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ROOD GEEKS Extreme Creativity Meets a Love of Fishing

 5 days ago by Chris Munchow 

Modified Nov 24th, 2025 at 8:52 PM

Extreme Creativity Meets a Love of Fishing
Most people do more fishing than catching. You may as well have something in your hands that’s cool to look at while you’re standing there – Annie Sheffield

KILL DEVIL HILLS, NC (November 18, 2025) – Annie Sheffield is a creative maker who loves fishing. The 26-year-old from Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina – the very same spot where the Wright Brothers pioneered fixed-wing flight in 1903 – has earned an associate’s degree in supply-chain management, a bachelor’s in industrial technology, a master’s in crop science, and is currently investigating doctoral programs. She owns a 3D printer, a laser engraver, and other interesting equipment that allows her to exercise her creative muscles by making almost anything she can imagine. A newcomer to the folds of custom rod building, Sheffield says the hobby provides a continued connection to fishing when the cold winds of winter turn her nearby beaches into a giant sandblaster.

Annie doesn’t jump into anything without a lot of thought. It was over twenty years before she built her first fishing rod, despite growing up under the influence of RodMaker magazine and its founder and publisher, Tom Kirkman.

“Tom was a family friend, and I remember having access to a pile of RodMaker magazines before I could even read,” Sheffield says. “Even though nobody in my family fished at that time, I looked at those magazines a lot when I was a kid because they were filled with so many really appealing visuals.”

Sheffield recalls her first fishing experience. “I remember my dad rented rods for us at a park in Cary. We had no success,” she says. “He didn’t know a lot about fishing and I was only maybe six. But I liked it, so we did do a little more fishing after that, which was not really fishing, it was more just standing with the fishing rods. But when you’re a kid and you don’t know anything, fishing is still fun. You’re doing something different.”

Sheffield got hooked after a middle school field trip. “We took a short charter out of Wilmington in New Hanover County. I really enjoyed that,” she recalls. “I told my dad I wanted to do some more fishing so he took us out and we bought some spinning rods. We started fishing more locally and I fished on and off, and when I moved down east to Kill Devil Hills for my master’s degree, I started fishing regularly. Even though it has been a lot more fishing than catching, I have always enjoyed it.”

Though she’d grown into adulthood, regular fishing made Annie think about Tom Kirkland. “We went to see him at the Custom Rod Builders Expo one time and I remember it being a fun experience,” Sheffield says. “As I got older and started making things, I remembered how Tom builds custom rods and had the idea that it would be pretty cool to try. I remembered the old magazines and asked my dad if he still had some. I wanted to look through them and get some ideas for building my first rod.”

Then Sheffield saw a Facebook post on an upcoming Custom Rod Builders Expo in Winston-Salem. “I was leaving my house to go to a work trip in Houston and I figured since I’d be driving through Winston-Salem anyway, I might as well stop by, see Tom, and have a look around,” says Sheffield. “I stopped there for that first day and I didn’t plan to buy anything. I just walked around, spoke with Tom and some other people, and got a feel for what I might want to build. Tom invited me to a reception that night and, for whatever reason, I ended up going and winning a rod blank in a raffle. That really got things going.”

It was a twenty-hour drive to Houston, so Sheffield had all night and most of the next day with the hum of the tires to contemplate her first rod build. “I remembered this big cedar branch I had brought home from the beach a couple of years earlier. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it at the time but knew I wanted to make something out of it,” Sheffield recalls. “I thought I could incorporate the branch into the rod somehow. I didn’t have a lathe to turn the wood into a round handle, so I decided I’d carve one. So, that’s what I did. I carved a fish shape and put a hole in it and the cedar “fish grip” became the focal point of my first build. I also did a tobacco-leaf inlay on the blank above the foregrip. I still fish with that rod and love it.”

Sheffield attended last year’s CRB Expo, where she met Curt Schlesinger and Jordan Lazore from Rod Geeks and St. Croix. “We were just talking and they took an interest in my background,” she says. “They had brought some blanks to the show and asked me if I would build a couple rods and let them do a story on me and the builds. They generously ended up giving me a BASS3 blank and a CARBON5 blank”.

For the BASS3 build, Sheffield says she wanted to do something that matched her Fish-Grip rod in terms of the gold color scheme, which was inspired by her car. “I did gold wraps on the black blank to tie it visually to the colors on Fish-Grip rod,” she says. “I did end up getting a small lathe, so I turned the grips for the BASS3 spinning rod using wood from the same cedar branch.

