All opinions,who is the best on site for building a rod.

Equipment Rod Building: Cane and Graphite
1

I have recently bought a discontinued st croix legend ultra 7’6" 4 weight 4 pc rod.I mostly would use it for beadhead nymphs for panfish.Now i have not used it yet, but was somewhat disappointed in the really small grip the factory rod had,also i have never been found of a multi piece rod.I see that gloomis still makes the fr904 blanks in gl3 2 pc.I would like to see what the rod would cost to build with the like single foot tic guides with a sic stripper and a rec uplocking nickle reelseat,wood is really not a issue.Simple wraps to match the blank with maybe a wrap of silver thread at the ferrule ,stripper guide and hook keeper.I want it to look as close to a factory rod except the reelseat which loomis has a uplocking cork insert reelseat.

2

G Loomis does not sell blanks anymore…Stopped a few years ago.

Take your St.Croix to a builder and replace the grip. It takes no time at all to do that. In fact, have one made with some nice burl cork…

Randy

3

I don’t think there is such a thing. In my opnion burl cork is ugly.

Brad

4

I own 2 rods built by members of this site. Both were affordably done with excellent craftmanship. I think you would be happy with either one. Not to snub any of the other rod builders here…these are just the two I have experience with. I would recommend these guys to anyone.

These members go by the following screen names on this site:
Apachetrout
Midwest Custom Fly Rods

5

Ditto that…double butt ugly!

6

I have only seen the work of Kevin Proctor in person, he does a beautiful job and Kevin tells me Steve at Midwest Custom is also a great guy. His work surely photos well.

7

Steve and Kevin are both excellent builders. You can not go wrong with either one of them. After building a few hundred rods I would use either one of these guys to built me a rod.

8






I kind of like to see burl. But as we say, to each their own. We would live in a bored world if we all agreed.



Randy

9

Good cork is hard to find. As you see some of the cork has to be filled in.

And yes, my bench is dirty

Randy

To stay on the topic, Both Steve and Kevin are friends and they can and will do a great job for you. Also on here is Goduster,Ron. Another great guy. I might have skipped a few others but please forgive me. All of these guys are good people to work with. As a rod building ferternity, we all work together and help each other.