0-4770-A8D6-42752DB30CE3.jpeg

One of the old time rod builders i think it was Doc Ski said " why fish with an ugly rod if you don't have to". I learned my thread work from B.D. Ehler. A lot of those old timers could work magic with thread. Doesn't help with catching fish but you look good doing it!!

[willwork4fish]

One of the old time rod builders i think it was Doc Ski said " why fish with an ugly rod if you don't have to". I learned my thread work from B.D. Ehler. A lot of those old timers could work magic with thread. Doesn't help with catching fish but you look good doing it!!

I'm always impressed by some of the threadwork that I see here or on the Custom Rod Builders Guild page...that being said it's not my thing. I've never caught a fish that bit just because they wanted to see some chevrons...

Rod builders usually fall into one of two groups...building a work of art or building for performance. Best rod builder I've ever known would tell you that you can have "any color thread as long as it's black" (or purple if you wanted SiC's).

[shfishinsticks]

Best rod builder I've ever known would tell you that you can have "any color thread as long as it's black" (or purple if you wanted SiC's).

I attended a seminar Rich did at the ICRBE one year and he said that exact thing.

[Huckleberry]

I've figured out how I can build on performance and decorative at the same time. I've tried to build one as light as possible with no decorative wrap and it's hard for me to not try and spruce it up. So when I build a split grip rod, I figure between the seat grip and the butt cap, skies the limit. To me, the little bit of added weight behind the grip only benefits the overall balance of the rod.

[willwork4fish]

I attended a seminar Rich did at the ICRBE one year and he said that exact thing.

That's who I was talking about. One of the first rods I ever built was a direct copy of one of his.