Just got done building my first cat rod

[minner]

It’s a Forecast saltwater blank. Stainless steel double-footed double braced guides. It has a graphite reel seat and EVA foam grips. Metallic blue underwrap with black over wrap and metallic silver trim bands. To try something a little different I went with spiral wrapped guides. I hope it will make drifting with rod in had less fatiguing and easier to fight the big ones (should I ever catch one again). Its maiden voyage is tomorrow and I hope to get a little slime on it, but not too much
I have pictures of the entire build process but wife wiped them out of the camera......... Oh well here is the final result.

 

[RangerRob]

Purdy minner. Congrats on the homebrew! emoThumbsup emoThumbsup

 

[jon the fisherman]

Way to go Minner!!! you should find it quite rewarding when you catch that first big'un.....Looks good too!!!

 

[minner]

thanks guys

 

[Guest]

Looks good

 

[Fat Albert]

<font color="#ff0000">Minner, looks as if you done good.....puurrrrrrrrty...FA</font>

 

[EricM]

emoEek emoEek emoThumbsup emoThumbsup

 

[rsimms]

Hmmm? I'm impressed with the spiral guides. Maybe I've been in a cave somewhere, but I've never seen that. Great idea.... makes lots of sense. You have created "form and function!" emoThumbsup

 

[RocnRebel]

I used to fish a lot with an old timer that had a few of those rods with the spiral wrap eyes. He called it a "Reynolds wrap" named I guess after the guy that come up with the concept.

Do you build rods for other folks?

Great looking rod work.

 

[foodsaver]

alan that is one good looking rod and the first spiral wrapped catfish rod I have seen. Don't post it on the BOC you won't be able to keep up with the orders!

 

[WLG]

Man..Thats one FINE lookin rod there minner!!! I guess I have been in a cave too...what is the purpose of the spiral???

 

[DHaun]

Nice job Minner emoThumbsup

 

[minner]

Thanks for the kind words guys. The spiral is something a few of the saltwater guys use. The idea is a spinning reel is more comfortable to hold since there is no torque on the grip because everything hangs down and when fighting a fish there is no tendnency of the rod to twist. The same goes for a spiral wrapped rod the only difference is you are able to use large conventional reels (not sisssy spinning reels emoPoke) and enjoy all the benefits.

The design goes by lots of names, spiral ,Robertselical, Acid, and a few others.

I didnt catch anythuing on it today but it felt really natural in my hand and the reel wanted to remain upright.

BTW I apologize if my spelling/grammer is bad I just got done have Lasik eye surgery yesterday i stall cant see the screen real well........

 

[polo-dog]

I was wondering about the spiral too. Thanks for the reasoning. I would think that the guides like that would tend to make the rod twist but I guess you will find out. It looks like you do great work minner. I hope that you catch a bunch of big ones on your new rod.

 

[Guest]

Great job minner. I think another reason for the spiral guides is to help keep the line from rubbing on the blank and causing friction during a fast run by a large fish. It makes sense to me and I would like to try one out sometime. Minner is the blank glass or graphite?

 

[RocnRebel]

My bad earlier on the Reynold's wrap. I believe my old fishing buddy did call it a Robert's wrap. He has all kinds of that old school stuff. Steel fishing poles, hand crank depth finder, even a hand crank trolling motor - looked like and egg beater on steroids.

I didn't even want him to take that Robert's wrap rod because it looked like the rod itself was bamboo or something and very old. We striper fished tournaments a lot. I knew what a big ole striper would do to that 50 year old rod - as in cost us a tournament. Now minner's new rod looks like it would more than handle a raging rockfish.

Beautiful work.

 

[foodsaver]

I have actually seen quite a bit of the spiral wrap on custom bass sticks that the boys over at bbc make. Just never seen it on a cattin rod before. I think its one of those things you either love or hate but I think its a great concept. Hope you hang a monster with it.

 

[fisherpal2k]

You done great on that one. i have seen the spiral rods before and actually got to fish with one. The only thing I would caution you about it is to watch and not let the rod get against he side of the boat. Friend of mine got him jerked down on the rail and it broke a couple of the eyes loose. </p>



Good Job!

</p>

 

[minner]

cheez - 2/2/2008 7:42 PM

Great job minner. I think another reason for the spiral guides is to help keep the line from rubbing on the blank and causing friction during a fast run by a large fish. It makes sense to me and I would like to try one out sometime. Minner is the blank glass or graphite?

And you can get away with less guides because the line won't rub the blank when its bowed.

Cheez it is an E-glass blank.

 

[Guest]

I'd like to try that bad boy out sometime. E-glass is the toughest stuff out for big cat rods. I've looked at several but all were too heavy for me but were not custom blanks either. Graphite breaks to easy unless you baby them.