GRAND FORKS -- In his quest for the perfect ice fishing rod, Brandon Greene says he never could find one he liked and that fit just right. So, he built one that did. And hooked a booming side venture ...

It was familiar fishing advice in an unusual setting. Because I wasn’t standing on a boat, but in the shop of Snake River Custom Rods owners Ricky and Goldie Prieto. And the line I was keeping tight ...

When it comes to making custom fishing rods, Barry Weaver employs many skills. Weaver alternates among being a woodworker, an engineer, a lathe operator, a technician and an assembler. And when it ...

BACK IN MAY, I drove to Yarmouth, Maine, to visit the Maine Fly Co. I was there to pick up a custom fly rod they’d made for me and to go fishing with owner and founder Jeff Davis. I expected to find a ...

Dick Zrudsky will customize a fishing rod -- free -- for anyone who can catch a fish bigger than the one he caught in 1969. Zrudsky makes and designs custom fishing rods from his Englewood home. He ...

The man on the other end of the phone was noticeably hesitant, perhaps even a little embarrassed. He had spent 34 years in the quiet, comfortable background of the sport-fishing industry, most ...

When SEMA was established in 1963, those letters stood for Speed Equipment Manufacturing Association. A big part of the new organization's focus was on the hot rod aftermarket, and that was still the ...