Custom trolling rod

[Bennie]

Hi, thinking of having a custom rod built for downrigger fishing. Any thoughts on spiral wrap guides vs straight , and carbon fiber for butt grip and lengths of of butt and fore grip. Thanks.

 

[tubber]

spiral wrap means conventional reel, right? Try a single action reel, then if you like it, spend the equivalent money on an Islander or knock off.
Downrigger rods get beat up, is custom worth it?

 

[Dogbreath]

A fibreglas blank is what you want it'll take the beating sadly the fibreglas blanks once offered by Lamiglas seem to have been discontinued.

However the Mudhole site is showing some in stock check carefully though they are a big outfit that doesn't always look after loose ends if you know what I mean.

http://www.mudhole.com/CGA102-2M

These might suit the price sure is right

http://www.mudhole.com/Rod-Building/MHX-Salmon-Steelhead-Rod-Blanks

PacBay and Seeker have some interesting blanks for your appliaction as well.

 

[Sr SQ]

Hi, thinking of having a custom rod built for downrigger fishing. Any thoughts on spiral wrap guides vs straight , and carbon fiber for butt grip and lengths of of butt and fore grip. Thanks.

If your talking spiral/acid wrap then your looking at using a levelwind/multiplier type reel and not one of the conventional west coast single action reels.
I am presently building new carbon fiber grips for all my boat rods ( I'm done with cork) but I use single action reels so my grip measurements will be much different.
Cork takes a beating in the rod holders and gets pretty smelly and dirty looking in less than a season.
For single action reels my preference is 12" fore and 6" rear grip, for levelwind style I prefer 5" fore and 12" rear grip.
If you can get past the non-traditional look then spiral wrap is the way to go, no negatives other than look but most guys are too traditional to even try them.

I agree with Dogbreath that for boat rods F/G is the way to go but not easy to find anymore.
That said, Batson has a relatively new line of B/P (bullet proof) blanks out, I built a pair of 1265 last season and so far so good.
This winter I'm going to twist up a pair of 1264, the 5s are nice for deep rigging but too stiff for the shallow stuff for me.

 

[Bennie]

My Titan by Trophy XL has 7" of cork to the reel seat plus end cap, the fore grip is 11" of cork. I would like the rear grip a bit longer as my SA reels touch the rod holder. I'll probably go with the traditional wrap. Any preference on reel seats.

 

[Dogbreath]

Batson has a relatively new line of B/P (bullet proof) blanks out, I built a pair of 1265 last season and so far so good.....

Hmmmm.....

 

[Mako 22]

Hmmmm.....

Hmmm is right.

Thinking about building a couple of downrigger rods this winter. Was going to use Batson RDR100H (10 ft, 15-40 pound) but this thread has got me thinking about the BP1266F 10 ft 6 inches, 12 to 30 pound). Next time I am at the Batson warehouse (which is 10 miles from me) I will do some "pull testing" on both blanks.

RDR 100H is E-glass and RX6 graphite blend. Weighs 8.25 ounces.

BP1266F is RX4 graphite/composite matrix. Weighs 5.41 ounces.

 

[wasnedden]

Custom Rodbuilders inc. in Victoria is the MHX blank distributor for Canada.

The DR1266-MHX is a full-flex fiberglass 10' 6" blank for downrigger fishing.

http://www.rodbuildersupplies.com/

250-544-8880
1-877-303-9331

 

[sly_karma]

Sirius makes a spiral wrap downrigger rod in 10'6 and they're under $50 at Wholesale Outdoor. If you have a conventional reel kicking around anyway, you could try that setup for little investment to see if you like the concept before committing to the bigger bucks for a custom rod. I ran a pair of those rods with Torium 20 reels this past summer.