First Rod Build - Lots Of Advice Needed Pls!!!!

[youngangler274]

So first a little back story on me so you all can judge how capable I am for trying to pull this of. I am 16 years old and have been bass fishing for going on 2 years. I am the sole proud owner of a 1997 ranger r72 sport that I work and pay for myself, and fish 3 - 4 times a week when possible. I have numerous rods of varying companies and so I feel that I know enough about good rods to be able to judge what is right and good for one that I custom build. Now on to the reason for this post. My mother has been starting to fish with me more and more and she is getting much more into it. She doesn't know much about different techniques and such, I usually just hand her a setup and explain what to do and she fishes it. Normally this ends up being something along the lines of a wacky rigged worm or texas rigged plastics. But she has started to comment on how different rods I hand her feel. She has said things like "this one is too long and hard to cast". or "this rod doesn't bend enough and I cant cast it as far".  So for her birthday (which is coming up: August 25) I want to either build or buy her a custom rod. I have narrowed down the specs for it. It needs to be a 6'6" M-XF rod with split grips. I would like to make it mostly greyish silver with some orange mixed in as she is a survivor of kidney cancer and orange is the color for kidney cancer. So what do you all think? Do you think I can knock out a decent build before august 25th or do you think I need to buy a pre built rod? Any help or advice is helpful thanks!!!!

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

Mom's cherish hand made gifts from their kids. With her being new to the sport and knowing that you did it yourself, she'd probably not ever notice the small mistakes you're bound to make. On the flip side, there is a learning curve and some investment in getting into rod building. It's a great craft, but not for everyone. You may want to farm this one out, and build another for her down the road if you get into it and like it. Call or email me if you want to talk. 

[youngangler274]

Mom's cherish hand made gifts from their kids. With her being new to the sport and knowing that you did it yourself, she'd probably not ever notice the small mistakes you're bound to make. On the flip side, there is a learning curve and some investment in getting into rod building. It's a great craft, but not for everyone. You may want to farm this one out, and build another for her down the road if you get into it and like it. Call or email me if you want to talk. 

 

Thanks for the reply, email is on the way.

[Ben Eipert]

You should not have any trouble getting a rod made in that time frame. You will probably end up re-wrapping it multiple times though. I think I redid mine 3 times on my first one. Feel free to contact me also at beneipert@gmail.com. I might not be as much help as DVT but I can throw in my two cents and I was in the same situation as you with not much time or tools when I first started. Just be warned you will never want to fish a store bought rod again once you start building.