Custom rods ?
 

I was just wondering about the pors and cons of costom rods when you can buy a aready made with about the same reel seat and guides.? could I have you opinions?

Biggest plus I can think of with a factory rod is the warranty. With a custom, the labor involved in building it typically is not warrantied, so you're going to have to pay for it again in the event you break it and want another one. The blank, depending on the company, is often warrantied though. Something that has become a big issue these days is shipping 1 piece surf sticks. Whether it's a custom or a factory it's VERY expensive to the point where even bothering with a warranty isn't worth it if the rod much more then 8 ft long.

Biggest plus of a custom is exactly that. It's custom. Your choice of grip and butt length among other things. You can cut the butt of a factory rod, but definitely investigate if it voids the warranty. Sometimes it will, sometimes it won't. I'm very picky about butt length on rods 8 feet and longer, so all of mine in that size range are custom. All rods under are factory as I'm not as picky there.

The only way you can have a honey Lami is to have it built. That settles it for me :wavey:

Choice of guides & placement, size and your own dimensions. Also determined by pocketbook!! I have a couple of customs and plenty of stock rods. They seem to have babies when my wife is not looking :hihi: :hihi: :hihi:

i am a tackle whore...with my arsenal pushing maybe 50 setups right now and i got 5 special rods on order.

i am not that old, but i remember when all of our rods had long wooden butts and solid fiberglass tips. i remember breaking rods on tiderunner weakfish. but now the rods that you can go to kmart and buy for <$40 just blow me away. spend $80-100 and you can get some pretty sick production rods, compared to the rods of not that long ago.

in the past, to get a nice surf stick (like a 1 piece 10 fter) you had to go custom, but not even that's true anymore. so as far as i'm concerned, there is absolutely no need for a custom rod in pretty much every application.

having said that, fishing isn't really about need. a good custom rod is 100% of what you want. compared to production rods which are sometimes built close to what you want, not exactly but adequate.

in terms of numbers, i'd say about 20% of my rods are custom made.

but if you break it down by type, my collection is more like:
boat rods: 95% production, 5% custom
surf rods: 5% production, 95% custom

so why go custom? sometimes you don't want to settle for adequate.

I worried that when I die my wife will sell my tackle for what I said I paid for it....most guys should write a will to die in peace. Go custom and production ,go shore and boat, go lure and bait...die happy.

There's alot more variety to choose from once you get into customs. You can get really picky and get a rod that's perfect for one thing and another that's perfect one thing and so on.

production rods are typically built where it is most cost effective for the company. this could using lesser grade components, cutting some corners when building so as to build the rod quicker, and buying mass amounts of the same items so as to not have a high inventory of all variety of options. the one major item to understand when buying a production rod, that rod was built for an average of a large audience of anglers so as to fit everyone - short armed, long armed, neutral colors (no glitz), etc. this is not always true of all manufacturers, but pretty standard.

custom rods are built for one person - you. you have the option to choose the colors, blank, ring type, ring frame, grip type, grip lengths, fancy butt wraps, reel seat type, reel seat spacing (usually the one complaint often heard when buying a production rod - too short of a rear grip), etc. how many spiral wrapped production rods have you seen? how many production rods are built specifically for your reel and line choice?

a good custom rod builder should warrenty their craftsmanship, but normal wear and tear and/or negligence might be at their discretion or that of the manufacturer for that component.

While there are a lot of choices out there for production rods, there are a lot more choices of blanks. Then if you start trimming blanks from the tip, butt or both you can create even more options. To me that is the biggest advantage of a custom rod.

You can then wrap or have it wrapped with your components of choice the way you want.

there is nothing better than landing that striper on the rod you made on your jig in the basement to me!!! i wish i could make the reel for it also. I make my rods to fit me,,, that is the difference to me

I have never had a problem with a
"off the shelf rod" the Lami's I have work fine for me
I am going to have one made to my size and see the difference.
thanks for the replys

Nothing will beat the feel a rod made just for you, to your specs. The downside is the cost. The decision is tough.

Goose: my wife tells me she is going to take it down to the local transfer station and let people TAKE all my "junk". :P She doesn't care what it is worth ..... lol. She hates seeing it all cluttering the cellar. ;)

I mentioned a couple of friend's to give it to, but when I'm in the ground chances are I won't really care..... lol.

Does it hold true: "He who dies w/ the most toys wins!"

I make my own rods - not hard to learn. Build one and you can save on the overall cost. mikecc makes an awefully nice rod for low $ - he useshigh quality parts (M&D's in Wareham). I use factory rods when I have limited space (2pc) on vacation (St Croix Premier 8.5'-2pc is my go to for that). Otherwise I use my one piece customs.

I catch just as many fish using a $200 rod as I do an old rod I pulled out of the trash that I put new guides on .... lol. It isn't the gear - it is the person using it. ;)

It's not the Arrow it's the Indian.

LOL my fishing rods do the same thing. Except now the wife just looks at the rafters and counts hooks. For a while I could just sneak another pair of hooks in and add the rod. She got wise to that real quick.

To me it is all about personal preference. I have a few factory rods and 6 or 8 customs. aFor a while I wanted the nice wraps, double cork tape, fancy guides,etc. Now I just go for black on black. Hopefully not as noticeable to thieves.

I just like the feel of them...
(course, I said that to a girl in the backseat of my car 30 odd years ago too).. ;)...
but, there is somethng just plain unique about a custom rod, and yes, one is never enough.

When I bought the new boat 5 years ago I had CMS make me up 4 boat rods, two fluke rods, an eel rod and a spinning rod all to match. I have had one rod snap at the tip most likely my falt but they replaced it NO charge and said they would do it for all the rods for LIFE I do not know of a factory rod that will do that. Even the ugly sticks say they will but try it after a few years its a no go. Plus you get what you want in colors and set up.

I believe CMS's policy was 2 years full replacement, but they may have knocked it down to just one.

It's certainly isn't for life, although they do take care of their customers.

-spence

I must be a great customer than because last year he made me up a new rod N/C after 4 years.

:smokin:

-spence

Lami is under warranty but nobody has free labor.I know Charlie and four rods five years ago does not seem to fit the great customer category.As far as replacing a tip gratis,it's a possibility if it's not sic.

Well thats what happened if you choose to believe or not is your problem I have the new rod so I am happy. And I gusse that also means you don't know Charlie as well as you thought. :-)

We're not saying you're a liar, perhaps just lucky :hee:

To be honest I've been amazed at what they have done no charge for me in the past...

-spence

A year or so before they moved to Newbedford they had a lifetime warranty on their rods... I own 3, 2 cod and a fluke... Then it changed to 2 years as many people were just abusing the warranty.. Now they offer a 1 year warranty... but they aren't screwing anyone with the lifetime. In fact several years passed and i had a tip replaced on one of my cod rods and they also took care of a jig scratch on the clear...

Depending on the Blank and series. Manufactures offered different warranties over the years. Some lifetimes are now 5 year or even 1 year. Manufactures usually change the colors of the blanks to note this.
We do 1-year parts & labor unless it shows signs of abuse. When abused it’s factory warranty if covered. Labor free.
It's tough to keep the price down. If they want longer warranty's that means higher $$. What it all comes down to is what you can afford and how tough you are on rods.

I know Charlie,nothing brokeback but I have certainly been a good customer to him.And will continue to be.How well I have to know him to take advantge of customer friendly policies....Nah,just business and the occasional fishing bs.