Hmmm...my dad made my first rod for me...it was a fencing epee, a thin but pretty rigid dueling foil, he soldered on twisted-wire guides and a clamp for the reel...it already had a pretty comfy handle (angled, to suit a fencer's grip) and I had an old Shakespeare bait-caster reel (had that little red jewel on the side) and heavy, black nylon line that burnt leathery ridges in my thumb before I figured out how to cast with it...I was around 8 or 9 and I thought it was the best piece of gear on the lake. Lost it as I was subduing a particularly feisty rock bass and accidently knocked the rod off the dock into about twenty feet of water...wasn't much of a swimmer yet but tried like hell to get down and get it...disappeared in the mud bottom, though...if I could have seen it I'd probably have drowned trying to get it back.
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