Building My First Rod

I decided a little while back that I hadn't bought a new rod in a while, and decided to change things up and try building one myself.  If there is anyone who is extremely picky about gear it's me, now I can only blame myself.  I built a 9' 7 wt. Sage Xi3 and was very happy with how it turned out.

I picked a 7 wt. because I think it's a great all around rod weight.  I can throw big flies for small mouth, largemouth, carp and it'll be really fun for hybrid stripers.  I'm excited to have a unique rod that no one else on the water will have.




It all starts with the reel seat and handle.  sanding and filing the handle was interesting, reaming out the handle was a time consuming part of this.  Honestly, getting the handle the right diameter was surprisingly one of the hardest parts.

Thread wrapping was fun and easy for me because of my fly tying experience.

 Getting the Epoxy to turn out how I wanted to was the scariest part for me.  One mistake and there is no going back.

Then the fun part:

I put an old 8 wt line on a there and tried it out in front of my house.  It cast great and it can bomb some 95' casts no problem.  I'm excited to hit the salt with this for bonefish.


Thanks for checking it out.  I'm no expert by any means, but if you have any rod building questions I'll be glad to help as best I can.

Louis
Delamere & Hopkins
513-871-3474