New ice rod

[elee886]

Last weekend's steelheading yielded no fish, so no fish pictures this week.

 

I did manage to build myself a new ice fishing rod on the weekend, so it wasn't a total loss. Rod building is a hobby I picked up two years ago with some pointers from my Dad . This week's project is a 42" med. jigging stick for my occasional winter pickerel outings. I snapped a few pics to share.

 

First is a line guide with the foot filed smooth prior to wrapping. You can see two of my Dad's in-process lures in the background.

 

 

Next is a guide wrap under way, showing the two gold metallic trim rings on a garnet main wrap.

 

 

Here is the rod after wrapping all the guides. Just need to trim the tag ends of the trim wraps, apply more masking tape, flame the thread to get rid of any fuzzies, and cover the thread with epoxy finish .

 

 

Finally, here's the hook keeper. Swings up to accept a lure.

 

 

Weather permitting, hope to get out on the ice by the 25th. Maybe then I'll have some fish pics to share.

 

Eric

[motv8tr]

Nice looking work, how's about a pic of the final product? hopefully with a fish on the end of the line I like the colors too

 

Maureen

[ccmtcanada]

Great stuff!! Just need to catch a few fish on it. Good luck!

[Big Cliff]

Very nice! It must be very satisfying to build your own rods and then go out and catch fish on them.

[wuchikubo]

Eric, that looks very nice indeed, let us know how it works out with some fish pics .

[Blake]

Rod looks good. Hope it brings ya some big ones through the ice.

[Beats]

I'm interested in seeing a few pics of your final completed rod. Looks like a really cool hobby to have. How long did it take you to complete? Gotta have a steady hand for the guide wrapping.

[mcallister.grant]

That is a really cool hobby. I would like to see the end result though.

[elee886]

I'm interested in seeing a few pics of your final completed rod. Looks like a really cool hobby to have. How long did it take you to complete? Gotta have a steady hand for the guide wrapping.

 

Thanks for everyone's comments. I spent about 4 hours on the handle; 3 hours on guide spacing, prep (filing the guide feet), and wrapping; plus another 3 hours flaming the wraps, applying masking tape, and applying the epoxy finish over the thread wraps. In total, it was about ten hours over two days.

 

I'll take some photos of the finished product this coming weekend.

 

Eric