FD.

I had one broken on the way from Mudhole several years ago, they shipped me a new one no questions asked. This one came from my local Batson supplier. We will see what they do.

Particularly when it's in a PVC tube with 2 other blanks which are ok. How is that possible?

Not sure how this is going to cast...

I set my personal rod triggers at 11 3/4 from the butt. The balance point on the rod is 10 1/4 ahead of the trigger. The MHX 843's with identical handle set ups normally balance about 6 ahead of the trigger. I have not fished it yet. Going in the boat this weekend so we will see.

And Tommy awakes from the dead. Things are going great. You and Brit should come out to the lake.

A little marbling in the split grip

Actual build time was probably around 4 hours, maybe less.. There was a lot of planning time, thinking time, and time spent of the dryer. I worked on it 3 different times about 3 weeks apart. I have a local tackle shop interested in carrying a few of my rods and this was going to be the first one in the shop. That's why there was no hurry on it, but now that it's finished, I think I will keep it for myself.

Finished her today. I changed the handle and instead of the aluminum trim pieces I went with a carbon fiber Rod Skinz.

Thanks, Gary. That mean a lot coming from another member of the "ugly hat mafia"

Great. Now I have spent at least 2 hours on the Rodgeeks site and have come up with several more rods I want that I don't have time to build.

Those are some great colors and I like the guides to match.

Since I have not yet produced a custom cork grip I'm happy with and pushed for time, I decided on a SK2 split grip. Since that grip doesn't mate up with a spinning reel seat I had to do some fine tuning. 5 minutes later Final mock up

If you want one for her I will trade a rod build at cost for jigs and rage baits at cost.

My sister has recently discovered that she actually likes bass fishing. I taught my nephew to fish about 5 years ago and mom has been tagging along. She has fished with me several times and last July we had a really good weekend and she boated bass number 6 of her lifetime, seen below. She really has the bug now and for her birthday I am building her a Mag Bass Spinning Rod. The fish that gave her the fever. Starting the layout 7' MH MHX MB843 blank Custom Painted Fuji SKSS reel seat in "Cherry Blossom" MicroWave Nanolite guides Grips I'm still trying to decide - probably going to be my first set of custom cork grips I'm going to pair it with a Revo S20 reel that is black and white

Finished them up this weekend. Starting messing around with some thread inlays to give them a little splash. Headed to the client in the morning.

The Blue and Red ones are done. One more to go.

I have a new Sellus and several old Lightning rod. The LR is a far more sensitive rod but I have had problems with broken guides on them in the past. I normally just repair them and keep going.

Have a rod built with Micro Wave guides. No twist and no line slap.

I use an Abu Garcia Veracity 7-9 heavy for most of those things. I also have the 7-6 MH version. They list at $149 but you can find them around your price range.

Tell Grover to give it back and I will build him one. I'm glad yall are fighting over it.

So not being completely happy with the available cork handles I have decided I will build some of them myself. I ordered the cork jigs from Mudhole and started playing. Now since I am the uber nerd/ puzzle geek, I thought "I bet I could put initials in cork" Since I'm building a rod for my sister Tracie, A "T" should be easy enough. I put together a mandrel out of a 1/4" x 6" bolt, fender washers and 1/4 20 wing nut so I could turn the rings down a little to get a clear image of the letter. And here is my first attempt at a custom initial cork grip. What do you guys think? Nicole loves it and wants an "N" in her next rod. I have figured out how to do it but it will probably take 6 hours just for the grip. She will have one eventually.

Thanks guys.

Awesome job. Now that you have the basics down, time for something bigger.

http://www.mudhole.com/Rod-Building/CRB-IM6-Series These are great panfish rods and the price is right. another option http://www.mudhole.com/Rod-Building/MHX-Spinning-Kits all components are included. I built a few of these when I started. Everything fits and the rods look great.

Pulling up to the ramp and being included the group that "could" take the big check home today, means more than the money I win.