Rod Builder Profile - Jimmy Idol

Rod Geeks Blank: C460MHF in White Pearl

Build design for: Kayak river fishing for largemouth and smallmouth bass using buzz and spinner baits.

The 6' rods are user friendly for kayak river fishing. I'm not looking for a long cast, the rivers in North Carolina and Southern Virginia are fairly narrow with a lot of overhanging limbs and brush. Most cast are fairly short but must be very accurate when casting to the bank among the overhanging debris. The C460MHF blank has proven to be a perfect blank for this type of fishing. I started my River Rod Collection around this blank. I am in the process of adding more of the RODgeeks blanks to my River Rod Collection for the same type of fishing, but will be more suitable to different types of lures.

Built with 8 guides. Guide sizes 1-#12, 1-#10, 1-#8, 1-#7, 4-#6, I build this rod two ways, one with all double foot guides or I change the 4-#6 guides to single foot fly guides. The double foot guides seem to withstand a little more abuse from being knocked around in the kayak, and the single foot fly guides keep the weight of the rod down and don't effect the rod action as much. Both ways have worked well.

Guide spacing from tip down in cm: 8,9,10,12,14,15,18,21 cm. Tip top #6.

EVA grips, they are light weight and hold up well to taking them in and out of rod holders. I use a 9" rear grip and a 2 1/2" fore grip. I use a size 16 casting reel seat, normally I use graphite reel seats but for this build I used an aluminum one for the purple color.