Back from coasting on the coast

One of the barely legal Speck's I caught.

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, we spent a portion of our Thanksgiving week at the coast near Rockport.   We got to go kayaking twice and caught many Speckled Trout.  Trouble is, most were too small.  We did get a small handful that were legal so we'll be having trout dinner some time soon. 

This is the exact model I had
Super Spook Jr.
Bleeding Shad

Made several milestones on this trip.  I finally was able to perfect my topwater lure technique and finally fooled quite a few trout.  The first round was during the night from the Goose Island pier.  I had to get the Super Spook Jr. (2 hook) at the very edge of the light and just twitch the thing a couple times and then let it sit for a full 4-5 seconds.  Then twitch again once or twice and let sit.  This caught me one of my keeper trout for the trip.

The next day we went kayaking again near the pier but out further east. There was a decent wind out of the southeast and it was pushing waves over the bar into the channel that went under the goose island pier.  We parked ourselves near the channel and fished from near the bar out into the channel.  I was concerned that my night catches only worked because it was night and fish couldn't see the lure properly.  But I used exactly the same technique and it worked like a charm.

Redfish apparently weren't biting this time at all.  I met a guy who is a redfish guide and he said he was having a real hard time finding the fish.  Apparently things haven't been so good in that category either.  The theory is that due to the drought the salinity is high on the coast and is driving away some of the brackish loving fish like redfish.

Next time we go surf fishing!

We did go down to Port Aransas to the beach and found that people were catching things there.  Mostly sharks and whiting, but at least something is biting.  I might have to see if I can catch me a shark next time we go down.  <<grin>> 


I now have some ideas about the kind of rod I want to build for the surf.  Long enough to put some fight into the fish but hefty enough to hold a large casting reel with 1000 yards on it.  I will also make it a spiral guide rod as well to help keep me from fighting the rod too much.  Now to find the perfect rod for this little venture.  I'll be sure to post some pictures when I get it done.

Still working on getting the business off the ground.  Have been pretty preoccupied with accquiring another day job (current contract is ending) so I am trying to wrap my head around where I'm headed next.  Hopefully I will get this resolved this week so I can focus on something else like rodbuilding!

Mike
HCFR

How to find the best place for guides on a rod

Here is the method that I first used 25 years ago.

http://anglersresource.net/StaticLoadTutorial.aspx

The static load method was the only method I knew.  My teacher said that using charts would get me in trouble so I shouldn't use them. 

Once you know where your butt or stripper guide is going to be, use the static load method to find the placement for the rest of the guides.  I generally tape the guides on the rod in positions that just "look right" and then go out and do some casting until I get the stripper guide in the right position for the best cast.  Maybe even tune up the second guide from the stripper.  Once this is done, it's back inside the shop to do a static load test.

Rebuild your favorite fishing rod!

Stay tuned for a series of posts on how to rebuild your fishing rod back to as good as new.  In fact, if done right, it may be better than new!

We are going to start putting together weekly lessons on how to rebuild fishing rods.  We will use real life examples of how to strip down a rod from start to finish.  We hope to start doing these presentations starting by the end of next week.  We will include plenty of pictures and real down home talk.

UPDATE 6-25-15:

The weekly lessons never happened unfortunately.  We had many things changes as you may have seen from other posts.  However, we are still intending to post some pictures and video of the break down process of rod building.  I have some video of me working on a rod handle done and have been working at getting other pictures ready as well.

We hope to start getting some of this posted in the next couple weeks!


UPDATE 8-17-15:

It finally happened!  We have finally started up a separate page on how to rebuild your fishing rod!  You'll see it at the top of the page as a tab.  It actually is a separate blog that will allow commenting and collaboration on your ideas and thoughts on rebuilding your favorite rod.  Questions will always be allowed and I will try my best to answer them or find the answers to your questions.

Go check it out!  http://TexasRodBuilder.blogspot.com

Tight Lines Y'all!

Mike&Sarah
For HCFR

Excellent article on handle length - must read!

This article is an excellent article on the length of rod handles.  Reasons for both long and short handles.  Very good read!

Some Thoughts On Rod Handles -- By Fred Everson

First new rod completed

Finished up the first new rod. Should be delivering it this Saturday. Will try to get some pics of this rod before we let go of it and post them here. Fitted out our first rebuild rod this weekend and should have it done by the end of the week.   By middle November we hope to have a whole selection of rods ready to go to stores.

Looks like are going to be doing a lot or rod rebuilding. There seems to be quite a few rods out there to be rebuilt. The trick is finding them and we have apparently been doing a decent job of that as we now have well over 30 rods to rebuild in our shop right now.  We have a very good assortment of high end rods like G.Loomis, AllStar, Castaway, American Rodsmith, Falcon, and more.

We really want to be able to provide rods for our fellow man at a price that is affordable.  If someone wants a $1000 rod, I'll build it, but really, how many of us can afford or want to afford spending that much money on a rod right now?  Enter the rebuilt rod.  By rebuilding 6-15 year old G.Loomis, AllStar, and any other high quality graphite or glass rods, we can provide a quality rod for under $200 that performs much like the $500-$1000 rods you'll find at our local monster sporting goods retailers.

Of course, one of the main reason that people don't rebuild rods is that many rods are worn out after years of use.  Some rods will slowly give out in such a way that they turn from a fast action to a slow action.  So we have to carefully inspect each of the blanks we get to make sure they are still the action they were officially labelled.  If a fast action turns into a medium-fast, then we'll relabel it accordingly as it should still have years of use left on it.  But if a fast action turns into a slow action, then that rod goes in the junk pile.  This often happens with fiberglass rods.  Good graphite rods tend to hold up better - especially the higher end rods.

So we are constantly looking for more used rods. If you run across any used rods, let us know!  We would love to have someone who is constantly on the look out for rods.  We usually pay around $15 or more for used G.Loomis rods that are missing guides, etc.  Of course, the blank has to be in good condition to be useful at all.

In the future we are going to go through detailed instructions on how we rebuild a rod.  I hope to include pictures of every step.  Some we've already posted, but we figure a step by step might help others if they ever decide to build their own rods.

As always, we love to help people help themselves.  If you have questions about rebuilding a rod, let us know!

Thanks!

Mike&Sarah
HCFR