Birthday Rod

[Newell Nut]

Turning 66 next week and decided to build myself something simple yet very strong. The handle section is built for battle and a twin to Jason's rod that was pictured a couple weeks ago. Color pattern was also teal as Jason's. I decided to keep it simple and no shark teeth but a very simple X wrap to give it a little class. The blank is a Seeker Hercules GTS70H 40-80 which is one of my favorites. The way we fish here on the bigger party boats I prefer 8 feet so did a butt extension on it to 8'. After the extension the blank was 9 oz and completed weight is 19 oz. Used a Alps centra lock gun metal finish, Fuji rubber butt cap, X flock schrink wrap and the hour glass shape fore grip with X pattern rope and X Flock.

[cwillis85]

Beautiful rod, simple and under spoken but build for a purpose. Very nice.

[Rancanfish]

Hmmm, that's really nice. Color choices are perfect.

Do you sell those too?

[Newell Nut]

Yes I do sell them and currently booked through mid July. Check out the other rods that I have posted and then PM me if interested.

[Rancanfish]

Sorry for the obviously 'duh' question.  I had never read the rod forum until after asking.

EDIT:  PM'd   

[Keta]

Nice!  I love the Seeker Hercules blanks too.

[broschro]

Cant wait to get mine 

[Doug]

VERY NICE

[Newell Nut]

Cant wait to get mine 

Your Seeker Hercules GTS70H is leaning against the wall behind me with a silver Alps centra lock on it.

[Reel 224]

Well Happy Birthday> You made a great gift for yourself. 66 years young, I remember when I was 66, those were the days. Enjoy you day and good luck with that beauty of a rod you made.

Joe

[MFB]

Nice work, & congrats on your upcoming birthday.

Regards

Mark

[Newell Nut]

Thanks guys, looking forward to some good mango fishing tomorrow with the new stick. Just mounted my newell 540 3.2 which is my go to reel for the reef.

[doradoben]

Nice looking rod, Newell Nut. Could you give a brief description of how a rod butt could be lengthened. I have a west coast style E-glass rod for 40 lb. test that I would like to make about 4 inches longer below the reel seat. Thanks for your advice.   

[Newell Nut]

Is this rod already built out or just a blank? A lot harder if the rod is already built out.

Lengthening my blank was easy. Epoxied a piece of a solid blank a few inches into the butt of the new blank. Then epoxied a similar sized piece from and old rod. When I lengthen one I like to calculate it out so that the reel seat is over the joint but first slide the grip on with epoxy and then build up my arbors and then epoxy the real seat on. Then get the foregrip and let it rest until set. All done and now time to wrap guides.

If your rod is built out then you could just remove the rear grip and butt cap. Find a few old rods at a flea market or yard sale. Find some pieces that fit as described above. It is very difficult to put eva on in reverse so go to mudhole or get bit outdoors and order you some cork tape to wrap the new lengthened butt section after epoxying a new but cap on. You could even jazz it up a tad with some shrink wrap on top of the cork tape. You can get some very strong epoxy from Get bit outdoors or Mudhole and no worry about a failure later.

[doradoben]

Your description was the way I thought that it could be done. Yes, my rod is a complete factory rod. All spacing above the seat is very good. The butt is shorter than I prefer. I was going to wrap it with seine cord after modification.   Thanks again, Newell  Nut.