Jim Trelikes was born into the sport fishing industry in 1963. His father ran a sporting goods store with a heavy emphasis on fishing and hunting, and Jim found himself hanging around the shop from a very early age. “There were always one or two guys working in the back doing rod-and-reel repair and basic custom rod building,” Jim says. “At the age of 12, I was helping my dad around the shop and during the slow times I began puttering around the work benches to fight the boredom. It was then that my pop noticed I was taking to rod wrapping like a duck to water.” Jim used rod building as a creative outlet and he ended up buying out his father’s business partner in 1989. Jim and his father ran the business together until his father passed away in 1992. “My desire to focus on the rod building outweighed my desire to be a businessman,” Jim says. He sold the business in 1997 and has focused on building custom rods ever since. Jim says sharing information with other rod builders on the internet, such as the BD Rod Builders Forum, has helped his creativity grow by quantum leaps. “The young rod crafters out there have no idea what sharing online does for your education and growth in this craft,” he says. “It’s an amazing tool we all have at our fingertips.” Jim is a proud member of the Custom Rod Builders Guild and a frequent contributor to the Rod Crafter’s Journal.