Choosing the best rod blanks for building your own custom fishing rod is the single most important decision you'll make on the entire build. I learned this the hard way my first year of rod building, when I picked a flashy graphite blank without checking its action and ended up with a rod that couldn't […]

I built my first spinnerbait in my garage eight years ago, and I've been hooked on DIY lure making ever since. After testing dozens of kits on my local bass and walleye waters and watching our team assemble hundreds of lures across multiple seasons, I can tell you that not all spinnerbait making kits are […]

When I started building rods fifteen years ago, I picked the cheapest reel seat on the shelf and lost a trout reel on the third outing. That moment taught me what experienced rod builders already knew: the best reel seats for rod building are not the priciest or the prettiest, they are the ones that […]

I've been building custom rods for over a decade, and the first time I tried rotating a freshly epoxied rod by hand for six straight hours, I promised myself I'd never skip the best rod drying motors again. A quality drying motor takes the worst part of rod building (waiting while epoxy cures) and turns […]

Building a custom fishing rod from scratch is one of the most satisfying projects an angler can tackle. After my first build five years ago — a slow-pitch jigging rod that I still fish today — I was hooked on rod building forever. But that first rod also taught me a hard lesson: the wrong […]

If you have ever watched a bass inhale a lure you built with your own hands, you understand why the best lure making kits are flying off tackle shop shelves in . I have been pouring plastisol, painting crankbait blanks, and twisting spinner shafts at my workbench for over a decade, and I have learned […]

I poured my first lead jig head in my garage eight years ago, and I've been hooked on jig making ever since. Since then, our team has tested more than 60 fishing jig molds across freshwater and saltwater applications, burning through hundreds of pounds of lead along the way. We know what separates a mold […]

Pouring your own fishing jig heads saves serious money and lets you fine-tune weight, hook size, and color for the species you target. After spending the last few months casting hundreds of crappie and bass jigs with eight different pots, our team put together this guide to the best lead melting pots for jigs you […]

After losing a bluefin tuna to a slipped crimp three seasons ago, I started taking fishing leader crimping seriously. Our team has spent the last 90 days crimping thousands of mono and wire connections with eight of the best crimping tools for fishing leaders currently available, ranging from budget kits under twenty bucks to heavy-duty […]

After three months of testing 8 different waterproof bike panniers across Seattle rain, Pacific Northwest mist, and Midwest thunderstorms, I can tell you which ones actually keep your gear dry. I loaded each set with laptops, groceries, and rain gear, then rode through everything nature could throw at me. The best waterproof bike panniers on […]