Introducing Ten Questions: Hand made Fishing Rods with Rudy

Welcome to the Strive Seek Find Podcast.  I’m your host Chance Whitmore.   This episode marks the first of a new  type of episodes.  “ Ten questions”. The ten questions episodes are based around  a simple concept:  Allowing people to talk about the things  they are passionate about.  It can be a job, hobby, cause, or anything  in between.  Tonight for our inaugural episode, I’m joined by Rudy, who among his fascinating hobbies, builds some amazing Fishing poles.   

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Unknown: 0:07

In life we have two choices, to experience or to exist. Every week, each of us makes that choice to either seek a better way to live or to get by. walk alongside me each week on the strive seek find podcast as we continue to seek our own brilliant future. Welcome to the strife seek fame podcast. I'm your host Chance Whitmore. This episode marks the first of a new type of episode my 10 questions series. The 10 question series is based around the simple concept allowing people to talk about the things they are are passionate about. It can be their job, a hobby, a cause, or anything in between. Tonight for our inaugural episode, I'm joined by Rudy, who counts among his fascinating hobbies, the building of some amazing fishing poles. Now let's get started. So tonight's an experiment. We opened the night planning on talking about passion. So I'm bringing in Rudy to talk about his passion for making fishing poles and for fishing. Along the way, we have caught up and indulged in our passion for both scotch and Irish whiskey. So this is complete experiment. Welcome to strive, Sek Find. Welcome aboard Rudy. Thank you wou d you like to tell us a little bit about yourself. What would you like to know? Give me a give me something to work with. Oh, yeah. Well, what what? What are your some of your interests? What are some of my interests? Were doing home right we are. We are we are drinking. Tonight has been Irish, scotch and even a little bit of cognac. cognac. Thank you. And don't forget to beer and beer and beer. So it's been a busy night already. We just moved on to the Tamru 15 my Speyside scotch. It's really good. You guys seem to like this one. I liked the glendronach 12 a little better, but you guys seem to like the tambu Oh, it's they're both really good. Very rich. Rich. I will tell you that for some reason. I like the the iodine for the cola a little more. But there's none of those that I would say don't buy it again. You know? It's a fun night so far. Yes. Which, which, you know, we could do an hour just talking about this, especially after having drank them. But the the idea was to talk about things that you like doing and things that you're passionate about. scotch is one of them. Okay, I guess. You know, I kind of I've been drinking scotch off and on. I think Josh got me into it. Josh white, strangely enough myself as well. So and I've been a light scotch drinker over the last couple years, but when COVID hit, I really like had lots of time every evening to kind of delve into some scotch. I don't know if my wife really appreciated it, but that was part of my COVID therapy. And I really have just grown to love drinking scotch and all kinds. I like the Highland the island that's beside the campbelltown I just every one of them just has something I like. Is there one that is more favorite than another? Dinner right now. I'm really leaning on the Glen dronex they just seem to be an all around for me. I've read over the Royal brockless 16 which is a really nice summer one. You're working on the Tamru 15 which to me is a little more wintery. It's a little more kind of full. It's a little spicy, maybe maybe some some holiday spices in that one. I really liked that red breast Cask Strength that you put out though. That that is a that was definitely a left field home run. So it is Oh my god. Flavor of everything tonight. That has more flavor than anything I've had to drink tonight. Yeah, we kind of midway through the evening switch from scotch Irish and then back to scotch and Let's just say it's been a fulfilling need. Questions as posts definitely are changing at this point. Yes. Yes, they are. We were going to talk we're going to talk fishing, fishing rods, fishing poles or, and or beer. So I enjoy brewing beer, I enjoy drinking beer. I like to fish. And I've taken up building fishing rods. Was that a COVID? experiment? No, actually. So I have a group of friends that just do a lot of fishing. And I was starting to join them for the fishing. But I didn't have a lot of fishing experience. And so I wanted to kind of bring something to the group that I didn't see. And nobody in the group really made fishing rods, everybody just bought a fishing rod and it worked fine. And so I delved a little bit into building rods, and it's worked out really good, because I think almost every fishing rod that the my group uses now is probably one that I built, really. So what's that process look like? So it's it's kinda reminds a little bit of beer. Because you can, you can buy a simple kit, and put something together. Or you can, you can take your time, and you can buy cork or whatever you want to buy handles for. And you can put it on a lathe and grind it down. But I think really where most of the work comes in on a fishing rod is thread work. There's there's a lot of detail that goes into making decorative thread designs on fishing rods. And I can spend a week or two and pull 100 sometimes 200 threads back and forth across the rod. To make a design. Sometimes it's just decorative that I like sometimes it's an actual pattern that I'm trying to follow. It looks like a fish, it looks like a spider or something like that. And then, and then we cover with epoxy. And then it's kind of set and it goes to the owner. But how much does each one of these cost to make? And then what would they be worth overall? Not that that's the big thing. But