I currently have an 8ft6in and 7ft6in rods. I have been looking at mudholes wish book and have been looking at st Croix finesse rod(6ft9in) and sunset red 6ft6in 2pc. I want to careful about spending a lot of money and goof the build. any suggestions from the vets would be helpful. my son wanted to learn how to cast a flyrod and is a quick study and now I have 2 rods. I'm lovin stream fishing whether I catch fish or not.

Check out Rod Geeks sponser on the left I think you will like them

Bill - willierods.com

Hi Robert, Check out some of the other manufacturers on mudhole/getbitoutdoors. Their CBR rods and the MXH rods are very nice and affordable. Makes botching up a build much easier on the wallet. Also keep an eye out for free shipping. Otherwise you'll be looking at about 25$ in shipping fees. Which is very much a deal breaker for alot of people.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/09/2015 09:17AM by Will Cooper.

As Will says check here often This is the season for sales

Bill - willierods.com

Robert,

There are some very good YouTube videos out there that detail the basics. The FlexCoat series comes to mind. There are others. I'd start here: [www.flexcoat.com] and here: [www.mudhole.com]

Some of the bigger suppliers in the left column of this page have "house" brands of blanks made by major mfgs but privately labeled. They're a great value for the beginner to practice on without spending a lot of money. Will's post above mentions some of the options, there are more.

Thank you sir. I opened Wills post below mine as there was no post newer than yours and was not the same response. I'm a bit behind the curve as to computer use(wifeassisted)

Liberty blanks from Getbitoutdoors has some good reviews too. I just ordered one myself for my next build. I will post pics and updates as i go.

If you are not a computer guy and new to building then I would suggest you go to mudhole, left click on the 'rodbuilding' dropdown tab.
Now under 'components' left click on 'more'.
Left click on the third box right to left 'books & vidio'.
Left click on first box 'rodbuilding books'.
Select the first two books to buy. Book #2 will help you crawl, book #1 will help you walk.
Both books will do a great job of explaining why you want to do certain things and make you more comfortable with what you decide to buy in componets.
Also I can not stress enough how much help the Fugi website will be to you, especially in learning the alphabet soup of guides. The blog is also informative.

Robert, Where are you located? There may be someone near you that may be willing to give you a few in-person pointers if needed.

Auburn Michigan. If there is someone willing to take the time. I have a big back yard. I'll give the rest of my info if there is anyone interested in giving me a few pointers. Of late I have been going to a local rod and fly shop and they seem to answer my question but that's all. Kinda like it is some sort of secret . I just enjoy getting back on the stream and it really doesn't matter if I catch someyhing or not..relaxing and soothing somehow. It takes me back to a time when I did fish with my dad. I even bought a split willow creel so I can line it with cedar like dad did. tearing up a bit cause we really didn't fish together much but he at least made the introduction.

What part of Michigan is Auburn in?

baycity midland in fact im in the middle of the two. farm town .if it was a long distance for someone to drive maybe there is stream/river in between that would make a good spot to take some of steepness out of the learning curve. it seems as though trout fishing got technical since I got back into it.

I'm located about 30 miles North of Muskegon. It's a little late in the season for Trout, the Salmon have made their fall run and the Steelhead are about a month out. If you get over this way drop me a private email.

Drew, I don't have a problem with a rode trip. We were at the water park not long ago and I should have found this blog earlier.. I don,t have any steelhead experience and the rod I have is an 8ft6in 5wt. I'll shoot you an email say tomorrow or so and we can talk about it. A phone call may be a better way for me so I can express myself better. I'll get back to tou soonest.

I was thumbing through the electronic pages and came across maxxon outfitters and there flyrods and they looked pretty good and the prices were very inexpensive. Any with some knowledge of these guys and the rods, oh and graphite reels.