Hi

I have been in the market for a 9'4w for a while now... i was hoping for a reasonably priced quality secondhander to come up.. but no.. i have seen a rod building kit online BUT simply dont trust myself ..

How much should i expect to pay someone competent to construct the rod for me ???

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Icky,
Give it a go!!
It would take some serious cockups to end up with an unfishable rod!
You will love fishing with something you built, its very rewarding, bit like tying your own flies.
Check out TC's thread, that should keep you out of trouble and maybe some of the rod building forums.

Theres plenty of us to help you along your way but BEWARE it a touch addictive....

If you really dont wanna try it (Chicken) i would say your money would be better spent on a rod with parts carefully chosen by an experienced rod builder than a kit. Kits tend to have rubbish hardware...
Im sure there are a few guys who would build you a real gem on here for a similar price of a kit, P+P, build cost...

But enough of that, thats the easy road for whimps....build it yourself!


Cheers
Trev

i hear what you are saying and i fully intend to have a bash, i have been eyeing up some blanks from the us for a 6ft 2 weight that work out real cheap..

the 9 ft 4 wt is a winston blank it would be my "main rod" and would not want to fudge it but dont really want to wait until i feel confident enough to build it

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Thats fair enough, a Winston would be a tricky one to start with.
I hear good things about the 6ft 2wt your speak of, assuming its a Tiger eye. Been meaning to order some for myself...

Cheers
Trev

Icky you must have seen the thread praising Foxens in St.Aspaph and the wonderful Rene, She put my Sage together for about £70. I was going to do it, but work suddenly got really busy, Try ringing her and ask what she would charge.
http://www.foxons.co.uk/product.asp?...hFor=&PT_ID=86

depends what you call reasonably priced Icky ive got a 9ft 4wt aquarius 2piece built on a harrison blank I had it made with a shortish handle with rosewood slide band reelseat it has my name written on the butt which doesnt put the fish off but was a bit fanciful really as its nice but not heirloom quality I think they are still in business uo in Glasgow
if you are interested letme know and i will pm you some pictures and take it from there

The blank dont mean diddle squat, a blanks a blanks so go ahead and build one, if you can change a tyre on yer car you can build a fly rod it aint rocket science, all you got to do is put around 20 pieces together with some glue and thread ive done two rods on harrison blanks and i love em, hopefully ill be try the pacbay ones from rodbits if i get some info off the guys on here. theres plenty of information on rod building about, the most techy bits are the spine/spline which takes 2mins and wrapping which takes alittle longer but aint hard once youve done one guide.Youll be proud of yerself once youve completed it and wonder why you keep paying silly money for made rods when they dont perform as good as your own made rod
Come on dont be a chicken
I put together my first rod for around £120 and that was on a ballista blank but i had to get all the glues ect, could do it for around a ton now. have ago with one of the pacbay blanks from rodbits or treemeadows for the ballista blanks.Pacbays website will tell yer of the rod actions of there flyrods.

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If in doubt, get the montys out

Intelligence is relative to your environment

Dear Snaggit ,

Are you nuts ?? The Blank is the Rod - nothing else - the rest is merely hang on bits to ( hopefully ) let you use the thing to it's maximum potential for you alone !

You can dolly up a **** blank until you are blue in the face and white in the hair and it still won't be a rod !

Strangely you seem to be devoting your own efforts to excellent blanks from the Good Dr Harrison - why bother with something from a far more questionable source ?

Be lucky

Steve P