The ROD PROJECT: MSG_AL and Brian Reeves 2024

roadwarrior reply :

Several months ago, Staff Member .ghoti came up with the idea of

honoring two of our proud soldiers. Although this project is really all

about MSG_AL and Brian Reeves, I want to offer a very special

"THANK YOU" to Gary.

"THANK YOU" numbers two and three go to our rod builders, Alpster

and flechero. These men volunteered their time and talent, at no

charge, to the project. Without them this could not have happened.

Both MSG_AL and Brian Reeves recently received their custom built

rods. I know they will enjoy their new equipment, but more importantly,

we want to thank you for your service to our country. To both of you,

SALUTE!

The following members provided funding and support. To each and

every one of you, thank you very much.

Burley and variations of the name

Speedbead

Jimzee

Maltese Falcon

Risk Kid

Sam

Senile 1

Muddy

Fishfordollars

Micro

Skillet

Fisher of Men

Frog Tog

Lubina

Fishin Daddy

Masshole Mike

Mrs. Matstone

Redlinerobert

ghoti

Glenn & Keri

LBH

Fivebasslimit

And two members who wish to remain anonymous

Again, thank you all.

As for Brian Reeves and MSG_AL, ""Get to fishin'!"

p.s. If I overlooked anyone, please send me a PM.

Muddy reply :

THE THANK YOU GOES TO THESE TWO HEROES. How appropriate right before Veterans Day!

Thanks to you and all the other service men and women currently serving, and those who have served. Especially for those who never came home, we all owe you a debt that can never be paid.

.ghoti. reply :

Greetings fellow BR.Commers. Some of you may remember getting a PM from me with that heading, a few months back.

Here's what happened.

MSG AL originally posted a question about a custom rod in the $150 range. When I saw that, my first thought was, no way that's gonna happen. My second thought was, well why not? Bass resource is a big extended family; we should be able to do something.

I first contacted Keith (flechero), and proposed this idea to him. That I try to round up some money and get a rod built for Al as a coming home surprise. Keith, to his everlasting credit, jumped on the idea, and expanded it. He suggested that I get enough for two, build a rod for MSG AL and one for Brain Reeves, and that I should contact Ronnie (Alpster) to build one. I contacted Ronnie, and to his credit, he jumped on board immediately. These two guys get all the kudos. They donated their time to this project, building custom rods, for NO CHARGE. This was huge. It meant we could get much better rods if all the money could be spent on parts.

So, with Glenn's permission, I started contacting people. I've been around here since sometime in 2005, so I know a lot of folks. I've traded phone calls, emails and PM's with quite a few members. I started calling, emailing and PMing all these. I also contacted quite a few more whom I felt comfortable dealing with.

I had a few qualms about this. I knew there were several possibilities.

1. I'd get a donation

2. I'd get ignored

3. I would ask somebody whose situation would not allow them to participate.

4. I would offend somebody by not asking.

I'm happy to report that all my expectations were met.

The whole Bass Resource staff is in on this; Glenn, LBH, Roadwarrior, five-bass-limit, and myself. A lot of members made donations, some of whom wish to remain anonymous. I don't understand that, but I intend to honor their request, and will not divulge names when they have requested that I not do so.

RW has posted the list of donors. I double checked it before he did, and I sincerely hope we did not leave anybody out. If I did leave somebody out, PM me, cuss me, and I'll see to it that your name gets on the list.

Roadwarrior graciously agreed to handle the donations. I believe that having him take all the money resulted in more donations than if I had done it. A big thank you goes out to him, too.

I started this project right after MSG AL's original post, thinking we could get it done before he came home. Obviously that did not happen. A lot of things happened to delay it all, but the job is finally done.

Along the way, I allowed Al to think that I was building the rod for him, and that he would be paying for it when I finished. That was how I got enough info to supply a build spec to Ronnie. I've apologized to Al for being a lying son-of-a-rooster. He's forgiven me. ;D ;D

I tried to get a build spec from Brian, by being a sneaky, underhanded dufus, asking him if he were going to build a rod, what would he build. I got nowhere with that. He sent me back a nice reply that answered none of my specific questions. Keith dug through better than a hundred of Brian's posts, and came up with a build spec. Talk about going above and beyond.

So, I asked for money, the Bass Resource family came through, our two rod builders worked their magic, and the custom sticks are in our soldier's hands. They each received a PRIMO rod. I've seen the pics, and I wish they were mine.

You gotta love it when a plan comes together.

Thank you, Keith.

Thank you, Ronnie.

