GRAND FORKS, N.D. _ Rob Horken might best be remembered as "Ernie the Angler," his longtime alter ego who did weekly summer fishing reports on WDAZ-TV Channel 8 in Grand Forks. But in retirement, Horken keeps his feet in the fishing waters by building custom fishing rods.
Any size, any color, Horken probably can build it. The retirement gig is keeping the owner of Rob's Rod Repair and Custom Built Fishing Rods busy in his East Grand Forks shop.
As busy as he wants to be, at least, and that's just the way Horken likes it.
"I've built them for birthdays, I've built them for Christmas, I've built them for graduation presents with the school colors as the wraps," Horken, 65, said. "They turn out cool."
Horken makes the wraps by winding strands of special thread around the rod blank to hold the line guides in place and to provide decorative patterns near the handle of the rod.
"I will normally wrap three threads at a time, and then you just kind of keep working them in so they're tight," Horken said.
Masking tape holds the wraps in place until they're permanently fastened with epoxy.
"By the time you make 20 wraps, you've got a pile of masking tape there," Horken said. "It's something you really need to practice. You want to get (the wrap) so it's lined up nice, and an awful lot of measurement and math goes into it."
Horken uses St. Croix-brand graphite blanks for walleye, bass and pike rods and fiberglass blanks for catfish rods. Where he attaches the guides depends on the length of the rod and the location of the spine, or strongest point of the rod, Horken says.
