There's nothing spare about his fishing rods

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Fishing rod maker Al Espinoza demonstrates how he flexes a rod to check the guide placement.​

In a world where "product" rolls off the assembly line, it's comforting to know there still are places where folks build things by hand.

One such place is an 8-by-12-foot wooden shed in Al Espinoza's backyard. That's where the 71-year-old Fresno man builds custom fishing rods using techniques he learned a half-century ago.

"The rods you buy at Big 5 and Wal-Mart are mass-produced at some factory in China," says the silver-haired Espinoza.

"They don't take the time I take with these rods. Everything is precise down to the gnat's butt."

Practically a lost art, except among a few devotees, rod-building is a painstaking process that requires equal shares patience, steady hands and spools of nylon thread.

Racks filled with rods, most made on the premises, line the walls of Espinoza's workshop. Dozens of homemade lures of assorted sizes, shapes and colors hang from string and thumbtacks. Two lathes and a finish drier take up an entire wall. There are buckets of thread spools, packs of metal guides and photos from satisfied customers.

In 1959, when Espinoza started working for a fishing rod and reel company owned by a wealthy Mendota melon farmer, they made fiberglass rods straight from cloth, which adds several steps. Today, 'most everyone orders pre-made blanks.

Which blank depends on the type of fishing, and there are hundreds to choose from, varying in length, thickness, composition and action. Bass anglers, for example, want a rod that's flexible only near the tip so they can quickly set the hook (fast action).

When Espinoza begins a new rod, the first thing he does is perform what's called a spline check. It involves bending the blank and studying how and where it curves.

"Each rod bends a certain way," Espinoza says.

Having that knowledge is essential for placing the guides, those tiny metal hoops that the line runs through. They all have to be aligned, as do the reel seat and foregrip, which slide over the thick end.

Espinoza uses 1/8-inch-thick masking tape to temporarily attach the guides to the blank. To ensure they're aligned, he runs a string down the middle, bends it and makes sure that each one sits at a stress point.

"Think of the guides like sights on a rifle," Espinoza says. "If you don't have them on straight, you're not going to hit your target."

The next step, wrapping, probably requires the most time and skill. Each guide gets wrapped to the rod with thin nylon thread (silk on fly rods). Espinoza uses a motorized lathe to spin the rod, which helps keep each wrap tight and straight.

Most of the rods Espinoza builds are double-wrapped, and some are even triple-wrapped. That entails layering thicker thread on top of thinner thread, adding even more strength. Hard to fathom, but a typical double-wrapped rod uses about 200 yards of thread.

Each wrap gets three coats of sealer, which helps preserve the thread's color. When that dries, each wrap is finished with two-part epoxy, carefully measured with syringes and applied with a thin paintbrush. A slow-spinning finish drier helps ensure a uniform coat. It takes at least eight hours to make a rod.

While it's no longer his profession, Espinoza continued building rods as a hobby. He doesn't advertise – he doesn't even own a computer – and he charges friends just $60 labor, plus materials cost, for every rod he builds from scratch or refurbishes.

Espinoza recently built a pink fishing rod for his barber's wife. He started with a pink blank, and added purple and gold braided threading and holographic guides.

"You're building something that cannot be duplicated," he says. "I can guarantee that you can't go out and find another rod like these right here."



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