Caribou Gear

Rod building

Is the rod in the top picture made on a Dan Craft blank? Spiral graphite look is similar to a 4wt I have in my closet. If it is you got a great rod. He made some nice blanks.
It’s a Diamondback. Pretty nice rod, fairly slow action. It’s a 3 piece 7’ 4 wt. I wish it was an 8’er.
 
Nice JLS!

Thanks for the info everyone. I’ll probably try to get some supplies ordered tomorrow. I better do this soon before the weather gets much nicer and I’ll just be fishing in all my free time.
 
Just be aware that if you cut a rod down it will change the rod to a slower action, meaning that the bend will be moved closer to the grip. There are a ton of blanks with various actions and lengths. I would just find the rod that best fits your needs.
 
I will list a few mistakes I have made over the years and maybe it will save you from having to deal with them.
One of my worst mistakes was not paying careful attention to my flex coat mix and having a rod on a turner for hours and hours and it never set up. I stripped that rod and started over. Still not sure what happened on that one.
On another rod that I was really trying to match the thread color to a grip I forgot to apply color preserver and the blue thread turned almost black it was so dark. This rod is still one of my favorite trout trolling rods even if the thread is not the color I wanted.
Getting in a hurry and removing the rod to soon and touching the finish and leaving some finger prints.
Bumping a guide out of line and not seeing it before adding flex coat.
I could list some others but you get the idea. Building rods can be like reloading. You really need to pay attention to what you are doing and not get distacted.

About all I do anymore is guide replacement and other rod repair. I repaired 4 this week since I cannot fish.
 
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First thing you want to do is find the spline so you can position your handle and guides proper in relation to the natural bend of the rod.
 
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