Ok.

Team Oso,

It really isn't that hard and it's a skill that has tons of rewards:

1. Getting exactly what you want, like a heavy spinner, rail rod or acid wrapped rod which might not be commercially available otherwise. You'll also be able to fit heavy rods to your body size and technique, which is a huge benefit if you run tons of drag.

2. The satisfaction of a job well done and using something you created yourself.

3. Better quality. Once you develop basic skills (which can happen on your first rod if you take your time and focus) you'll build a better product than almost any off the shelf rods.

4. Better knowledge about what you want in a rod and how you expect it to perform.

5. Ain't no better way to tackle ho than with a custom rod.

Other than Kirkman's book, you can purchase Dale Clemens "Advanced Custom Rod Building" book and I HIGHLY reccomend Doc Labanowski's "Custom Rod Building With Doc Ski" DVD available from www.mudhole.com. Doc's video focuses on offshore rods, and long range tuna stand-ups in particular.

Good suppliers are FTU (selection is limited), mudhole, and www.acidrod.com.

Oh, and if you get into rod building, do it for the reasons above, not to save money. It's tough to realize savings unless you can buy components wholesale or build ALOT of rods.

I hesitate to sick you on another forum, but the folks at rodbuilding.org are very helpful (it's run by the aforementioned Tom Kirkman), just really great people.

I meant just taking the old guides off. For me, wrapping and finishing the guides is the most time consuming part of the whole process. It can also be the most frustating .

I'm not sure want your looking for but www.Bad-fish.com has kits that more geared to offshore / tuna fishing.


txseadog,when you say stripping down an old rod do you mean just taking it apart? I am going to google info on it after I post this,just curious. I would like to try and put together a rod or two.Think it would be a nice skill to pick up.
*edit*
So I looked up alot of info,its really hard to wade through it all. What would you suggest being a first purchase?One of those kits?I already know what the rod I want to build looks like in my head And I was just thinking about why no stickers,and I saw they have them,well not the ones I have in mind but it can be done,all I need to know. Thanks in advance for your input.