Master of His Trade

Cedric Knuckey calls the small space behind his garage “the workshop.”

But his wife, he jokes, has a few, less polite terms for it.

Comfortably warm on even the coldest winter day, the small room is crammed with half-assembled fishing rods, yellowed photos of Cedric with trophy fish, tools and other odds and ends that Knuckey, an Inver Grove Heights resident, has collected over decades of hunting and fishing.

It’s here, in this unassuming space, that Knuckey builds his fishing rods. But not just any rods — custom-built rigs that Knuckey ships to eager fishermen in Japan, Australia, Europe and number of different states. Knuckey’s attention to detail and the pain-staking work he puts into each fishing rod he makes have earned him the unofficial title of ‘master rod builder’ — a moniker that he cheerful shrugs off.

“I’m out here every day, seven days a week, if I’m not hunting or fishing or someplace with the wife,” he said on Wednesday. “To me, it’s not a job, I enjoy doing it.”

Knuckey’s life-long foray into rod building began when he was 16. An avid fisherman who lived in Duluth, Knuckey couldn’t afford a top-of-the-line Fenwick fishing rod with the money he saved as a teenager, so he bought a do-it-yourself Fenwick rod building kit. His first self-assembled fishing rod “didn’t look pretty,” but it was half the cost of a manufactured rod, Knuckey said.

Knuckey’s rod building didn’t start in earnest until he moved in 1981 to Fairbanks, Alaska. There, he turned to custom fishing rods to keep himself occupied during the long winter months, when three hours of sunlight a day and cold temperatures kept him from going outside.

“I’d look out the window of the office, and I’d see the sun come up, but it never got above the trees,” Knuckey said. The first winter I was there, it was like, ‘What the heck do you do here?’”

An architectural engineer by day, Knuckey began moonlighting as a professional rod builder, posting classified ads in national fishing magazines, including Fly Rod and Reel Magazine. Business was slow at first, but Knuckey’s name began spreading through word-of-mouth advertising.

Now, Knuckey builds approximately 180 fishing rods a year. First, Knuckey works with customers to identify what characteristics they’re looking for in their fishing rod and orders the materials from manufacturers. Then, he spends 10-12 hours painstakingly assembling the rod and sealing it with several coats of epoxy finish. Knuckey embeds an orange- and black-striped feather into the epoxy of many of his rods — a trademark that identifies Knuckey as the craftsman of the piece. Knuckey builds fly fishing rods, and rods for saltwater fishing, salmon and steelhead fishing and even Muskie fishing. The most expensive rods cost between $600 and $700. The least expensive hover around $400 in price.

Knuckey’s craftsmanship has won him plenty of fans, including friend and avid fisherman Scott Swanson, who owns several of Knuckey’s hand-built rods.

“If you’re going to build a house, you want the best person to build it. It’s the same idea with a fishing rod,” Swanson said. “[Cedric] puts his heart into his work.”

Knuckey’s skill at rod building, Swanson said, is only matched by his skill as an angler. The two frequently embark on extended fishing trips together.

“He just walks down to a hole and hooks fish,” Swanson said wryly. “He always seems to catch fish where there aren’t supposed to be any.”

Knuckey’s pace and health have declined over the past few years. A diabetic, he lost much of the feeling in his lower extremities. He also struggles with arthritis and the physical fall-out from an industrial accident that hurt his hand years ago.

“I’m getting slower at it, I can’t build them as fast as I used to,” he said.

But his poor health hasn’t dimmed his enthusiasm or prevented him from clocking long hours out in his workshop.

“I try to build [each order] like it’s my own rod, the way I would like to build it,” he said.