What do you need to get started building rods?

[Music] hey guys thanks for tuning in today i'm uh currently in the process of putting a rod together and i wanted to go over what it takes to start building your own rods a lot of you guys know that i've been uh building my own rods for it's probably like five years now it's been a long time and i truly i truly love it like i think it gives me advantages over my competition i think i build uh rods that just meet the demands that i expect and i build them with every little feature that i want you know i feel like when i walk into bait shops now and i start looking at other rods there's always one or two things i do do a little differently they're all like really well built rods but there's things that i prefer that i would have done differently and it could be as small as the hook keeper it could be the guide spacing the handle lots of different things so for me to be able to use a rod that's got every little feature in it that i want is fantastic i mean it's just such a good uh it's such a good craft to have and you know not to mention if i break a rod or a buddy breaks a rod they can bring it to me and i can have it repaired you know put new tips on new guides on all kinds of stuff i can fix that rod you know overnight if we need it that fast so it's just like it's a great it's it's just a great trade to have so i encourage all of you to go out and try it now i realize not everybody has the time or the money to be able to do it but it's not that expensive and i frequently get a get questions from subscribers that want to know what does it take like what tools do you need to build your own rods so i want to do a quick video on just going over all of the different components that we need uh and and the tools that you need to invest in before you can start building your rod and and really it comes down to for a few hundred dollars you can have everything that you need to start building rods if you go to uh websites like mudhole.com they've got like beginner kits everything that you need to start building rods you can order in one kit so you're not going to miss out on anything you know i recommend doing that and then you build your first rod or two and then you can kind of start understanding what you prefer and start ordering separate components so they have all the rod kits that you need and i get everything that i need off of mud hole you know they've got their rod blanks that they carry uh well they have all different brands mhx is kind of their brand and i love the mhx blanks but you can get you know saint croix you can get whatever else you're looking for at their website they've got all the tools all the components everything so i just want to do a quick walk through of of what you need to take a a blank like this you know this is this is a nmb 873 one of my favorite rod blanks i mean you can see nothing comes on it's just a long piece of graphite so you have to put everything else onto that in order to make it work so what what tools do you need one of the first ones this is a spine finder do you absolutely need to find the spine of spine of a rod no you do not need to do that to get the rod to work but to have the peak performance out of the rod you should put your blank in a spine finder to find specifically where the spine of the rod is so that when you're fighting a fish the rod's not gonna want to twist it's just gonna it's just gonna bend the correct way if you don't put the guides if you don't know where the spine is where you put your guides could result in the rod twisting uh which will lead to you know the rod not performing to its its peak performance so i recommend getting a spine finder other than that so then what we've got here this is just a hand wrapper you know literally you can spend hundreds of dollars on power wrappers that are foot controlled but in this case this is just the hand wrapper so i put it in here i can twist it you can put your your different threads in here and you know this is all you need to put threads on your guides you also will need some sort of drying device like this this is just a single i do have a triple one sitting up here that i can turn on individually because i will be doing lots of times i'll do multiple rods at once i do think when you're building rods a lot of times it's easiest if you know you're going to make three or four rods it's easiest to kind of do them all in steps together so put the handles on put threads on then put your your thread epoxy over the top and then dry three at a time versus doing one at a time but you know you can get you can get your your hand wrapper your drying device uh you know it comes with the extra stands all of that for the most part comes in a kit then what you're looking at here so you're gonna want some rod epoxies these are for your guides these are the clear coats so that's a two part this is another two part this is the glue that you'll use on your uh handles and on your uh yeah pretty much on your handles and your butt grips um and then the last thing that you'll really need is a bunch of alcohol rub just to kind of be able to clean up all the additional glue and the the epoxies other than that you're just talking about rod components you know on rod components i've got a whole kit here and again you can buy kits if you want to do kits you can buy entire guide trains so you know you pick out what rod you're building and say okay now i want this guide train and they'll give you nine or ten guides that'll all run in a row you know i've got at this point i've built up all kinds of different pieces uh that i utilize all different types of guides and just different handle parts you know i've i