Needless to say, we don’t live “idle” lives in the Yerger family. Shortly before I left, I finally got around to building a matched set of rods for myself. With all the business preparations and building of other folks rods, I just wasn’t able to piece together any time for “extra curricular” rod-building. That said, I finished the first of the pair shortly before deploying and have the second rod prepped and ready for final epoxy – which I’ll be doing tomorrow evening.

I did have a few minutes late this afternoon and tried out rod #1 on the water. All I can say is, “Wow! There’s nothing like a fine-tuned, custom-fit fishing rod … 100% matched for the individual. Talk about smooth and comfortable casting! I can’t wait to get the second rod finished and out on the water as well.” Once I finish the second rod, I’ll post pictures for all to see.

Both rods are built on 7 foot G Loomis P-8400 popping rod blanks and use American Tackle solid titanium “Ring-Lock” guides. The difference between the two rods is that rod #1 is built with double-foot guides and rod #2 has a combination of both double-foot and micro rod guides. I purposely built the two rods exactly the same except for the micro guides so that I could do some “in-house” comparison testing … I want to see for myself if the “hype” regarding micro guides is fact or fiction.

Do micro guides improve rod performance? They are smaller, lighter, and have a whole heap of performance claims backing them … but I’m going to put ‘em to the test. If they are as good as folks say they are, and the CCR tests prove it … well, you’ll be the first to know and we’ll get them on the “Build-A-Rod” page as a guide set option. But let’s not count our chickens just yet … Rod #2 will be finished in a day and cured … just in time to get out on the water this upcoming weekend. So stand by and we’ll pass the results of our “field tests” ASAP. Fish safe and have fun!