I added a larger size-22 Alps seat and sprung for some nicer guides. I ended up using the American Tackle MicroWave titanium guides because I thought they’d hold up better in my salty environment. I think the longest part of building that one was turning the grips because I had never done it before. I didn’t spend a lot of time watching YouTube or anything. I just understood how things worked. I looked at this block and thought, ‘Okay, so we can just work slowly, make it round, and we’ll get this thing on here.’ The grips aren’t perfect, but I like the way they came out.”

For the CARBON5 blank, Annie decided she’d build a casting rod. “I had an idea pretty quickly about what I wanted to do with that one,” she recalls. “I’m a baseball fan in general, but the Marlins are my favorite team because they were an affiliate of the minor-league Greensboro Grasshoppers where I grew up. The blank was a darker blue color, so I figured I could use some lighter blue wraps and accents to make the CARBON5 casting rod a Marlins-themed build.”

Sheffield began thinking about what else she could do with the rod to advance her theme.

“A little Marlins decal was an obvious idea,” Sheffield says, “but I started looking closely at their brand and noticed a lot of Mid-Century Modern tie-ins. I ran with that theme and used a four-point star pattern on the wrap. I put synthetic opals at the center of each star so they really catch the light.” Another unique touch to the Marlins Rod was added via Sheffield’s choice of thread. “I used a blue Fuji Prisma Metallic thread that has a bit of a color shift,” she says. “It looks great with the regular red accent thread I chose and ties in their current color scheme.”
One of the truly unique things Annie did with her Marlins Rod was downright dirty.

“I went on eBay and I bought a bit of real dirt from loanDepot Park,” she says. “I 3-D printed a small insert for the reel seat and put the dirt onto the little tube then coated it in blue-tinted epoxy. I think that’s my favorite part of the entire rod.”

Sheffield kept her 3-D printer running for the Marlins Rod’s handle.

“I designed and 3-D printed the handle pieces, which I installed blue shrink tubing over,” she says. “It was the closest color to Miami blue that I could find. You have to use a heat gun on the shrink tubing, and it took a couple tries because the heat also wants to warp the plastic handle pieces, but I figured it out.”

Sheffield says she enjoys about every part of the rod-building process. “I don’t particularly like tedious things like grinding down the guide feet,” she says, “but I really enjoy the creative parts like the decorative thread wraps, designing and crafting my own handle components, and then the satisfying parts like assembling the grips and the reel seat.

“I have a busy life and some health problems, so building fishing rods is a great way to be close and connected to fishing when I can’t get out there and fish,” Sheffield continues.
“I don’t actually have a work bench or a dedicated workspace since I spend a lot of time on the road. So, my entire setup is portable and packs down into a DeWalt ToughSystem box with drawers. I have a 24″ rod wrapping jig that I built myself. It’s a pretty unique setup and is very practical for me.”

When asked what advice she has for others who may be considering building their first custom rod, Sheffield says it’s something anyone can do, but it’s not really for everybody.

“I think you need to have that fundamental interest in fishing in order to really want to build rods,” she says. “I can see how someone could develop a passion for building rods and become good at the different processes, but I think it would be very difficult to build practical and functional rods without that knowledge and excitement for fishing.”

To this end, she says starting with a quality blank is really important. “Rod Geeks blanks are made by St. Croix and are the same blanks they use to build their rods on, so you know they are super high quality with great performance,” she says. “Not everyone knows who Rod Geeks is, but even a lot of non-fishing people know who St. Croix is. I love all the new colors that are available now and will probably build my next project on a gold blank… but I need to spend some time thinking all the options through before I start building it.”

We can’t wait to see what you come up with next, Annie.

About Rod Geeks
Brought to you by the people, expertise and experience of St. Croix of Park Falls, Inc., Rod Geeks has delivered handcrafted, high-performance fishing rod blanks to custom rod builders since 2014. Backed by nearly 80 years of experience in designing and building the Best Rods on Earth, we own and operate modern, state-of-the-art fishing rod factories in Park Falls, Wisconsin and Fresnillo, Mexico where we combine the best raw materials, equipment, technologies, expertise, and experienced craftsmanship to produce thousands of uncompromising fishing rods and blanks every week. Whatever your next adventure or project, trust Rod Geeks to provide a foundation for your passion and creativity that’s worthy of your talents. The St. Croix Family of Brands includes Rod Geeks, St. Croix Rod, SEVIIN Reels, St. Croix Fly, and the St. Croix Factory Store.
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