at this point i've kind of tried everything it's it's one of those one of those things you know it's i'll flip through like the mud hole catalog this is for you for those of you who are my age when we were younger we used to get the bass pro shops catalog and you know it was about that fat and you would flip through it and you would look for all the new baits and you know all the new cool stuff well this is kind of like my current day bass pro shops catalog when i get the the mud hole catalog i'll go through it and i'll be like i like those components i like this this sounds great and i'll order one or two here and there and then i'll kind of build with it and some of them i don't like some of them i do like and i'll kind of work them into my arsenal as i move forward uh you know other than that you're pretty much just looking at different threads these are all different thread colors that i use and you know your your handle components i mean everyone chooses different different handle components and grip components i really like the wind grips i like that feel in my hand especially when it's wet and cold out um but that's that's really all you need guys for a couple hundred dollars you can have your hand wrapper your dryers spine finders some threads the guides you know everything that you need and then you know really what you're looking at from a blank standpoint is you're going to be spending for the blank probably about a third of what your normal price rod is uh and you're you're going to be able to build the rod as a whole for about half of what you would buy them for in the store so not only are you saving money on them you're also then going to be able to build them exactly how you want and that's to me that's worth spending the extra money to get these few components to be able to build my own rods and after you build two or three you're pretty much break even if you had gone to the store and spent that money for a full price rod uh so guys i highly recommend trying it it's one of those things you know it makes you a better fisherman that's really like for me that's been the huge part i've been able to build rods specifically for the baits that i love to use it's amazing to me when you put a bait on one rod and you use it and you go ah this doesn't feel right you put it on the right rod and all sudden it's like the the bait comes alive and it's like your favorite bait to use and so much of that is is about the rods when i talk to people who are like i don't i don't like throwing a lip list or i don't like throwing a chatter bait or i don't like throwing swim baits it's usually in my opinion because they don't have the right rod so it's a matter of uh having the right rod but once you once you start building rods you become so much more in tune with the rod as a whole and that makes you a better fisherman because now you know how the baits are gonna work with that rod i know if i put it on a 873 versus an 874 i'm gonna get a little bit different feel out of it and that's that's such a crucial part for me at least i'm not saying it's for everybody but it's such a cool a cool thing to do and i'll tell you if you catch a fish on a rod you build you'll remember it the only thing i'll say the worst part about rod building is if you break one you can't send it back in for a warranty uh you know mud hole will send you a new blank but you got to spend the time to to build a new rod and it really doesn't take that long either you know it's for me i can sit down and have a rod built in from top to bottom in about an hour and a half and then i usually like to let my rod sit for a day before they uh finally are cured make sure that everything is is dried on it but you know in an hour and a half i can sit down and have the whole thing threaded up handles on everything glued on um usually actually probably a little bit less than that but i feel like i'm i when i when i like to sit i like to sit down and do like three four guides at a time and then go do whatever come back and do a few more but guys check it out if you're sitting there thinking this is something you might be interested in give it a try go to mudhole.com uh they've got so many tutorials they've got so many videos that are helpful for you that you know they'll answer be able to answer any of the questions that you have and once you watch some of those you'll see it's not that difficult it really isn't that difficult it's just a matter of knowing what the steps are and once you know those steps you can you can fly through a rod really in very little time so i hope this was helpful guys i hope this helps you know a bunch of you have reached out to me and asked me about this uh i hope this was helpful if you guys still have questions please leave them in the comment section and i will you know get into them in more detail but yeah guys this is what it entails it's not that hard so thanks for watching hit the subscribe button if you haven't done so already and new videos coming out every day

Channel: Matt Stefan Fishing

Views: 15,499

Keywords: jigfishing, bass, bassfishing, bassmaster, scottmarttin, googinsquad, mlf, flwfishing, mlffishing, topwater, crankbait, swimbait, spottedbass, tackleprep, fishing, fishingtip, fishingtips, bassfishingtip, bassfishingtips, walleye, icefishing, largemouthbass, largemouth, smallmouthbass, smallmouth, scottmartin, bassmasters, bpttour, googansquad, chickamugabassfishing, smallies, bpt, procircuit, fishingtournament, fishingvideo, swimjig, floridabassfishing, chatterbait, customrodbuilding, rodbuilding, mhx, mudhole, mudholecustomrodbuilding

Id: PpUHhdxvjUA

Length: 11min 58sec (718 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 15 2021