Anybody that wants to start building fishing rods, either for a hobby or for a profession, will find that restoring old fishing rods is a great place to start. Any fisherman worth his salt has an old rod tucked away somewhere that has seen much use over the years and which has some battle scars to prove it. Bringing that old rod back to life can be very exciting for the aspiring builder.

A fishing rod with a guide in need of repair makes a great beginning for someone wanting to begin custom fishing rod building. Rods have a finish made from an epoxy finish which holds the guide to the blank. To remove the guide, warm the epoxy with a heat gun or even a hairdryer. This softens the epoxy so that the guide can be pulled away. Once the epoxy has been properly softened, you can peel off the thread to completely remove the guide. Once it is removed, peel away the rest of the thread.

Save the guides that were just removed and take them either to a gear shop or look through a catalog to find replacements. To measure a guide, you would measure the diameter of the outside guide ring. Then, all you have to do is to buy some new guides, find nylon threads for fishing rods in the color you desire, a color preserver, and some more epoxy finish. The preserver works to protect the thread from appearing translucent after the epoxy finish is applied.

As you can see, building a custom rod does not take that much work and now you can have a fishing rod which looks exactly how you want it to look. Why have a standard rod when you can handle a rod that you have made your very own.