Fly Rod and Reel Storage Shelf

I wanted a nice-looking way to store and display my fly-fishing rods, reels and accessories. I did a lot of searching and didn't see any one solution that did everything I wanted so I merged a few of the better ones together.

For this build I bought a pine board that was 11.25 inches wide by 1 inch thick by 10 feet long. I think it was about $40 at Lowes. This board will make up the tops and sides and should have been enough to make the two shelves as well but some last minute changes on the dimensions meant I needed another board.

The Second pine board was 6 inches wide by 1 inch thick by 6 foot long. This board will be used for the two shelves and 3 of the reel hangers. I think I paid $15 at Lowes for it.

The last board is the backing. It was a piece I had bought a long time ago so I don't remember the price for this piece. It was a 4 foot by 4 foot by 1/4 inch thick piece which I believe is usually used for flooring.

For the reel holder pegs I got (3) 1/4 inch dowel that were 36 inches long. I got them at Lowes for about a $1.50 each. I got the dowel in oak because I wanted something a little tougher than pine for putting reels on and off again.

Screws: PowerPro 8 x 1 3/4 inch screws for all of the shelves and Powerpro 9 x 2 1/2 inch screws for the top and bottom.

MinWax Early American, Minwax Puritan Pine, MinWax Polyurethane.

Circular Saw

Table Saw

Chop Saw

Measuring Tape

Router

Square

Screw gun\Drill\Driver

Drill bits

Jig Saw

Straight Edge

Total : 21 7/8 inches wide by 32 inches high by 11 1/4 inches deep.

Sides: (2) 11 1/4 inches deep by 1 inch wide by 32 inches high

Top: (1) 10 1/4 inches deep by 1 inch wide by 20 3/8 inches high.

Bottom: (1) 10 1/4 inches wide by 1 inch deep by 20 3/8 inches high.

Back wall: 21 1/16 inches by 31 1/16 inches tall by 1/4 inch deep.

Shelves: (2) 4 1/2 inches wide by 1 inch deep by 20 3/8 inches high.

Peg holders: (3) 2 1/2 inches wide by 1 inch deep by 20 3/8 inches high.

Pegs: 1/4 round dowel 3 inches long.

Holes for rods: 9

The basic layout will be a small shelving area in the front with pegs to hang the reels on. In the back will be the rod case storage area.

I took a 3 inch piece of PVC pipe and cut 10 1/2 inch slices. I used these to layout the hole placement for the rod holders.

Since I have a double rod case I needed one hole large enough to hold it. As you can see in the picture with the PVC slices laid out on it. I measured 1 inch up from the bottom for this placement. Then I measured 4 1/2 inches in from the front of the shelf for where the wall would start. That has the squiggly line though the area I will use the Dado blade to remove the wood. Next line is 1/4 inch back from the wall. This was to give me enough space from the back wall to the hole.

Now the center of the 3 inch holes on the very back starting from the bottom are:

2 1/4 UP 2 1/8 IN

7 1/4 UP 2 1/8 IN

13 1/4 UP 2 1/8 IN

19 1/4 UP 2 1/8 IN

25 1/4 UP 2 1/8 IN

Second Row of Holes

4 1/2 UP 4 5/8 IN

10 7/16 UP 4 5/8 IN

16 7/16 UP 4 5/8 IN

22 7/16 UP 4 5/8 IN

28 7/16 UP 4 5/8 IN

Once you have the spacing for the holes figured out it's just a matter of getting the measurements to make the spacing look good. I used a 3 inch hole drill to make the holes. For the large hole at the bottom I drilled the two outer portions of the holes then drilled the center section out. I then cleaned up what was left with a jig saw and sandpaper.

For the grove to hold wall in place I used a dado blade on the table saw. You could use a regular blade and do multiple passes if you don't have the dado blade.

I set the fence of the saw at 4 1/2 inches and cut the grooves in the top, bottom and both side pieces. My dado blade with just the two outer blades and no inserts does a nice 1/4 inch groove which is what I needed.

We used a router with 1/4 inch round over with a bearing bit to make the front edges of the shelves and the holes smooth.

The reel holder bar is 2 inches by 1 inch by 20 5/8 inches. There are 30 pegs that are 1/4 inch oak dowel cut to 3 inches long.

The holes are drilled with 1/4 inch bit and the placement is from the end:

15/16

2 11/16

4 15 /16

6 11/16

8 15/16

10 11/16

12 15/16

14 11/16

16 15/16

18 11/16

and the holes are 3/4 inch up from the bottom of the board.

We stained the back, sides, top, and bottom of the shelves and pegs with MinWax Puritan's Pine which is a light honey shade on the pine.

For the reel holders pieces we wanted a 2 tone look and went with MinWax Early American.

Once we had all of the pieces stained and they dried, we assembled it with PowerPro 8 x 1 3/4 inch screws for all of the shelves and Powerpro 9 x 2 1/2 inch screws for the top and bottom.