# Working rods



## jcreamer (Mar 6, 2001)

Question wife asked me.

Why put all the nice pretty decorations on a rod and then destroy it fishing.

She said "Why don't you guys make working rods and not use the nice ones?"

When I asked her what she meant by working rods she said "The ones like you build."

What do you say to that.


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## Mark G (Nov 15, 2004)

I'd have to see one of your rods to know if that was a slam or not! 

Seriously, a lot of builders use a "no frills" design on their own rods, while letting the customer dictate what they want in terms of asthetics for rods they build for customers.

Pretty is pretty, but admittedly doesn't add much to functionality. 

I've done enough "decorations" to not necessarily worry about them for every rod I build for myself, but ocassionally still want to build a "show case" rod, that I am not afraid to fish.

Put it this way, if I am at the beach and someone asks to see a build, I like to have something on both sides of the fence, something that shows off a lean, no frills build, but another one that shows what I can do, if the customer is interested in bling.


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## jcreamer (Mar 6, 2001)

I finally got an answer as to why she said that.

"pay backs.."


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## Fisheadgib (Jan 7, 2006)

Ya know, in the 38 years that I've been building rods, I've kinda seen myself regress back to pure function. When I first started building rods, it was mainly to use higher quality components than what was available on storebought rods. Back around 1970, there was a very limited variety of rods with even aluminum oxide guides. I lived in Wisconsin and was building primarily ultralight spinning rods with Fenwick blanks. As I learned more about what I was doing, I started making them more and more elaborate, probably to show off. Then I got stationed in Florida in 1976 and started building salt water rods. I noticed that the real elaborate wraps on the rods that got used a lot didn't look very pretty for more than a few years. I started backing off on my guide wraps and keeping them more simple and saved any ornimentation for the butt wrap and grips. Now I build mainly bottom rods in the 30# to 100# class and an occassional 20# to 30# bait rod. They are very durable and functional but have very little ornamentation. My eyesight deterioration and my shorter attention span have a bit to do with it I'm sure.


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## Charlie2 (May 2, 2007)

*Working Rods*

I hear you; gib! I went in a gigantic circle from plain to gaudy and back to plain.

My rods now are all 'stealth' rods; black on black with no more ornamentation than I can put on in 15 minutes. Then my attention span rapidly goes downhill. I want to go fish with it.

BTW, I can put trim wraps and sometimes a simple diamond wrap in that time span. C2


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