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After using a 50 dollar bargain bin rod for a while now I've splurged on a custom job. Talk about one extreme to the other!!
My 3 excuses were:
1. The current rod is works well when 'normal' bait fishing but it cannot throw lures well. I'm particularly looking at tossing light metal slugs to Tuna schools so need a good spin stick for this.
2. It's for a Stella 5000 SW so having a $50 rod on the end just doesn't seem right
3. I'm a tackle rat and can't help myself.
Ok so none of those are really good enough!! I could have cut the crappy guides off the cheap rod (there were 8 and a tip by the way which didn't help) and got it rebound properly but since that was still going to cost around $100 I splurged.
The blank is a Samurai NV08. 6-10 kilos and 7 foot long.
Paul Herron is making the rod, a well known rod builder in FNQ and does a great job, I won't be disspointed.
Originally I was going for Fuji guides only to find an excellent product in the ALPS VX spin guides.
The Fuji guides I was looking at were the new EMNSG type that can be found on the Daiwa Catalina rods, a lovely chrome frame with a SIC ring.
However the ALPS ones were less than half the cost of the Fuji's. They have a marine grade Stainless frame and I could get one with a gold ring. The colour matches the Stellas.
This next link shows the Zirconia to be not as hard as SIC but harder than Alconite which is used to good effect on a lot of rods such as some Shimano T-curves. Also the coatings on the Zirconia are harder than the Zirconia itself so for the cost it was a no brainer.
I also went for an ALPS reel seat to match the reel.
No photos yet but when it's done I'll take a few and post them.
The interesting bit in all of this is that I'll end up with a rod similar in quality to the Daiwa Catalina range and at a similar cost. It'll just be totally unique to me.
It goes to show there's still a big place for custom rods in this day.
My 3 excuses were:
1. The current rod is works well when 'normal' bait fishing but it cannot throw lures well. I'm particularly looking at tossing light metal slugs to Tuna schools so need a good spin stick for this.
2. It's for a Stella 5000 SW so having a $50 rod on the end just doesn't seem right
3. I'm a tackle rat and can't help myself.
Ok so none of those are really good enough!! I could have cut the crappy guides off the cheap rod (there were 8 and a tip by the way which didn't help) and got it rebound properly but since that was still going to cost around $100 I splurged.
The blank is a Samurai NV08. 6-10 kilos and 7 foot long.
Paul Herron is making the rod, a well known rod builder in FNQ and does a great job, I won't be disspointed.
Originally I was going for Fuji guides only to find an excellent product in the ALPS VX spin guides.
The Fuji guides I was looking at were the new EMNSG type that can be found on the Daiwa Catalina rods, a lovely chrome frame with a SIC ring.
However the ALPS ones were less than half the cost of the Fuji's. They have a marine grade Stainless frame and I could get one with a gold ring. The colour matches the Stellas.
This next link shows the Zirconia to be not as hard as SIC but harder than Alconite which is used to good effect on a lot of rods such as some Shimano T-curves. Also the coatings on the Zirconia are harder than the Zirconia itself so for the cost it was a no brainer.
I also went for an ALPS reel seat to match the reel.
No photos yet but when it's done I'll take a few and post them.
The interesting bit in all of this is that I'll end up with a rod similar in quality to the Daiwa Catalina range and at a similar cost. It'll just be totally unique to me.
It goes to show there's still a big place for custom rods in this day.
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