A good question i think!

Now that most of the worlds fishing equipment and tackle is produced in cheap labour countries, china, Korea Taiwan etc. and all have horrendous mark up values. i was wondering what the general fly fishing community feels is a reasonable price to pay for a fly rod?
the reason i ask is ive made a few in the past for friends and family only small lightweight rods using "named" blanks, but am considering doing a small home based business building custom rods for people using british made blanks?

so what would you pay??
(please sensible answers im really interested)

When you look at the market for rods you can get a really good one that will last you years unless you trap it with the car door for between £100-£200,yes you can pay twice or three times as much for a rod,anything up to £600 do they fish 3 times better?no i dont think so.

Between £100-200 is reasonable... For a trout stream/river rod.

Check this site Burns built fishing rods, quality custom built fishing rods and hand made fishing rods

Chas Burns has a rock solid reputation and builds on British blanks. So that is probably your price range.

yes thats a good price range £100 £200 and then if you do a fancy butt in some way that has never been do.then you could go to maybe £250,then £300 if its reactalite blank or something and titainium rod rings and painted fancy,you do have to have a eye for it though not to go to far,i have a marlin rod thats gold every were but thats USA for you.if you do get one done id like to see you result.keep at it

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stop buying bottled water we have,nt got enuff to fish in now so stop it get the water companies to do there job and clean the water every where!!!!

Well, firstly I need to see the rod, try it out; and if I like it; and can afford to buy it?? then that's what it's worth to me! I bought a custom Cane Rod from Tim Harris (Harris-Fly-Rods) and considered the investment to be a really good one! I also like the Hardy Classic Lightweight Range of Rods & Reels. Love the easy through action on all my fly fishing rods, coupled with lightweight reels and lightweight fly lines #2/3 or #4, as the heaviest!

I also have a cheap to buy 7ft, Fladen Vantage #3, weight; and consider it a real bargain!

You must decide a price for your time and workmanship; and ad it to the cost of the completed product (The Rod) when finished!

Good luck with the venture.

M

Between £100 and £200 must be the average an angler pays for a rod and a good point to pitch into the market. I'm not hundred percent certain they're worth the extra, but usually buy a top ender second hand, normally paying between £250 and £350. Went to look at some new Vision Cults over the weekend and must say the quality of the workmanship was bl00dy aweful. Poor cork with glue spills and terrible whippings, put me off them before having a swing

Just bought my most expensive rod to date at £340 but was a fairly specialist piece of kit (fast actioned 10ft 3wt ).Most of my other rods are around the £150 mark.

For a custom UK rod, with nice finishing etc, I would expect to pay around £300. Personally I would be reluctant to pay more than £150 without knowing who made the blank or at least having used one of the builder's rods.

At the end of the day (at risk sounding callous) I'm not too bothered if it is assembled in the UK or by a 12 year old kid in a Chinese sweat shop....as long as the build quality is good and it casts well. I would have thought your USP would come from tailoring the rod (action/length etc) to the individual client and this might be best served by having a range of blank suppliers.

Either way good luck with it.

R

cheers guys its nice to hear what people think.... im currently talking to a blank manufacture to try and get a sample to build up a design... so i will let you all know how it gets on

You need to work out a figure for your labour, fittings and varnish etc and then add it to the cost of the blanks as the blanks and the margin on them will determine your price range, Burns mentioned above is one such British Source for comparison, Rdp Flyrods is similar but American.

Welcome to RDP FlyRods; Custom Fly Rods, Blank Rods, Reels and More

Photo No 4 below on the ad is my rod (gold reel seat and rings with walnut insert, green and gold whipping over a marroon blank).

Custom 4 pc 7'6"Travel Fly Rod 1wt RDP Fly rod trout - eBay (item 190556403191 end time Jul-22-11 16:30:10 PDT)

Then there is David Norwich, Bloke who also do custom or semi custom rods as well as off the peg rods etc etc.

You are entering a very saturated market and need to consider if this is going to be a hobby or a full time job and price your labour rate accordingly.

If you do undertake to give it a go, good luck!

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Just My Tuppenceworth!!