Product Details
Virtual Workshop Time & Location
Meet Our Instructors
Todd Vivian
Todd Vivian has been building custom rods for 35 years.
After spending 20 years as lead rod designer for Lamiglas in Washington state, Todd relocated to Florida to develop complete lines of blanks for Mud Hole.
16 years and 600+ blanks later, Todd is still just as passionate about fishing, sharing his knowledge as lead instructor for Mud Hole's education program.
Buzz Butters
Buzz Butters has been building custom rods for 35 years.
He began teaching high school students about 20 years ago and joined Mud Hole as part of the Teaching Staff about 8 years ago.
His company, B&B Custom Rods is a well-known purveyor of Walleye and Ice fishing rods in the Wisconsin-area.
Cindy McKay
As a school teacher, Cindy McKay first came to Mud Hole with the intention of sharing rod building with her students.
She quickly realized that parents were just as eager to learn, and joined Mud Hole as an instructor in our nationwide on-the-road series of classes.
Cindy has been with Mud Hole Custom Tackle as a regular instructor since 2017.
Curt Baker
Curt Baker has been building and fishing custom rods in the Tampa, FL area for over 35 years.
With grouper, snapper and black tip shark as his favorite species to target, he has built countless rods for them over the years.
Curt has been sharing his knowledge through Mud Hole's education program for over 10 years.
Mike Kosiba
Mike Kosiba has been a rod building instructor with Mud Hole for about 5 years, though he began his rod building career in the late 90’s – bringing decades of rod building experience to Mud Hole.
Mike grew up in Florida but has been able to sharpen his skills fishing in places around the country, for virtually every species of fish… although he still prefers the trout and redfish in the Indian River.
Jesus Peña
Jesus Peña was a student in our very first rod building workshop over 10 years ago!
He flew to Chicago from South Texas to take this class in 2009. Soon after, he began helping instruct Mud Hole classes in Corpus Christi, Houston and Dallas.
Jesus has been with Mud Hole Custom Tackle as a full time instructor for over 5 years.
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46 Reviews
You can go out and buy a $200 rod or you can take the virtual class and build it anyway you want it! I took this class this past weekend with instructors Jesus and Curtis. They are the best professionals to not only show you how to build your own rod but they even went above and beyond and showed us different grip installations! They answered all our questions and guided us threw every step of the process. If we really struggled they communicated effectively and made sure we had a good understanding of the rod building process! Whether it was how to tie our thread or mix our epoxy correctly! Mudhole sent me everything I needed to build the rod. I was really surprised with how fast I received my rod blank and all my gear! They send you more than what you need I have enough rod building gear to build 3 more rods! If your thinking about pulling the trigger on taking this class,DO IT! It was worth every dollar I spent! I now have a custom rod that will last a lifetime!
I had the pleasure of taking the online class with Jesus and Curtis as my instructors. They are both great teachers, patient and fun to learn from. I Couldn't have been more happy with how my rod came out and look forward to building more
I can not say enough about this class. Jesus and Curt are friendly, funny, a wealth of knowledge and very patient. I hope to take more classes with these guys and Mud Hole. Thank you!
The guys did a great job. They demonstrated what we need to do and explained how to do it. They also answered all our questions. Thanks.
The online course was great! Very informative! Fantastic instructors, that answered all of my questions.