Check our new spiral "acid-wrap" rod now! It's amazingly stable and secure. It will cast as well or better than any other rod in your collection. You'll be blown away by how effortless it is to hold and fish. Learn more, you'll be glad you did. Enter your E-mail Address to subscribe to our blog & register to win a free hat!
As Seen In » CLICK HERE TO READ REVIEWS « » CLICK TO WATCH OUR SHARKIN' VIDEO «	» READ TESTIMONIALS «

The right rod is the key component, literally the backbone, to success in all fishing situations!

Built in the USA, Local Hooker Rods is located on Cape Cod Massachusetts. Our goal is to build you the finest rods, without compromise. We stand behind your rod with a Limited-Lifetime Warranty. We build rods using the best components. First we test and spine every rod. We do a parabolic curve and deflection test to measure the placement and accuracy of the guides. It is extremely important to understand the guides on your rod carry the load (your fish), just as a truss system carries the load on the roof of a building. Your guides are placed along the entire parabolic curve of a spined rod.

Thread is more than pretty colors; it's what holds your guides and keeps them stable. We under-wrap the guide feet once and over-wrap them twice using Gudebrod thread. Then apply a two-step, slow-dry, UV-embedded epoxy to ensure the thread is thoroughly sealed and water-tight. Finally, our reel seats are fitted and glued solid to help ensure they don't break loose.

There are a lot of ways to cut costs and quality when building a rod. It's what's under the hood that really counts! Here are several ways to build rods that look nice but have no quality:

1. Skimping on the number, quality and type of guides. Many guides and tops are inferior stainless steel and plating, causing them to rust and break over time. The frames are weak using low-carbon, very thin gauge steel.
2. Not under-wrapping the guide feet, and over-wrapping them once using cheap thread is a common practice.
3. Using an ultra violet finish on blanks and guide wraps. This method sets up under a UV light in 15 seconds. It's gummy underneath with a very hard brittle exterior. The finish dulls and gets even harder in the sun, eventually cracking and peeling around the guide feet, allowing water to seep in.
4. Spining the backbone is one of the most important aspects of a well-built rod, and it is almost unheard of with most factory production rods.
5. Many reel seats have cardboard filler sleeves, shims, masking tape or electrical tape with a spot of glue to hold them on the blank. Eventually these get wet and breakdown causing reel seat failure.

Just because a rod lists the best name in components doesn't always make it a good rod. If not assembled properly, it's just good junk! I've seen $200.00 (name excluded) rods made with good name-brand components that are garbage!

There are many rods called “custom” that are little more than embroidered to look nice. They have beautiful wraps and weaves but are no better built than an imported factory rod. In fact, many are pre-built overseas and shipped to the US to be embroidered and sold as custom rods. You'll see these: “Made in the USA”. Just know what you're buying. Custom doesn't always mean custom-built. More like “embroidered in the USA”

Enjoy fishing; GET BENT!