no, there's to me, there's no money involved. When I make a fishing rod, I make all my fishing rods for my friends for free. I do it because it's just my part of it's what I can contribute to the fishing group. I think a cheap kit that I made initially, was probably at $200. A couple of my more recent rods have been around three $350. So Wow. And most of the money goes into the guides. If you buy really expensive guides that I put on the rods, they can run 150 $200 just for the guides. Why is that? Just not being efficient. And I'm just curious. So the it's the material that they're using. It's how far it can cast. So I can get a really cheap just metal guide that will probably cast 3040 yards or I can spend a little extra money and I can get some ceramic guides it'll go out at 90 yards with the same fishing rod. So yeah, so I can get a lot more out of the fishing rod with better guides. Nice. So how did you get you said you started out with cheap kits and what steps did you go to improve what you're doing? You know, like I said, it's it you can financially you can upgrade with the equipment but really I think what sets a rod apart more than anything else when I when I look at other people's rods and I think they did a really fantastic job it really comes down to the thread work. Okay, I mean, there are artists out there that just make absolutely beautiful fishing rods with just different colored thread that they turn into beautiful designs. And so I try and follow those and make mine like that but I don't have that kind of skill. So minor. I like my rods but they are real. I don't know. I couldn't sell them for high dollar I don't think I'd have my doubts about that knowing Yeah. What what which your rods is probably the is what you would consider Your greatest accomplishment? What What did you learn the most from or what's the best one? So my very first fishing rod. So they it's called the Green Machine. It's kind of a dark green fishing rod. And I used an abalone shell decorative piece on it. And it's held up really, really well. I broke the tip off a couple years ago but managed to repair it. And it still lives on my boat. And it has caught Krabi trout, catfish, but so the Green Machine has been a great rod, but my friend Dave, so he's a big Cowboys fan. And I made him a kind of a cowboys rod. He has managed to catch all of those things. Plus, he caught a steelhead on it. He's got a couple other fish that I haven't caught. Dave has caught more fish on one of my rods than anybody. Wow, he has he just and it's the same kind of a standard rod I've kind of gotten into right now. It's a it's a five, five and a half foot, kind of an ultralight rod. And he has managed to land some amazing fish on this rod. It's too bad. It's for the for the Dallas Cowboys. Eagles fan. It's just that's problematic. But that's cool anyway. And I agree I'm not a Cowboys fan, either. I'm all bears. And my wife is a Packers fan. I know it's a tough, it's a tough season for us really. Did anybody teach here you're completely self taught? completely self taught? It was the same with beer. You know, I, I watch a lot of YouTube. Almost everything I do is just Hey, I have an idea. Look, YouTube, hey, there you go. Give it a try. And then there's a lot of trial and error. But, you know, like I said, the Green Machine is still up and running. So well, if somebody wanted to learn how to do this, what would you suggest they do? So I actually had a friend of mine, his wife was interested. And she came over. And she actually made her first ride with us. And she did a fantastic job turned out great. It was a gift for another friend. But I enjoyed teaching. And so we had lots of fun doing it. But it's really not a difficult thing to do. I think it helps if you have an artistic flair, which she did. She was pretty good when it came to the thread design. I'm kind of a guy, I'm not very artistic. So I have to rely on some other patterns to kind of get my rods done. But you mentioned threading. So is that completely decorative? Or is some of it about adding strength to the rod or so most of the thread work I do is decorative. But the guides themselves are head held on by thread. Okay, that makes so it's the same thread that hold the guides as they go up the rod. But there's a section just forward of the reel. That's kind of like useless. And so that's where we do most of our decorative thread work. You know, and I've known you for years and had no idea until recently you did this. So that this is a cool thing for me to know. Is there anything else about this? You'd like the audience to know? Stay out of Idaho. Stop. Don't fish here. Yeah, I don't know. No, I you know what, I love fishing, and I love making fishing rods. And I only make the rods so that other people can enjoy fishing. I don't make the rods for any profit. It's just so I can see somebody else have fun with it. Like my friend Dave, who's got so many fish on that rod. That just makes me so happy to see that kind of thing. That makes a lot of sense to me. Well, thanks for sharing about this. We're going to have you come back and talk about beer as well. In the meantime, I think we're both going back to our scotch this point. So you guys have a good evening. Thanks to Rudy for sharing his passion with us today. What are you passionate about? Would you like to share it? Let me know. And that concludes this edition of strive seek find. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, or would just like to support the podcast. Here are a few ways you can do it. You can leave a review on Apple podcasts or pod chaser It will help bring more listeners to the podcast. If that isn't your style, you can buy me a coffee or purchase some mirch links are in the podcast description. Finally, if you have ideas or feedback, please reach out to the strive seek find page on Facebook, or to at @chancewhitmore5 . Until next time, keep seeking your own brilliant future. Have a great day.