Designing your own custom fishing rod is a fun experience. Catching your first fish on that rod is a great experience. Catching the fish of a lifetime on it is incredible. And that is exactly what Lenny C did.

Lenny C. wanted a custom rod designed for flounder fishing off the New Jersey coast and multi-species fishing in the Florida Keys. He already has a “Grinder” the original and most popular rod in the Bad Ted Carver Series of rods. Lenny has had great success fishing for smallmouths and walleyes in Lake Erie with that rod. He has been impressed with the feel, action, and fish catching ability of the Grinder and he wanted his new rod built with the same design elements.

He reached out to Bad Ted Fishing and together we paid a visit to Mudhole. After a couple of hours, he came up with exactly what he wanted. Jack Conrad from Mudhole did a great job in walking him through his choices, so a big Thank-you to him.

I recently delivered the rod to Len. He wanted to try it out, as well as the electric motor that he just installed on his boat. He and his wife, Nancy, took a ride on a local lake and this happened!

What a giant! This muskie looks to be in the 48-to-50-inch class. He did not measure it in order to get it back in the water as quickly as possible. And yes, this monstrous lady swam away. What do you think? A great fish anywhere!

Len had chosen a two-piece steelhead blank for this build. He needed to be able to easily transport the rod and wanted the 8 1/2 feet length and fast action to help him handle bigger fish on lighter line. As it turned out, some design elements were crucial in bringing this muskie to the net. A handle designed to put the pressure of the fish on his forearm and not his wrist truly helped in this battle. 10 guides evenly distributed the line pressure across the blank, allowing it to do its job. Len’s design worked! He and Nancy had a real battle, and it took both of them to land that fish. They also needed the help of a nearby angler who had a bigger net and actually netted the fish for them.

I want to take a minute to compliment the unknown angler who helped them. Helping a fellow angler catch what may be the fish of a lifetime is a kind and generous act. I love this part of the fishing experience. So, thanks, and a big way-to-go to that angler.

There is a special feeling about catching any fish with a rod you designed. Lenny gets to take pride in his design as well as the fish. A double! For me, there is a special feeling in knowing that I built that rod, and it performed just exactly the way it was intended to perform. I spent decades learning how to do decorative wraps, but lately I am getting a greater joy from focusing on function. I still do the custom rods with those wraps, but I am enjoying rod development even more. That is the great thing about rod building and fishing. You can enjoy them at whatever level you want and do it your way.

Coming Up:

In a future post I will discuss the process that Captain Hans the Carver and I used over 3 years to refine the Grinder rod. Teaser: It is specifically designed to fish swim baits and jigs on Lake Erie for monster smallmouth bass, but it can do a whole lot more! I will also describe how a client chose the design of a 9 foot musky rod and the special customization challenge that he threw at me. If you like rod building or just like fishing rods, look for these two posts in the near future.

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