Keweenaw Custom Rods uses $5,000 Dynamo Grant award to improve production process and add inventory

Nearly a year ago, Cody Smith started turning his favorite hobby into a new business. Smith’s Kewenaw Custom Rods creates custom fishing rods, primarily for ice fishing. He says he began working on developing his own custom fishing rod when he found it difficult to purchase an ice fishing pole for lake trout.

Me building these rods, people can relate to that versus buying a store bought rod. They got something that’s unique, tailored to them, how they want it, and it’s gonna fish in the area that they wanna fish. I started building from there. Once I figured out that it might be a business path for me, I ended up starting to look into LLC path, got that started with a little bit of help. – Cody Smith, Owner, Keweenaw Custom Rods, LLC

Recently, Keweenaw Custom Rods was awarded a 5,000-dollar grant from the Baraga Chamber of Commerce’s Dynamo program. The program is aimed at helping new and young businesses grow in the region. His award was one of three grants in 2024.

I’m very thankful for the Chamber of Commerce for giving me the opportunity with this grant to expand my business and back me as a community member. The money is going to go to a good use to upgrade tools, double my inventory on supplies for the most part, and be able to put rods in the hands of fishermen across the UP hopefully. – Cody Smith, Owner, Keweenaw Custom Rods, LLC

Smith says that he plans to use the funding for adding new inventory and upgrading his production process.

You see here behind me I have a hand wrapper on the table. With that grant I’m going to buy a power wrapper. So that power wrapper will speed things up, especially when I get into bigger rods. It will allow me to turn out more thread, so to say, and speed up the process on each individual rod. So that will speed me up. As well as on the bench behind me here I have a drying station. I’m going to invest in more drying systems to allow me to have more rods in the process of the epoxy and so on. – Cody Smith, Owner, Keweenaw Custom Rods, LLC

Smith hopes to eventually expand into creating longer fishing poles for anglers who prefer the summer fishing season. Currently, the company has social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram. Anyone interested in learning more about Keweenaw Custom Rods or the Dynamo grant program awards in 2024 with the Baraga Chamber of Commerce can find more details here.