Wild Appalachia: Ridge Runner Rods
SCOTT DEPOT, W.Va. (WCHS) — If you love to fish, this time of the year can be tough to make a catch with ice and snow.
There are only so many fishing videos you can watch before you just want to get out on the water.
But there is something you can look forward to in the meantime - getting your own custom-made fishing rod.
That's what David Walls in Putnam County specializes in.
"I've always been an avid hunter and fisherman, but we started fly tying with Trout Unlimited, doing that and teaching it. But yet, I've always loved the rod-building aspect," Walls said. "One day they were needing some extra people to help teach. I just transferred over and started building."
Walls said when friends he fished with were confronted with broken equipment, he was the one to step in and make a fix.
"We started repairing rods here and there, something small, a grip, or something like that that needed fixed. We started getting more and more business and then we literally turned it into a business." Walls recalled.
Walls, who is a disabled veteran, says this is his therapy.
His wife owns the business, and his daughter also helps with the design work.
"We build all types of rods, from small ice fishing rods to surf fishing and everything in between. I've got rods all over the United States, from fly rods to bass rods to crappie rods," Walls said. "There's not a rod we've never built. We've done it all."
Former West Virginia University baseball coach Randy Mazey is a big fan of their work.
"I get a text. This is Randy Mazey. 'I love this rod. I want to show you what it caught today.' Here he is holding these 28-inch, huge trout that they caught." Walls remembered.
As happy as that makes Walls, it's the first fish stories that makes him happiest.
"A little girl in church coming up to us saying 'Sandy, I want a fishing rod.' I said, 'OK,what do you want?' She told me and we were thinking the color combinations were really off, but, and even my wife was like, 'Those don't go together, but that's what she wanted.' There were pink with the purples and the blues, but that's just what she wanted. So, we built it," Walls recalled. "Her dad took her out fishing and she got a nice little crappie, and just loved it."
Walls says anniversary and memorial rods are popular options now.
"I've had some phrases from wives to their husbands, and I can't say because it's not appropriate, but they wanted it on there. It makes that rod more personable," Walls explained. "I've done memorial rods. Memorial rods right now are a big thing that are starting to happen. You actually take the ashes and you either insert them into the butt section here, or when we do the epoxy, we mix them in the epoxy. We custom build, prepare, work on, build out, however you seem fit, whatever you can dream."
You can visit Ridge Rod Runners website or follow along on Facebook or Instagram.
