AFTA 24 + rod building comp entry

[Andrew_P]

Hi AFOers,

I went to AFTA yesterday on the public day as a guest of Frogleys Offshore who distribute Fuji products in Australia. Fuji were announcing the winners of the rod building comp and my rod had made the top 10. I had a brief look around the grounds but didn’t get a chance to take photos. There were plenty of punters there keen to see the latest products and any giveaways. Lots of YouTubers there too which the kids were lapping up! 

my standouts were a couple of new lines of production rods being introduced to Australia from big US manufacturer St Croix and the Australian licensed Sabre.  St Croix are a similar company to the old G.Loomis (now owned by Shimano) with bass and fly rods mostly but also have a reputation for surf rods. Their blanks are produced in the USA and then built either in house for premium lines or in Mexico for their higher number models.  I pulled on a couple of surf rods and was impressed by their actions and power. I’ve been building on Sabre Australia blanks for a couple of years now and they are almost indestructible. The guys at United Tackle on the Gold Coast are onto a winner with their production line of offshore rods built on their tried and tested models that will give a live fibre venom a run for their money. Can’t wait to see them in tackle stores! 

i ended up placing 4th in the professional category so I was out of the top three but happy to be near the pointy end this year. The 3 winners’ builds were exceptional and the quality of the top 10 show how well rod building is advancing in Australia even though we are a tiny industry. I caught up with the three Fuji rod building ambassadors and got some great advice which I am thankful for. I’ll post some pics of my build for those interested. 
 

cheers

[Old Scaley]

Some very nice work there, Andrew. Congrats on making the shortlist. 

[Huxstang]

Amazing binding.  Well done

[mangajack]

Nice craftsmanship, it shows why you placed in the top ten.

[ellicat]

Wow, some beaut builds Andrew. Very nice. Well done on your placing.

[rayke1938]

Too good to use. Work of art.

[Andrew_P]

Thanks all for the kind remarks! Ray I am going to use it - built for a 10k Saragosa and PE 4 perfect for surface pelagics!

[Huxstang]

What are all the specs on the rod mate.

[Andrew_P]

8’ 2 piece (butt join) stick bait rod designed for PE 4-6 and a 10k size reel. The blank is from Samurai’s premium stickbait range. I used Fuji stainless steel SiC guides, a reel seat with pipe extension and locking nut (essential), a rubber gimbal and the whole bottom blank section is grip built to suit my dimensions (I think there’s about 11” of grip to the gimbal and 10 of foregrip). I will use it to chase tuna and mackerel on the surface. Overall the rod took me more than 15 hours to build (most rods are ~4-5hrs). 
 

the equivalent production rod is a samurai extracta stickbait 4-6 which retails for $869

[Rebel]

Well done. Great rods.

[Huxstang]

I had guessed you didnt use some low end blank with the amount of effort in the binding - and that is one heck of a weapon as a result.  Congrats.

[Neil Stratford]

Very impressive and beautiful work , well done .

regards

neil