Start Building Your Own Fly Rod

Ever thought of building your own Fly-rod? This could be just one of the hobbies that sprout out of the marvellous sport of Fly Fishing, your own custom built rods.

I know it sounds difficult, but with a little research, practice and a good measure of patience, you will be capable to build a rod that can be the envy of your friends.

There are also a lot of benefits to constructing and designing your own rod. Most importantly it can save you a lot of money, as it is often cheaper to build a rod according to your own specs.

This includes the colour of the wrapping, the casting action, length of the blank and the respective components to add to the completed product. Secondly you will find it very rewarding when you start catching your first fish with the fly rod you have designed and built by yourself.

Before purchasing your rod blank, you have to research what blank you would like to use for the new rod. You got to consider the various characteristics of each blank, like the rod action which comes in slow, intermediate or fast, this naturally will all depend upon your casting style.

Then you must decide what rod components you want. Depending on the size of your hand, you got to consider the various custom cork grips available on the rod builders market today. You can purchase the raw grip and mould it yourself, or just order the completed product that comes in different contours like full wells, reverse-half wells, cigar and super fine.

Now we got to look at the reel seat to complete the grip arrangement. Again there are countless alternatives available to pick from. These reel seats are constructed from different exotic woods, metals and other synthetic materials. They come in configurations like down-locking, up-locking and also sliding rings for the very light rods.

This is followed by the stripping guide, a set of guides (where the fly line winds through) and a correctly sized tip top to fit the rod tip thickness. You can choose between single foot or snake guides depending if you going to fish for light or heavy fish.

The guides come in light wire, ceramic or titanium coated versions. The light wire snake guides are the best option for your very light rods. You can also opt for a hook keeper to keep the fly in place when not casting.

To complete and fit all the components to your new customized rod you'll require wrapping thread in the color of your choice and rod wrapping varnish to coat the thread.

Look for good rod builders’ epoxy to put together the rod seat and bonding the reel seat and cork grip to the rod blank. Optionally you can also purchase some color preserver to preserve the look of your wrapping tread and cork seal that strengthens the grip and keeping it from deteriorating from continues use over time.

Building your own Fly-rod is an first-class idea to pass time on weekends, particularly in the winter when the fish is scarce. You can also turn this hobby into a profitable side line by building and selling customized rods to other fisherman.

Think about it, it may well be worth spending time building and designing fly rods as a hobby.