Customer - Max in Ft. Lauderdale, Sept. 20, 2008

Customer of mine, Max, and his buddy George took a charter out of Ft. Lauderdale on a boat called "Local Knowledge". Capt. Mike at the helm and the deck hand was Glenn. They headed out about 1pm on Saturday and were greeted to perfect weather and calm seas. Capt. Mike said the action had been a little slow but they had some luck with the Kings earlier in the day.

Hey Max, Sweet shirt !!! LOL
Here's George, ready to get into some action. Nice hat George.

Here's the spread, minus the "Maxamiliano". Max's spiral wrapped Shieldski custom paired with a Penn 6 wide. It was off to the side and would be rigged to an outrigger for action later to come.

So Max is the first one up, and the first rod starts getting line ripped off at a pretty good pace. Max grabs the rod and makes quick work of the first catch of the day. A very respectable 42" King. Looks like dinner to me !!

Then the next reel takes off and George jumps in the chair. He ends up boating the second fish of the day. Once again, another King.

This one a bit smaller at 36", but still some sweet filets for sure.

Then the action slowed for a good while, with a couple of break-off's thrown in for good measure. So they start heading back in. They are trolling the whole way back in, and as they enter in Intercoastal the 6 Wide on the Maxamiliano starts screaming. Max jumps in the chair, gives the hook a good solid set with a yank on the rod and game-on!! A bit later, they get the fish close to color and it looks like another King.

But, wait.... That's no King, that's a Cuda.

Here's Max with his Cuda that taped out to over 43" and almost 20 pounds. Great catch Max, congratulations. Glad the rod is working out for you. Let me know when you're ready for another one. LOL.

Shieldski - Latest Rod Work - "Barber Pole" bass rod - Delivered to customer 11/5

And finally, almost up to the tip of the rod with size 6 fly guides. These things are tiny. Rod actually required 9 guides in all, not including the tip-top. But with the size of these tiny guides and the small amount of thread and epoxy used on the upper section, it really is a perfectly balanced rig. Can't wait to see some pics of the rod in action and the results it is bound to produce. Congratulations Mr. Barber. I hope you like it as much as I do.
Then further up is fly guides to cut down on weight. This one is a size 8 I believe. Once again, same theme as the rest.

Here's a pic of the stripper guide (the guide closest to the reel). It's a Batson XN double footed guide, in what's called a TiChrome finish. Kind of looks like gunsmoke. Really sharp. Same red used in the barber pole design, with a single silver inlay.

Was home today, so I decided I would get most of the grip assembly done. I cut the cork grip in two halves, got them all nicely shaped, then reamed to the proper fit. I then slid on the metal winding checks and got the grips and reel seat glued in place. All coming together nicely. Next will start working on the foregrip portion then last will be guide wraps.
Well, here it is, Sunday evening, and all the threads are down, and holy cow, it actually looks like a barber pole... lol. Next thing is to get the tie-off's done and then put a coat of epoxy on it. Glad this brain teaser of a wrap is done.
Next is to begin the white color on the right of the other set. And this will continue until the white and the blue meet right in the center (I hope !!) of the silver underwrap.

Here we see the white/red set complete, now beginning with the blue on the left of this.

This pic now shows what it looks like with 36 threads of each color. My plan is to continue adding threads of these two colors until I have covered exactly 1/2 of the blank, then I will begin the white/blue colors.

Ok, so here it is, Sunday, 9 am, and I just got starte on the barber rod. Here's a pic of the first two sets of 12 threads, red and white, on top of the silver underwrap with epoxy on it.

Here is a pic of the practice wrap, held in the top of the pic. I needed about 2 hours to wrap my brain, and the thread, about how the heck to do this thing. I've got it now. In the lower portion of the pic is the actual rod blank with the silver under-wrap done and the first coat of Threadmaster applied. One more coat of epoxy and then we'll be ready for the actual wrap, I'm hoping this sunday.
Here's a pic of the fore-grip, rear grip (which will eventually be cut into a split grip), and the exposed blank Fuji ACS reel seat.

Here's the colors that I've chosen for the wrap. All Gudebrod size A threads. I've talked to friends that have wrapped rods with straight white thread and I've heard of issues with the blank below bleeding through. So, they figured out, in order to stop that issue, they did an underwrap of silver. That way the black of the blank doesn't push through and it will make the colors pop instead of looking bland.

So, now, on to the next build. Have a customer that wants me to build a rod for his buddy. His friends last name is Barber, so he got the idea of doing a wrap of a barber shop pole. Sounds simple enough, right ? Well, I can tell you, to properly figure out the spacing on a tapered rod that goes from white to blue to white to red to white, etc, was not easy, but I think I've got it now.

Also went down to PINS a couple of weeks ago and ran by the Breakaway shop. There they had my own, personalized, Shieldski "Cult" Breakaway car magnet. So now when I head down the beach, folks will know I'm a fan of Breakaway and will also know it is me. So if you see the sign, stop by and have an ice cold beverage.... (on the beach, that beverage is usually the same beverage shown in the pic, Shieldski juice... lol).

Well, me and some other builders here in Texas just started the TRB (Texas Rod Builders). And turns out we are going to be having our first rod building show in Texas City on September 20th. So, to get ready for the show, I got a new Shieldski banner made up. It turned out really awesome and should draw some attention. If anyone feels like attending the show, just shoot me an email: jeff@shieldski.com