\u201cMake sure you\u2019re keeping tension on it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was familiar fishing advice in an unusual setting.\nBecause I wasn\u2019t standing on a boat, but in the shop of Snake River Custom Rods\nowners Ricky and Goldie Prieto. And the line I was keeping tight wasn\u2019t\nattached to a fish\u2014it was the thread holding the guides in place on my first\nhandmade fishing rod. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Custom rod building has become quite popular in the fishing\ncommunity, and the Prietos are among the top Idahoans in the trade. Ricky has\nbeen building rods for nearly a decade, and he turned his passion into a family\nside business by launching Snake\nRiver Custom Rods<\/a> in 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe enjoy building and we enjoy spending time together in\nthe shop,\u201d Ricky said. \u201cTo us, it\u2019s an art.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Prietos transformed their garage into a complete rod\nmaker\u2019s lab, featuring a paint booth, a wood lathe, various saws, hundreds of\nrods in all shapes and sizes, a laser engraver, 3D printers and a wall filled\nwith the colored threads used to customize each rod design. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For my build, we chose an ice\nfishing<\/a> rod (tis\nthe season!<\/a>). It started out as a 31-inch fiberglass \u201cblank,\u201d but in short\norder, we selected a reel seat, rod tip and guides to match. For my guide\nthreads, I honored my alma mater with a blue-and-orange theme. I even got to\nadd my Tight Lines 208<\/a> logo! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Before we started putting this thing together, I had to\nask\u2014other than satisfying a creative itch, why go through all this trouble to\nbuild a fishing rod? <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are a lot of advantages,\u201d Ricky said. \u201cYou get better\ncomponents and have more design control than purchasing something that\u2019s bulk\nmanufactured. The quality and functionality are better\u2014and there\u2019s something\nreally satisfying about catching a fish on a rod you designed and built.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Prieto proved his point right away with a \u201cspine test\u201d on my\nrod. Every fishing rod has a natural curvature it wants to follow. By building\nthe rod on spine, you maximize its efficiency anytime it bends or loads, which\nleads to better performance casting and fighting fish. Store-bought gear\u2014even\nthe expensive stuff\u2014often comes slightly off-spine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Once we were on-spine, my reel seat was attached fairly\neasily with tape and epoxy. The most time-consuming part is hand-wrapping the\nguides onto the rod with thread. For an experienced pro like Ricky, wrapping each\nguide only takes a minute or two. For a novice like me, it took about 20. But\nwith patience and some help from the experts, a cool-looking ice rod began to\ntake shape. With everything in place, we sealed the guide threads with brush-on\nepoxy, which cured on a spinning rack for 24 hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI really like that rod,\u201d Ricky said. \u201cIce rods are tricky\nbecause they are so small. Obviously, you\u2019ll get better and faster with more\nbuilds under your belt, but that rod is going to catch a lot of fish!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Snake River Custom Rods builds everything from ice rods to big\nsturgeon<\/a> rigs. The Prietos customize 60 to 80 rods per year, and there are\nsome beauties. During my build, Goldie was fashioning a yellow, red and blue, Wonder\nWoman-themed rod. The intricacy of her thread weave pattern is unbelievable! <\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to building custom rods (which make great\ngifts<\/a>) the Prietos also perform repairs, sell individual rod components and\noffer rod building classes for anyone who wants to give it a try. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For me, the process was more intricate than I ever imagined.\nBut I enjoyed my time in the lab, and thanks to a little elbow grease and a lot\nof good coaching, I have a shiny new, custom-built ice rod. <\/p>\n\n\n\n