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Wondering how many of us have bought and own custom rods. By custom I mean either high end prebuilt to custom type spec's or you contacted a rod maker or rod shop and chose everything... type of blank, reel seats, guides, custom thread colors etc.....
Or do you feel custom work with high quality rod blanks just isnt worth the extra money.
Intrepid,
That looks my MY RODS!! Did you get that rod at Chaos with "Brians wrap"? Sure looks like it!!
Yep, I got "customs" made up at Chaos, they did a great job for me. I ordered them at the show (Atlantic City) got a decent deal and they throw in an emblem (naked mermaid) and boat name.
Birdman,
I ordered my rods from Captain Harry's in Miami. They were made by Albert Castro (I forget the name of his company). I saw in Saltwater Sportsman that he's doing some of George Poveromo's seminars this year. Course, that's the problem with ordering rods from Albert, he fishes a LOT. Took about two months to get all 18 rods, but they were worth the wait.
The wraps are something I picked out with the help of Melvin at Harry's. The new metalic threads are just great.
Love the Calstar blanks. Pretty light, fast tips and PLENTY of backbone for heavy lifting!
i have a bunch of custom tuna rods locally made, as well as chaos and couple others..I find that theres no difference..to be honest..I like my seeker poles the best, and they arent custom. So unless you have extra cash to burn, and you want a pretty looking rod get the custom...But to me, all the same thing!
Blue, Chaos is now making Semi-Custom Rods Called the Ultimate series using Calstar Grafighter Blanks, Aftco butts & GUides, and their own custom wrappings. You can get either straight or bent short unibutts and W/O guides if you'd like. I've got 3 of their standard poles and 2 of the 30-50# Calstar customs and love them. TWo complaints: The fore grips on the regular stand ups are not the best grade of EVA in the world, and the wrappings on the 2 custom sticks I have were not as detailed as I thought they would be. Although, they are also not guady like alot that I've seen and I'm sure that you can pay a few dollars extra to get more detail/color.
As far as performance though, I absolutely love the custom poles with the Calstar blank. I haven't caught many fish on them numbers wise, but lets see 1/2 dozen med tuna and 50# AJ's, a 95# WAHOO ( blwing my own horn here), and a 100# tuna have made them well worth the money. You'll spend 2-3 times as much for a custom job from J&M, Melton, or Cape Fear. IS it worth it??? Only if you've got the cash.
Blue,
I ordered two rods last winter at the AC show, they told me I'd recieve them in about 6 weeks. I recieved them 6 weeks to the day. Then I ordered a third one via phone in the spring. They told me about 4 weeks, I received it in 4 weeks.
I build most of my own rods, and therefore i guess they can be called custom. Before i started building them, i had a friend of mine, who is in the business build my rods. I have been involved in fishing my whole life, and have a whole series of things i like to have in my rods, and with what i want it just can't be bought in a store.
However, more and more "custom" rod builders, especially the bigger companies (chaos, stalker, capt. harry's, etc, etc) tend to push their "series" of custom rods. Most people will buy them too, because they can be made quickly (they ususally have them premade and in stock)but then, as far as i am concerned, you are not buying a truely custom rod. You are buying a rod with preconfigured components, not made especially for, and you will find other people with the same rod. Now what you have is a limited production custom rod. You already have two people post here that have the same butt wrap design and colors, both made from two different companies...and by the way, stalker outfitters also makes a rod series with the same design. For much less money, if one really likes calstar rods, their factory series will have pretty much the same components, and not a lot less quality.
Here is something rod buffs out there should look into for their next rods. IMO these guides will outperform, outlast, and offers greater range of color choices than aftco roller guides... www.allamericanrollerguides.com
I have used these guides on 6 custom stand up rod on calstar graphiter blanks and i will never go back to aftco.
They are slighty bigger than aftco HD roller gudies, but smaller than WO's, and offer plenty of clearance for all connections. Whats better is that their plating process is far superior, and the guides are madfe from high grade stainless. And their silver color frame IS solid stainless, highly polished, will never delaminate because there is nothing to peal off!
If anyone who has old rods with aftcos on them, the might notice that some of the finish is comming off...Also their colored frame guides have a better bond to the metal than aftcos...when i sand the guide feet down it is very hard to get the plating off, while with aftcos it usually chips right off.
This company has been around for a few years now, and a few very high quality smaller rod builders are using them and olny them...but i am sure your favorite custom rod builder has told you about these???
Justin
Sunny SKies
You pick the blank and action you want, all the components you want...the rod can be sized to your forearm length, if you do the build yourself, all this for much less than off the shelf. Even when you figure in the labor to have it built...you have what you want, not what someone else decided to put together to hit a pricepoint in the market.
A lot of the local builders build custom rods using crap blanks. If you are paying for a custom rod make sure you are getting quality components, blank, guides, butt's etc.....Fugi, Aftco, etc.....don't settle for junk if you are paying top dollar, thread is cheap, color is quality
Custom Rods 
