Not sure what to call this rod I'm building....maybe MacGyer?

[Steve-O]

I was reading the rod retirement thread recently (been there, done that with a few) but mostly the repairs of dumb mistakes around car doors or tree limbs on the trail or in the case of the sacrificial busted rod in this build one of those " hey hold my drink and watch this..." moments. It was funny, too, even to me. I jigged an 8 or so pound Cod up from below the dock last fall in Alaska and got an exceptionally brain dead idea of deadlifting it up onto the dock after having laid down on my belly to reach into the water to grab their gill plate to hoist them up a number of times.  Not a totally dumb idea and it is doable if done smoothly with momentum.

But Noooooo...i decided I would highstick lift it. Oh SNAP! Yea it snapped alright and I lost more than 6 inches at the ferrule. It was a super cheap Shakespeare two piece med. Heavy casting rod...a Wally world special I had laying around for guests to use and had hauled it to AK for jigging off the dock. It did fine up to the Dumb and Dumber stroke of genius.

So combine that with me web surfing for a conventional jigging rod which is spiral wrapped, lots of backbone, travel savvy two piece, and not in the high 3 figures. Way too many 6 and 700 dollar nano unobtanium Specialised jigging rods out there that I really don't like because they aren't spiral wrapped. Not to mention my frugal nature.

So what did I do? MacGyvered up me very own super deluxe jigging rod.... two piece, extra long jigging handle, trigger grip, 30-50# class e-glass blank, and spiral wrapping the guides as soon as I decide the thread color between red over gold or red over silver.

The MacGyver part really comes into play when I used a thrift store $3 carbon golf club shaft for my handle extension and ferrule. The rest was easy. Measure all the parts, cut them close to finished size, mic the ferrule to the rod blank and go to town with the dozuki saw for final cuts with dry fitting everything a few times before the final assembly.  IIRC, it comes out right around 80" and fits nicely into my kendo shinai bag which doubles as a travel rod case.

I will finish it up this weekend or next week and carry it to AK next month for duty on the kayak and boat trips for rockfish, lings, cod and maybe a cabezon this trip.

After final dry fitting I tied and taped a short length of 65# braid onto the tip and dead lifted my DeWalt cordless drill at 6.25#. It revealed a nice parabolic curve, felt pretty good and it should be able  to jig up to 16 ounces with not too much effort. Total parts cost? - around $24 bucks. That's for the sacrificial rod, driver shaft and e-glass blank.

First two pics- scavenged parts and at the dry fit stage.

[Steve-O]

And here's a coiple more pics. Near final dry assembly. It will get either the Komodo 364 reel - shown- or the  Pelagic Extreme Omoto 10 series reel on top.

I cut the handle in half and sanded the tapers into each end. The rod blank goes through the foregrip and reel seat to snug and the driver shaft goes onto the blank butt end snug. After getting them all fitted, they got scuffed up and epoxied together, keeping the spine on both blank pieces correctly lined up together on top.

[Steve-O]

And deadlifitng the DeWalt cordless.

[Dominick]

You can't beat the curve in the rod.  Good job it looks like equal tension across the entire rod.  If it handles well while fishing you can go into production for sale.  You can call it the Steve-O Heave-ho.  Dominick

[reelrepair123]

good one dom.    harryk

[Steve-O]

You can't beat the curve in the rod.  Good job it looks like equal tension across the entire rod.  If it handles well while fishing you can go into production for sale.  You can call it the Steve-O Heave-ho.  Dominick

That's too funny, Dominick!

This one won't be breaking anytime soon.

Just finished the guide wraps and it's slowly spinning in the cradle while the epoxy cures.

Went with red under black for thread colors.

Spiral wrapped guides look like some weird screw machine spinning in the cradle.

[Steve-O]

Well, for only having built a handful of rods from scratch and restoring or rewrapping a few more it came out just as I thought it would.

Like a rod that's short on looks and long on function.

My threadwork is less than amateurish, but holds the guides in place. I'm still proud of it and like the old school, e-glass, $6, fleabay special, rod blank I used. The 5 (30-50# class) blanks I got for $30 are probably from the 80's or earlier as they came from a tackle store closure sale a few years back. I built the Baby Blue shortie halibut rod from one, a kayak carp rod from the second one and this heavy jigging rod from the third.

I had time to tie a 2oz lead onto it Sunday evening and cast it across my back yard which is the bigger portion of our half acre lot. Zing! right past the grass and into the peach trees! I think it could handle casting 5 to 8 ounces easily but I will only use heavy stuff from the boat or kayak jigging straight down and keep it around 3-4 oz for land casting. I will try it out on 10 -14 # Carp this week. It sure is nice to have a Rod Testing Pond at work. Maybe another 25 + pound Amur will get to be the rod test victim- errr, subject.


And then next month, I'll carry it to Alaska for some ocean action.  Can't wait for that trip.

[Newell Nut]

That is excellent out of the box thinking. We too often get caught up in thinking there is only one way to build something. A+ for creativity. Enjoy.

[thorhammer]

Steve, great work, did you get a pic up of the finished product? i used to use ski poles to extend butts in similar reclamation projects. i like your carbon idea better....much lighter. well done sir

[Steve-O]

No pic of it finished, yet, but I will....right now I hear fish calling my name while the wife and kiddos are at an amusement park for the end of summer hoorah.

My amusement park is more like wet and fishy than roller coastery! 

I get a free pass today since they'll be away a few more hours.

I'm going to try casting 4.5 ounces later today in a big field.

[Shark Hunter]

Very resourceful Steve-O. Looking forward to seeing the finished MacGyver Stev-O Heave-Ho!

[steelfish]

this was really clever..

I love all the MacGyver tips.

this actually helped me to decide and restore a rod that got broken almost on the half just barely above the top handle.
I already cut the broken sides with the dremel to make a even cut and find a ferrule or something inside to unify them

[thorhammer]

Not sure exactly where you broke it but I have had success with an internal sleeve: remove butt cap however it needs to come off. Fit a piece of an old donor rod of correct taper so it will push through the broken butt section and extend 4-5 inches out.  Epoxy in place and epoxy broken tip over resulting internal ferrule.  Wrap over the joint about 1.5 inches either way and epoxy. Even better if you are re wrapping rod to double wrap guide on top of joint.  You might break rod again but not there. 

John

[steelfish]

it was a freshwater bass rod, an okuma citrix 7ft 1oz rod that I was using to fish inshore bass and other small SW fish.
I already have a donor of the internal sleeve which is a cheapo shakespeare rod from wallyworld but also have few old golf clubs that I got on a fleamarket to see which work better as a internal sleeve donator.

thanks

[Steve-O]

it was a freshwater bass rod, an okuma citrix 7ft 1oz rod that I was using to fish inshore bass and other small SW fish.
I already have a donor of the internal sleeve which is a cheapo shakespeare rod from wallyworld but also have few old golf clubs that I got on a fleamarket to see which work better as a internal sleeve donator.

thanks

Mine was a cheapo Shakespeare which broke just above the ferrule and became the donor rod for this project.

The funniest part was high sticking the big Pacific Cod because I was getting lazy from jigging one up every drop, playing it to the surface from 30 feet depth, then lay down on the wet floating dock to reach over the edge 3 feet to the water to grab the fish.

"oh what the heck!...I'll just dead lift the next one" - SNAP!..doh! lol!

I haven't gotten final pics of it, yet, as a fishing session and another rod project on the table took over.  I made another jigging rod out of my brand new Abu Vigilante casting rod. Plus I made it into a two piece travel rod to go to AK next month with me.

They're both in the car with me so I'll go take some pics at lunch.