Can only comment on the rod building.
Dont entertain the thought of building 1 rod.
You would be better investing the money on the rod of your choice. OMO
Agreed! Build several for the price of one. No fancy equipment needed. Cut a cardboard box for your rodstand. Thanks to Al C. for that recommendation.
-Stow
Buy ready made. The cost of componets and the blank leave a small margin on low end rods and if you have never built one you don’t went to start with a high end blank. Besides if you do break it you have to rebuild it. I have a 8’6" TFO 3wt. Nice little rod. True the finish isn’t the greatest but their warranty is. Sage is usually great but the color of the Launch leaves something to be desired. I’ve heard it casts fairly nice though. The TFO’s in the lower weights tend to be more moderate in action. Heavier quite fast. I bought mine to fish stocker trout in the 10-14" range. It works great with a 3wt sage Performance taper line. Throws 40-50 feet without a problem, even with a little wind. Used it for Grayling in AK last summer. It was a blast.
try an ECHO 3wt. they have basically the same warranty and price as a TFO but look better. They were also designed by Tim Rajeff. not lefty, but no slouch.
I also recommend NOT building a rod. If you want to make fishing equipment, learn how to tie. The equipment necessary to make rod building easy is quite expensive and it will always be about thirty times more expensive to build a rod than to build a fly. Customized flies can catch fish better, customized rods just look or feel better.
Alright guys and girls, let me sum up the two sides. Build for cost savings and pleasure, and don’t build its not worth it. Even if I take out the pleasure part of the equation (I tie all my own flies), from the information ya’ll (yes I’m from GA) have provided the cost to build seems the way to go. Five Rivers Sig V blanks (51 million)are all right at $100, adding in the extras, will keep it under $160, for a better than entry level rod. Am I missing something? Like being dumb to think I can build a quality rod. I have looked at Mr. Campbell’s info. and am not to gun shy. Any further thoughts?
That’s basically it, but there is one more piece of the equation… now that you have kids do you have time for another addicting hobby? If you tie then you have the skills, if you’ve found AC’s tutorial and you know about the Sig V then you’ve got the brains. Your next step is to start lurking at rodbuilding.org, ask questions as they come up, and jump in.
One other thing, you probably want to get a piece of scrap blank (old broken rod) to practice wraping and epoxying on before building a Dan Craft. Have fun,
Daniel.
GO FOR IT!!! I think that you can do a great job. The one thing I will warn you about is that one is not enough. I started with one and have now built 7 and have 3 in the wings. All different for different fishing situations. The really sad thing is that now I am thinking about learning to build bamboo rods as well. Rodbuilding.org is a good site. Also consider looking at [url=http://www.RodBuildingForum.com:a8827]www.RodBuildingForum.com[/url:a8827] for information and questions as well.
just do it.
yer on the right track.
mgj