Syracuse.com - Veteran fly rod maker offers tips for angler wanting to make his or her own

[HuntingNY-News]

Don't be intimidated. It's not as difficult or expensive as one might think, according to veteran rod maker Dave LeClair, of Elbridge, 65, a guru on the local bamboo rod-making and repair scene.

Peter Chen/The Post-StandardDave LeClair, of Elbridge, makes and restores bamboo fly fishing rods. He estimates it takes him about 50 hours to make one and he sells them for as much as $1,400. However, he says it's not beyond the skills of a beginner to make a good, relatively inexpensive rod from a graphite or Fiberglass blank. Central New York is full of die-hard, trout and salmon anglers who tie their own artificial flies.

Ever consider making your own fly rod?

Don’t be intimidated. It’s not as difficult or expensive as one might think, according to veteran rod maker Dave LeClair, of Elbridge, 65, a guru on the local bamboo rod-making and repair scene.

“It’s all pretty simple. Go to some place online like Jannsnetcraft.com or a number of other sites. You can buy all the stuff you need,” he said.

Buying a rod blank

The first step is picking out the size of the rod. He recommended starting with either a graphite or Fiberglass blank.

“What do you want? A 7-foot, 3-weight rod; a heavier 9-foot, 6 weight? It all depends on the type of fishing you want to use it for,” he said.

Depending on how much you want to spend, LeClair said, a fly rod blank can cost anywhere from $35 up to $500. Thee high price, though, doesn’t necessarily translate into durability, he said.

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“My nephew is a guide on the Salmon River and I built him a very expensive, but stiff Sage rod. It lasted him about one winter. It just shattered one day from the cold,” he said. “I build him another rod from a graphite blank I paid about $35 for. He’s still fishing with it after 20 years. It’s his favorite rod.”

Other supplies

Once settled on the size and weight of the rod, there’s several other decisions that need to made, based on your preferences and the size of your wallet.

“You have to order a set of guides for the specific rod you want to build,” LeClair said, explaining a set consists of the stripper guide (the eyelet closest to the reel), followed by snake guides and a tip top guide for the end of the rod.

He said he uses high-quality, expensive guides (costing about $3 to $4 each) for his pricy bamboo rods, but quickly added the beginner can get by with cheaper, chrome-plated ones, costing about $1 each.

Other items that need to be purchased include the reel seat, which holds the reel to the rod at the butt end.

“I’ll tell you, the first thing that a person’s eyes are drawn to when they look at a rod is the reel seat,” he said. “It’s kind of like jewelry. On my more expensive rods, I use fancy wood and German silver. But if you want, you can get a plastic reel seat for $15 and that’ll do the job but it’s not that good-looking.”

Then there’s the cork rod grip. Grips can cost anywhere from $15 to $30, he said.

First things first

LeClair recommends fitting and gluing on the reel seat first, followed by the cork grip.

Often, reel seats are slightly bigger than the end of the rod butt. To help make the reel seat fit snug, he recommended wrapping masking tape around the blank.

The cork grips you buy usually have to be custom-fitted to a rod. That’s done by “reaming and filing” the inside of the grip with a rounded, rat-tail file. After it’s fitted, it must be glued into place.

What takes the time

The hardest part for the beginning rod builder is lining up, and properly wrapping the guides onto the rod. LeClair said the spacing of the guides depends on the length of the rod. “There’s charts online that go into all that,” he said, adding that you measure from the tip of the rod on down.

Once the guides’ locations are determined, he recommended wrapping a quarter-inch piece of masking tape around one foot of each of the metal guides to hold them to the rod.

“Pick out the color thread you want. I use silk for the bamboo rods. For graphite of fiberglass, use nylon,” he said.

There’s a technique to winding the thread with the proper tension around the guides to the rod, which isn’t difficult to learn. It’s just time-consuming to do it right, he said. The line should be wrapped tight and neat, with no bunches, spaces or noticeable overlap.

Once the thread is wrapped around all the guides, LeClair recommends applying several coats of color preservative with a tiny brush so that the thread keeps its color when varnish or epoxy is applied afterward. “Otherwise, it’s going to turn dark, or even spotty,” he said.

The finishing touch

Once the guides are in place, the beginning rod maker is ready for the final step — putting on either varnish or epoxy to help hold the guides in place and to give the rod a smooth finish.

LeClair said he prefers brushing on varnish on his bamboo rods, but recommends two-step epoxy for those making their own graphite or fiberglass rods. He said the latter provides a harder finish.

“Guys who fish with graphite usually are going to fish a lot harder than those who fish with bamboo,” he said.

He cautioned, though, that the apoxy is watery. He said the novice rod builder must either buy, or make a special jig with a small motor that will slowly turn the epoxy-coated rod as it dries to prevent drips. He said with varnish he usually puts on four to six coats, sanding out imperfections with 1,200-grit sandpaper and a dab of water. That isn’t needed with the epoxy.

The finished surface of the rod, if done properly, comes out with a finish that looks glass-like The next step is to take the rod out to the local stream to give it a try.

“If you use a rod you built yourself and flies you tied yourself, and then go out and trick a trout into taking that fly — now that’s really something,” he said.

To reach LeClair: LeClair can be reached at [email protected].

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog