-My New Favorite Toy- Custom Rod

hollywood · by **hollywood** on Mon Jul 25, 2011 11:29 am

I just finished up my first steelhead rod built up from North Fork Composites Blanks and this one is a beauty! NFC makes some amazing blanks and the sensitivity/lightness is incredible. This one is a 9'6, 6-10 lb steelhead float/side drifting rod.

You will notice with this reel seat there is not exposed screw down area like on most spinning and casting reel seats. This grip is very comfortable and solid as a rock!

I chose to go with the new black pearl recoil guides on this bad boy to keep weight at a minimum. I also experimented with different guides and configuration to remove even more weight from the tip section including black pearl single foot fly guides.

The carbon fiber split grip turned out perfect and again helps reduce weight without compromising feel or balance.

The complete finished rod weighs and amazing 3.4 oz! $\M/$ Add to that my stradic CI4 and it only weighs 10.8 oz complete. :-BD

This is the lightest steelhead rod I have ever felt and is going to be a killer side drifter/float rod.

HAMBONE · by **HAMBONE** on Tue Jul 26, 2011 5:01 am

Very Very nice indeed. :-BD

H

hollywood · by **hollywood** on Tue Jul 26, 2011 5:26 pm

I think that I could get one of the 9'6, 4-8, slow action side drifters down to 3.25 oz and one in HM would be right around 3 oz! Pretty sweet side drifters. They are so light you can actually feel a huge difference just picking it up. Its half an oz lighter than my very minimalistic batson. Its exciting stuff!

HAMBONE · by **HAMBONE** on Tue Jul 26, 2011 7:05 pm

At that weight I would guess you would feel every little bump along the way. That rod will fish nicely.

H

archer · by **archer** on Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:37 am

Some guys need all the help they can get ya know:)

hollywood · by **hollywood** on Wed Jul 27, 2011 6:13 pm

I just did a weight comparison and a 9'0, 6-10 lb imx looms weighs 4.9 oz and the glx of the same blank is 4.5 oz. So the rod I built is over an oz lighter and its 6 inches longer! Pretty crazy.

I do need all the help I can get with the low hole king fishing next to me! :))

archer · by **archer** on Wed Jul 27, 2011 7:24 pm

If you are good at something you have to stick with it:)

THE REEL TECH · by **THE REEL TECH** on Thu Jul 28, 2011 12:30 am

Very nice Chad. I saw what may have been this exact rod hanging in ORRT today. Mike let me heft it and yes indeed, VERY light combo with that CI4 on it. Very nice build my friend

The steel are in TROUBLE $\M/$ $\M/$

hollywood · by **hollywood** on Thu Jul 28, 2011 11:29 am

That was it. Picking it up later today for McKenzie steelhead tomowwow! The two 10'0, 6-10 lb float rods im even more excited about. $\M/$

idbearbaiter · by **idbearbaiter** on Thu Aug 25, 2011 2:02 pm

Cant wait for you guys to ship out my custom rod that your making me , but now im thinking about my next order that 10' 6 -10 float rod should do it , now how to get it without the wife finding out. LOL