The rod building times - pure nostagia

There was a period I guess, between the years 1968 and 1980 when virtually anyone who was a serious specimen hunter made his own rods. These were the days when Going Bros, Bob Frost, North Western, Don Neish and quite a few others supplied blanks, and even complete rod making kits so that anglers could make their own rods, customised to their own requirements as it were.

I took several Jim Gibbinson "Clooper" fast taper carp rod blanks back with me to SA, and fine weapons they were too. But what I didn't do was paint them matt black as many did in the UK. We did not become part of the "Ultra Cult" sect, as long hair and tank suits were not quite the thing in warm climates.

But getting back to the rods, how many of you made your own?

In fact I made lots of fly rods for others at that time and made a bit of extra money at it too.

My first two rods were Northwestern AC6's that I ringed up by myself. Also made my own buzzer bars & upgraded my Optonics.

Ron The Hat Clay said:

But getting back to the rods, how many of you made your own?

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For most of the 80's I made most of my own rods, quiver, swing tip and float rods too. I made my first 3 Carp rods on blanks from either Century or North Western, can't remember now to be honest.

The best rod I made myself was from an old fly rod, cut it back, re-ringed and changed the handle for a sort of an early canal 'bomb' rod . . . . think I still have it somewhere too . . . . must go and search it out.

Made a few rods in my time, for others and for myself. I used to get my blanks etc from Simpsons or Leslies, in those days Leslies was in St Albans, now Luton.

You can still buy blanks etc, the problem being you don't get to pick the blank off the shelf, you get the blank they send you.

A couple of years ago I did a rebuild for a mate, didn't charge labour just materials, to have the rod done via a shop would have been around £90, not £35.

I have built a few rods over the years and modified a lot more (To get rid of those orrible ring reel fittings - mutilated, I know some will say).

We have never been blessed with such an array of good quality rods as we have now and there isn't really the need to make your own or to modify them.

The satisfaction though, in catching on a bit of kit that you personally made, I feel gives that extra bit of enjoyment, It's a bit like using home tied flies or lures and floats you have made yourself.

Yes i agree it gives a certain satisfaction to know you created the rod you caught on. I made all my own rods for years when i first went over to coarse fishing and for several years i made pin money out of rebuilding or re-ringing sea rods for my mates and there mates.

I loved it and couldn't resist buying a good blank or two........i would buy anything if it felt right.....often the built rod was pants!!.....i would strip em down for the rings next time a blank took my eye.

My own preference was for the Conoflex blanks that Terry Eustace/Eric had, some of the best pike rods ever made.

I used to make my own rods from kits, starting in the mid 1960s right up until the mid 1980s.

I think it's interesting to consider why people rarely make their own nowadays.

By the 1980s, manufacturers realised there was a market in making a large range of rods to suit all types of fishing. Compare it with the 50s and 60s when rods tended to be match rods - remember Spanish reed ? - or hefty brutes for pike/spinning, plus the odd leger rod, which might just be an old match rod with the tip cut back. Specialist rods for leger and carping weren't that common. We didn't even use the term specialist.

A further factor in the decline in rod making has been the competition from imported rods, made initially in Europe and then more recently in the far east.

The range of rods now available with their relatively low prices, coupled with increased living standards in the UK, means that I for one would no longer try to find a blank to build my own rod.

In the early 60s many specimen hunters and even expert match anglers made their own rods, or even had a few specialist craftsmen make rods for them. I and a friend had a bash at making split cane, but what a time consuming and hand slicing job is was.

Then we discovered JB Walker of Hythe in Kent as well as Chapmans of Ware (still going strong). It became something of a tradition to make your own rod up in the close season. These companies would make up split cane to your requirements, as well as supply bored out tonking cane so that you could make the first two joints of a roach/match rod without brass ferrules. A split cane top was spliced into a length of tonkin cane for the top section. I took one of these rods with me on my first visit to Ireland and hammered the hell out of it on rudd and big bream.

It took time before decent rods in hollow glass fibre were available. Don Neish and Sportex of Sheffield were among the first. The first Sportex Tag Barnes carp rods in glass fibre became available ca 1963, just as the NSG was getting really known. I would imagine that virtually all the 18 odd members of the NSG had at least two of these rods, except one member who shall be nameless. He created hell when he saw most of us fishing with glass fibre rods. He would do the same today if he saw anglers using carbon I guess. He was the biggest Luddite I have ever met in my life.

I still have two fibre glass carp rods designed by Jack Hilton & supplied to me as blanks by the late Alan Brown of Hitchin,great fun building them up and then catching carp with them.

Ive built quite a few glass fibre rods over the years, the last being in 1988 which I gave to a fellow CSG member only last year knowing he only ever uses g/f rods. Almost wish I hadn't bothered giving it him as it wasn't appreciated at the time.
In his best Leicester accent he said,"that's not gunna drag many chub outta reeds" Since then he's taken some nice carp on it using floating crust, I think he actually quite likes it now.

Ive probably written this before but...

The best chub rod Ive ever had was the one I built whilst on holiday in a caravan parked at the far end (from the farm and toilets) of a cow field at Kirkby Hill close to Richmond, Nth York's during to summer of 1976.

I bought a Fibatube 10ft 1pc blank for about £5-00 and the total cost including rings, glue, balsa cement (for putting on the corks and then rubbing down with glass-paper to fill the holes in before it dried) dope, varnish and whipping, reel fittings and corks came to no more than £10. I cut the blank in two, fitted a spigot and built the handle on a piece of old blank. I finished up with a lovely 2pc + handle chubbing rod of just over 1lb TC at about 11ft-6inch after 'trimming' bits off

I must have had over a dozen 'chub' rods since (including ba lovely Graham Phillips 1lb-02oz rod with a put over quiver) but I have yet to find one to better it.

Sadly arthritic fingers that also cramp up like tallons put an end to my rod building days

That brings back memories Ron. Split cane blanks from J B Walker. Then on to Fibatube, NW and Sportex for glass. Finally on to Fibatube for fly rod blanks and NW for carbon blanks.

I built quite a lot of fly rods on Fibretube spigot ferrule carbon blanks. The most popular was the 9 foot 7/8 Fibretube which was the identical blank to the RW Farnborough. I must have made up at least 10 of these rods.