Northwest Fishing Reports

(Hum the stolen Vanice Ice tune )

I decided to give it a go and convert the worst spinning rod in my arsenal a make over. So after mowing the grass, edging the lawn, breaking out the weed eater to finish up the honey does list, I felt I needed a break.

The rod is a Rapala Sportsman’s Classic rod, and real piece of junk in the sensitivity department. This rod is so lacking in the sensitivity department that it would make an ugly stick feel like a GLX after fishing with it.

Okay exaggerations aside, I used a hobby knife to get it done. I couldn’t find standard head for knife so I opted for a chisel head and it turned out to be a great choice.

Here is the rod before the operation



Here it is after some of the cork has been removed




The cork was removed methodically by pushing the chisel close to the blank all the way around the rod. Then, I used a chiseling technique by making lines lengthwise. This step broke the cork into smaller sections that I was able to peel off as if I were peeling an orange. The shot below shows the lengthwise cut. These cuts were also made about the blank.



Here it is, with the cork removal phase completed. I plan to chisel off as much of the stuck cork as I safely can and will taper the ends soon.



Oh yeah. I saved the pieces of cork I broke off. It can be used as filler to shore up pits and holes that my other rods might acquire over time.

I will end this by saying that I was a bit unsure and nervous that I might damage the blank, but that quickly passed when I realized the process of cork removal was not as difficult as I initially thought it would be.

I hope doing this breathes new life into a rod that needs braid to feel the wiggle of a DT6. :o ;D

Cool. Thanks. I've broken parts of the cork and haven't been able to return the rod and it's nice to now know that I can atleast do that

fishnislife wrote:Your crazy man! Looks like it will turn out great. Post up a final pic once you've added all the final touches.



fishnislife

I finished sanding the remaining cork with Medium 100 sandpaper. The remaining cork came off quite easily and much to my surprise, so did the epoxy. All I used were gentle, careful strokes.







I didn’t go any further. I visited George’s Custom Rods site to study his article and have decided to buy a file as he recommends before proceeding.

So far, so good!!

Perhaps I am just dense, but I do not understand what you are doing to your rod.

islandbass wrote:I decided to give it a go and convert the worst spinning rod in my arsenal a make over.

So are you putting a new grip on to be more sensitive?

Will there be no grip on it when you are done?

I know I could just wait and see when you are done, but I am curious.

He is making it a split-grip rod like this:



its debatable whether its more sensitive or not but it will be a weight reduction if nothing else.

I like the split grip look better myself, but with hypalon/eva over cork.

The first couple of pics, thats one expensive work bench ! I like your idea, lookin good.