It started with a chance meeting at Bass Pro Shops in Leeds, AL about three years ago. I was in the store to pick up a few items and I saw a display of custom rods built by a local Birmingham man. Like most of us, I couldn’t resist stopping to play with them for a few minutes and I ended up having about a 30 minute conversation with Greg Hughes, the maker of Greg’s Custom Rods. I had several opportunities to bump into Greg in the couple of years that followed that initial meeting and every time it ended with me reminding myself to try a few of these rods out. In December of last year, I pulled the trigger and ordered my first two rods from Greg. After countless hours of fishing with these sticks and catching more fish than I care to count on them, I have three more in the process of being built and hope to have every rod in my boat replaced with these custom sticks over the next couple of years. I would like to share with the reader some of what I have discovered over the past year and invite you to visit with Greg, let him put a rod in your hands and decide for yourself.
The first thing that comes to mind when some of you think of a custom rod is appearance. While my field testing has not concentrated on the appearance of the rods, I have to say that they are absolutely gorgeous. Of course, what one person likes may not suit another’s taste but there is no doubt that Greg can put something together that you will be proud of and enjoy looking at almost as much as you enjoy fishing with it. He offers marbled or thread wrapped rods, aluminum inserts, snakeskin, even a grip with baseball threads on it. Every rod is truly a work of art and can be as fancy or as plain as you want it to be.
More important than appearance, at least to me, is performance. When you fish as many tournaments as I fish each year, something being pretty doesn’t put fish in the livewell or a check in the bank so let’s get down to business. The sensitivity of these sticks is on par with much more expensive rods and Greg credits that to not only precision workmanship but also high quality components and the fact that almost every rod that goes out his door is constructed with spiral wrapped micro-guides. “The spiral wrap method turns a casting rod into a spinning rod in the aspect that the line lays on the guides instead of the blank. This results in much better sensitivity”, says Greg. These rods have an almost overwhelming number of guides and the first three or four actually offset the line to the underside of the rod. I have fished with much more expensive rods and while some of them have been very impressive, Greg has managed to produce a product that is of at least the same quality (I personally think they are better than most) at a much lower price point. Each rod is spined to find the straightest point on the blank and the eyes are then attached at the point where they fit that particular rod. There is no handbook that tells him where the eyes go and each rod has its’ own personality.
The casting distance on these rods also far surpasses many of the more expensive rods that I have fished with over the years and while a lot of that can be attributed to the blank itself, much of it is caused by the simple physics of the spiral wrapped micro-guides as well. My first impression was that with so many guides (commonly 16-17 per rod) there were more friction points and this might inhibit the casting distance. Not the case! A little research answered my questions and I discovered that the coefficient of friction was almost non-existent with the lines and guides on the market today. What actually increases the casting distance is the substantially less dampening effect from line vibration going through the guides. With a larger guide, the line actually may come into and lose contact with the guides repeatedly on each cast and this causes a dampener effect that produces much more negative impact on distance than the nearly constant contact with the micro-guides.
Walter Britt, a long time customer of Greg’s Custom Rods shared a story with me recently. He said that his first experience with Greg was when he went over with a friend of his to have some repair work done. He told his buddy on the ride over that he was not going to buy a rod but was interested in seeing some custom work. “30 minutes with Greg changed all that”, says Britt who has now been a customer for 6 years and with the exception of getting a good deal on a used rod here and there has not bought an off-the-shelf rod since. “Greg took out a rod, tied it off to a trailer hitch and dared me to break it within 5 minutes.” Walter says. He was so impressed with the spiral wrap process that he ordered his first rod that day and hasn’t looked back since.
That being said, I did recently manage to break my jig rod. It could be from thousands of miles riding in a rod locker and developing stress fractures from being bounced around, swinging countless fish in the boat or any other factor that goes into a broken stick. I know that it is something most of us have experienced but this was the first time that I actually mourned over the loss of a rod. I had to resort to using one of my old off-the-shelf rods for a few weeks while Greg was building me a replacement and the old saying “You don’t know what you got until it’s gone.” Comes to mind. I realized that my hookset has changed, my casting physics were different and my fishing suffered for those few weeks. I mentioned this to Walter and he replied that he had also experienced a learning curve when he bought his first rod. “I broke off the first several fish that I set on.” says Britt. “You learn pretty quickly that with the spiral wrap, the pressure of the line is exerted onto the eyes instead of the blank and you get so much more torque on the hookset that you have to tone it down a little.” Britt says he also had to change his cast. “I noticed that the bait was hitting to the right of the target but soon realized that it was because it was getting there quicker and made the adjustment.”
Walter, like myself, had nothing but positive feedback on these rods and agreed with my statement that they will change the way you fish. As with most products, technology is changing by the day and Greg stays on top of the newest materials and procedures. He has worked with Fuji to develop an eye and continues to work with blank manufacturers to test products and give his feedback. Greg Hughes has made a name for himself through his products and is continuing to build that name in a positive manner. You would never know it to talk to Greg. He is one of the most humble human beings that I have been around and while his passion for what he does is evident, he takes pride in his work and is dedicated to building the rod that you want.
For more information on Greg’s Custom Rods, you can contact Greg Hughes directly at 205-608-FISH or through the Greg’s Custom Rods Facebook profile. I will also be more than happy to show you some of his work, take you over and introduce you or answer any questions that you might have.