Thank you, Kent.

And, a special thank you to all who contributed.

And now the best part.

I did such a good job raising money and lying to MSG AL that I've decided to go into politics.

GHOTI in 2012

I'm thinking Tina Fey for my running mate.

Glenn reply :

Thank you Keith, Ronnie, Kent, and Gary for making this happen. You guys ROCK!

And most of all, THANK YOU MSG_AL and Brian Reeves for your service and sacrifices. Words cannot describe how much we appreciate what you do.

Enjoy the rods!

bighed reply :

Awesome project guys!!! My hats off to all who made this happen and to MSG AL and Brian Reeves for their service and sacrifice for our country.

SPEEDBEAD. reply :

This was a great idea guys!!

Ronnie and Keith - Amazing contribution, cant say enough about that.

Gary, are the pics posted somewhere else or will we wait for brian and MSG to post pics?

Wayne

senile1 reply :

Quote
THE THANK YOU GOES TO THESE TWO HEROES. How appropriate right before Veterans Day!
Thanks to you and all the other service men and women currently serving, and those who have served. Especially for those who never came home, we all owe you a debt that can never be paid.

I second that. When I consider what you guys, and all veterans, do for us it makes me ashamed that I didn't contribute anonymously. What have any of us done compared to you and our veterans? None of us can begin to know the hell that many of you go through for our country. Torrential thanks to all veterans.

Brian_Reeves reply :

I guess this is going to be a thread full of thank yous. I am still stunned by this whole deal. Its hard to put into words the mix of emotions that runs through a guy shown this kind of gratitude and selflessness. You guys are simply awesome.

I'm going to have to set up a new photobucket and get some pics up. I will do that when I get off of work later tonight. Long day today.

I can tell you this though. I don't know where Keith got my dream rod specs from, but he did a fantastic job. He basically ripped what I pictured to be the perfect rod out of my head and made it real. It is a spiral wrapped, split grip, G Loomis 7 ft med heavy, fast tip jig fishing machine!! I put a Bass Pro Shops pro qualifier 7:1 reel on it until I can afford that Revo STX or Curado. A top knotch rod deserves a top knotch reel, after all.

That rod is the most sensitive, furthest casting, and strongest rod I have dealt with. Keith, you are d**n good at your craft man. That rod exceeds the quality of any other rod I have ever seen. It is a piece of lip ripping art!

A big thanks goes out to all of you who set this up and made it possible. I'll get the pics up as soon as I get home and remember how to put them up on here lol

Thanks guys. This rod will be making a certain roadtrip with me in 09. Kentucky Lake baby!!

flechero reply :

I agree with you Muddy, Brian and Al deserve all the thanks in this one! (although I certainly appreciate the contributions of all involved)

I have to say that it was an absolute honor to build Brian's rod and take part in this project. Every time I worked on it, I couldn't help but to reflect on the sacrifices that he and all the other service men and women have made and continue to make. Thank you simply isn't a powerful enough term.

We are hoping to see some PB's posted with these in the background!!

Brian,

I'm glad you like it... and thanks for the kind words. I hope your next PB is caught at Stillhouse, on that rod, from my boat!

senile1 reply :

Flechero, it sounds like you are quite the rod builder!

Dan: reply :

way to go guys (our fine servicemen and women as well as our fine rod builders and great community)

roadwarrior reply :

.ghoti is letting work get in the way, so I'm posting this on his behalf:

Greetings again. A couple of random views, news and blues.

When we got this rod building project off the ground, I had envisioned that this would be the start of something. A pilot project, as it were. The response I received from the members I contacted was overwhelmingly positive. This gave me hope that this could be the first of many.

I know we have more Bass Resource family members currently serving, or who have served. What I don't know is who they all are. I have a couple of names in mind, but I would like to be corrected. Doesn't matter if they are active or not. Past, present, whatever. They are all deserving of our attention.

Please PM me with names of any of our soldiers, whatever their status.

I'd like to keep this going.

For all of you men and women who have served our country; you all deserve our deepest thanks. This can not be overstated. I sincerely hope that none of you were offended by this project, or feel as if you've been left out, or passed over. This was not my intention.

We had to start somewhere, and it was my thought that we would have to start small. I now believe we can build on this. I am open to any thoughts, and can certainly use some fresh ideas. I know there are a bunch of creative people here.

Now one of my major concerns; one I had right at the beginning. Who do I ask for donations? I thought it was possible, maybe even likely, that I would offend someone by omission. Again, this was not my intention.

