Forum | The birth of a crankin' stick....

Thanks LM… I've done 4 rods now with the micro guides. I was out looking at my other rods this morning and couldn't believe how huge the old guides look. Even from the back of the boat it'll probably look like I'm chunkin' baits with no guides at all.

I said I was going to do a frog rod next but I have to say… there's a heck of an internal debate going on as I'd love to build a new jig rod… what to do… what to do. I've got a jig rod… I don't have a frog rod… OK…. I'll stick with the frog rod.

Oh… and I used to use the Lew's speed spool as well. Then got lured in by the instant anti-reverse of the newer stuff(at the time) then went left handed. So now I've got three of them back in the original boxes with the original paper work. One has a fair amount of wear on the finish but the other two are in near pristine condition. One's a 'V' spool all are BB1NG's

Couple of pictures. In the one with the rod pointed towards the sky if you closely inspect it – looks like the guides are on backwards. I was "almost" positive I put them on right but looking at the photo it doesn't. So… quick trip to the garage. Yes, they're on correctly but that photo sure doesn't indicate that to me.

The mess of first time rod builder.

More curiosity followed,my 7 ft 3 in carrot stix,complete with Steves insert repair is but 3 oz,it coupled with the lews make for an 11 oz rod and reel when spooled ready to use,less than I thought.

One question does lightening the outfit ,rod in particular cause other problems such as in the flex,ask this as the carrot stix at least mine is lacking a bit ,as snapped my or broke it originally with a two handed power cast.Mine feels better when casting now after being repaired than when I first got it.As to how much weight the repair added dunno?It was another rod inserted inside the original to sort of brace it,and epoxied in place.

Saw the weights had to do a comparison,always figgure my old abu garcias which went from catfishing over the years to cranking were real hefty.

Both the 6000c and the mag1 came in at 9 oz

The Lew Childers speed spool BB-1ng 4-7 1 gr at 8 0z

Interestingly both are metal reels not plastic

Curiously I then weighed my plastic ones Diawa  triforce 9 oz ,Pinnacle 8 then evently 9oz on the scales complete with 45lb braid spooled on-weights all included a spooled reel

So a  plastic exterior isnt always lighter

Ive always loved that Lews,as for the abu garcias mostly holdovers from a bygone era but still usefull.

… is slow n' painful! :>)

Split grips on – check.

Reel Seat on – check

tip-top on – check

Besides having to wait 24hrs for everything to set up I also have to wait for the Diawa Sol to arrive so I can set the stripper guide. Once I know where it'll go it's off to butt wrappin' and split grip marbling before installing guides.