Look out... jmairey has a new weapon!

mol, I know you are scared of 2 piece...  however, I just travel too much and really
like to be able to stow that baby with no arguments. had to go 2 piece.

J

Wow thats one sweeet setup.

art, it's great all over, but I especially like the guides, check the tiptop (no spectra wraps while jigging).

I think erik had to dress up ninja style, fly to japan, sneak into the fuji factory for those!

this is a rod worth of fishing off your boat with art, when are we going? 

J

When you despool the spectra and respool with mono 

art, how about an extra long topshot? 

Well, I actually got my hands on the rod today, boy Erik does some nice work!

I often have my surf boards custom made, carved from foam to my rough specs by people that know more about surfboards than I ever will.

There's really nothing like owning something custom made, something unique made by a person with skill and knowledge. Erik is not just a good rodmaker, as we all know he is a great local kayak fisherman, one of the best. hard to go wrong here.
Erik knows more about rods than I ever will, but I had formed an opinion about what I wanted for fishing from a sitting position in a long kayak for rockfish and other local ocean fish like halibut.

after buying a succession of cheap rods and cutting them up a bit, adding floatation and watching the guides corrode, I more or less figured out what I wanted and knew that custom was the way for me.

I spec'ed the general aesthetics ("a rod johnny cash would fish with"), desire for stowable 2 piece, rear grip length, rough total length, corrosion-free guides, and that I wanted a sensitive rod for mainly rockfishing using 20lb to 30lb spectra with as much generality as he could impart to the design.

If you've ever tangled your spectra on your tip top while jigging, you know how acid wrap and the right tip top, plus the right action can reduce that tendency. So I had to have that and that is only available on custom rods for the most part.

The rod is fairly general purpose, great for rockfishing, but able to handle some light trolling, able to cast larger plugs, sensitive enough for drifting bait, strong enough for the odd batray or smaller sturgeon.

Erik chose the blank, gave me the choice of guides, handle, grip material etc, but for the most part I just let him do his thing.

The turnaround on the rod was pretty fast as I got Erik with a shorter backlog than usual. He beat out any surfboard shaper, I will tell you that!

I'm hoping to get an ocean trolling rod, a freshwater trolling rod and probably a perch stick in the years to come too, but this is a good start!

J

this is what I want mine to look like
but I am thinking one piece 

Hey Duane... whenever you want to get serious about it, just drop me an email and we'll start talking options and dollars.  I'm only taking orders to build rods through April this year so I can keep my summer a bit more care free.

John... thanks for the nice review... hopefully you'll still feel the same way about the rod after you fish it... which I fully expect you will.

EK