custom built ice fishing poles

[utwalleye]

Here's some pic's of 4 ice fishing poles I built from broken rods.
2 of them are graphite and the other 2 are very old solid fiberglass rods. later chuck
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[davetclown]

making your own walleye rods is the only way to go, I have made a couple of my own as well, not as fancy but durable. that is a must when battling walleye though the ice.

you done some quality work there. they should give you pleanty of service.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Hey Chuck, as a fellow rod builder you are probably like I am. I don't break many of my rods but I am always finding pieces of broken rods when I go fishing and I always scoop them up for spare parts later. A good tip section makes a dandy ice rod. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have built about a half dozen ice rods in the last year, but mostly from closeout blanks up to 42" long. I still have three or four blanks and a couple of rod tips I will probably build...when I get a round tuit.[/#0000ff]
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[utwalleye]

Hey Pat, yea, most of my ice poles have come from being found out on a lake some place. my 2 real good ones were broke, one by me and one by UPS that cabelas let me keep, that was nice of them to just trust me over the phone saying it was broke. later chuck
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[BearLakeMack]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Well, here's my attempt at custom ice rods. I have never claimed to be a rod builder nor do I exhibit much talent at it but I decided to get into the business when I got so particular no one could give me what I wanted. [/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Let me start off with saying I ice fish a lot and I like to use bait casters to do it. Unfortunately, the selection of rods built especially for using bait casters is limited. You either flip a spinning rod upside down and let the line cross and rub on the blank or you buy some cheesy glass rod that just doesn't feel right.[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]The first custom rods made by others I used for bait casters were OK BUT with the short, lighter rods with the traditional guides on the top of the spline, the rod would twist at the tip, some times 180 degrees when under load. They naturally wanted to load up like a spinning rod. I'm not rod building engineer but rods are made to endure cantilever stresses and not torsional (twisting). [/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]The straw that broke the camel's back was when I was on the Berry and I made an extremely hard hookset on a very nice cutthroat. The custom St Coix ice rod blank snapped. I truely beleive that the combination of the bending and the tip twisting of the rod during that hookset broke that rod.[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]I had always wanted to built custom ice rods but just never had enough motivation to do it. Well, breaking a $40 custom rod soon got the juices going. I just needed to find a way to control or eliminate those stresses. While browsing some rod building and rod builder sites, I came across a picture of a spiral wrapped boat rod. Seeing how the rod transfered the line to the bottom of the spline, like a spinning rod, I knew that this was the answer to my torsional stress problem.[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]After asking several questions, especially with Tubedude, I decided to give it a go and see what I could come up with. I already had the blanks, some purchases 5 years ago when I last thought about custom ice rods. I bought all the supplies I need. I found out the hardest thing to find for ice rods are the tip tops. I like ceramic guides but try and find small tubes with large rings! I ended up with 10mm ring and 6/64 tubes in a Fuji hardloy. I also decided to go the cork ring route for the handle and sudo-foregrip (who really needs a fore grip on an ice rod designed for 2-4 lb trout?). I also decided to try the rubberized cork for durability on my rear grip and fore grip. [/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Well to end this long story here are some pics of my creation. As you can see, my craftsmanship is lacking but the rod is fishable and exhibits the characteristics I desired. [/size][/black][/font]

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[center][inline spiral_ice_rod_3.JPG][/center] [center]Here's the cork grips I made from cork rings. I formed the handles on my drill press. I really like the rubberized cork.[/center] [center]

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[/center] [center][inline spiral_ice_rod_1.JPG][/center] [center]Here's how I laid out the eyes to guide the line around the blank.[/center] [center]I decided to use the 2 guides, spaced at approximately 45 degrees apart to help keep the line off the blank and provide a smoother transition.[/center] [center]

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[/center] [center][inline spiral_ice_rod_2.JPG][/center] [center]The rod under load. BTW, did I tell you I hate yellow thread![/center] [center]

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[/center] [left][font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Rod Specs:[/size][/black][/font][/left] [left][font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3][/size][/black][/font][/left] [left][font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Rod length is 32 inches[/size][/black][/font][/left] [left][font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]18mm Fuji deluxe trigger reel seat[/size][/black][/font][/left] [left][font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]5 guides - (1) 20mm, (1) 16mm, (1) 12mm, (2) 10mm Fuji Hardloy[/size][/black][/font][/left] [left][font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Spacing from tip to grip -3", 4", 4", 4", 4"[/size][/black][/font][/left] [left][font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Tip Top - 10mm x 6/64 tube Fuji Hardloy[/size][/black][/font][/left] [left][font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]5" rear cork rear grip[/size][/black][/font][/left] [left][font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]1" front grip[/size][/black][/font][/left] [left][font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Action - medium Heavy[/size][/black][/font][/left] [left][font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3][/size][/black][/font][/left]
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[utwalleye]

Nice, how long of a rod it that ?? Yea, Yellow thread,, It seems like all the other colors show thru the yellow. white does a better job of covering with out showing thru. later chuck
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