One thing I discovered was I'm way outside of my comfort zone asking people for money, particularly people whom I do not know. So, starting small, I asked the folks I do know. It was that simple. There's nothing exclusionary here, just me being a wuss.

If I didn't ask you for a donation for this project, it's because you're a friend I have yet to meet. If you would like to participate in the next round, please PM me.

If you're a rod builder who would like to participate, please, please, pretty please, PM me.

Mrs. Matstone reply :

I really hope that you guys enjoy your new rods. It is the least that we could do considering all you have done for all of us. May they bring you lots of luck and God Bless you guys! ;D ;D

MALTESE FALCON reply :

Just to echo what has already been said, the THANK YOU goes to Al and Brian. I was honored when asked to be a part of this project.

Good luck with the new rods, and let's see some pictures of the rods, and new PB's caught with them.

Falcon

flechero reply :

Here are a couple pics of Brian's rod and maybe Ronnie can put some up of Al's rod. (it was a windy day and that's dust on the finish, not in the finish. ...lol

And the BassResource.com wrap behind the grip

Alpster reply :

Ditto on my dusty office.........pics of Al's rod. The specs I got was for a stealthy rod so this is as stealthy as it gets. I'm not the artist that Keith is, but it will fish pretty good. LOL

Ronnie

Low_Budget_Hooker reply :

Quote
Flechero, it sounds like you are quite the rod builder!

I'll second that. I don't know much about rod building but I've had a few builders check mine out and have all had nothing but high praise for it.

All I know is how it fishes and how special it is to me to have come from a BR buddy like flechero.

Great job to all involved, enjoy the rods boys

fourbizz reply :

Looks great guys!

Ronnie you are too dang humble sometimes! Your rods are awesome! I hope I can get you to build me another one someday!

Flech, thats a dang good lookin rod too!

Red reply :

thanks for your service guys!! sweet rods!!

Paul Roberts reply :

Awesome!

You guys deserve 'em.

flechero reply :

thanks for the compliments on the rods, I know I also speak for Ronnie when I say it was a real treat to build these.

Quote
Ronnie you are too dang humble sometimes!

I agree, he [always] does nice work!

senile1 reply :

Quote

Quote
Flechero, it sounds like you are quite the rod builder!

I'll second that. I don't know much about rod building but I've had a few builders check mine out and have all had nothing but high praise for it.

All I know is how it fishes and how special it is to me to have come from a BR buddy like flechero.

Great job to all involved, enjoy the rods boys

I apologize for leaving Ronnie out. Those rods look sweet! I've read nothing but good things from any of the members about the rods you build. Kudos!!

Top reply :

finally late than never huh? *sigh* had an issue with the internet the last couple of days... apparently a ditch witch electrical and phone cables don't mix well... it was only a SMALL fire... and the phone company just left so here I am...

ANYWAYS... yesterday.. Veterans Day... I had the UPS man drive up.. wife was out in the carport washing the jeep... guy asked if MSG Algiere lived here.. wife says yes... and off he drives.. I come outside and the MRS was looking at me like.. HUH??? I was like HUH??? I tell you when I opened that tube up.. I was blown away... I can't even put into words the appreciation and humble thanks for this amazing gift.. and its not so much the rod (well yeah it is but no it isn't ) ... its the who what when where and why of y'all that went out there so much for us to get a rod.. and a rod of this caliber.. WOW... I can't wait for next weekend... I will be posting pictures of my new addition to the family tonight or tomorrow... today is the first day back from a 4 day weekend... so I am sure I will be burning the midnight oil...

THANK YOU... someday I would hope to shake a lot of y'all hands... because I am sure grateful to have some great friends...

Mrs. Matstone reply :

You guys did an incredible job on the rods! Beautiful work. ;D

Top reply :

here is the rod with a new curado on it... looks good to me!

and this is yours truly holding his new prize possession...

thing feels like a dream... come on Saturday!!!!

flechero reply :

No fake smile there! Congrats, Al, you deserve it!!

Brian_Reeves reply :

I'm glad flechero got pics up. I've been fighting with my camera. can't get it to focus up close.

The rod gets its debut this weekend. Hopefully I have a working camera by then. If not, then I will catch fish anyway!! It's a small hole of a pond, so PB potential isn't there, but it will be a lot of fun to be back out on the water.

Again, I can't thank y'all enough for this. I still look at that rod (which is kept in the bedroom, unlike the rest of the rods) and all I can say is wow.

12690

The ROD PROJECT: MSG_AL and Brian Reeves 2024

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